Ikiru

1952

2h 23m

IMDb RATING

8.3/10

1.2K

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2 Videos

92 Images

Drama

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Directors

Akira Kurosawa

Writers

Shinobu Hashimoto(screenplay by)

Akira Kurosawa(screenplay by)

Hideo Oguni(screenplay by)

Stars

Takashi Shimura

Haruo Tanaka

Nobuo Kaneko

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Videos2

Trailer
Watch Ikiru (1952) Original Trailer [4K]
Clip
Watch Ikiru - The Moment He Started Living

Top cast

Kanji Watanabe

Sakai

Mitsuo, son of Kanji

Ohara

Toyo

Kimura

Noguchi

Subordinate Clerk Saito

Kamatari Fujiwara

Sub-Section Chief Ono

Makoto Kobori

Kiichi Watanabe, Kanji's Brother

Deputy Mayor

Patient

Intern

Doctor

Novelist

The Maid

Tatsu Watanabe

Housewife

Directors

Akira Kurosawa

Writers

Shinobu Hashimoto(screenplay by)

Akira Kurosawa(screenplay by)

Hideo Oguni(screenplay by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Typical Kurasawa creative framing in the beginning of the movie. The scene of dancers shot through bead curtains swinging in time to the music was brilliant. His choice of Miki Odagiri for muse is brilliant. Her laugh is infectious. The last act stuck me as rather static. It's perhaps from cultural mores about the dead I don't understand (like the taboo of not ever sticking your chopsticks into the rice bowl!). Kurasawa waxes philosophical on life and government here, and indeed, nothing has changed in 70 years.

badelf18 Jul, 2023