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Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Kyoko Seki, Miki Odagiri, Makoto Kobori ... see more see more... , Yunosuke Ito , Kasuo Abe , Minoru Chiaki , Ichiro Chiba , Kamatari Fujiwara , Bokuzen Hidari , Fumiko Homma , Daisuke Katô , K.O. , Yoshie Minami , Seiji Miyaguchi , Eiko Miyoshi , Nobuo Nakamura , Saito , Sakai , Masao Shimizu , Kin Sugai , Haruo Tanaka , Kumeko Urabe , Atsushi Watanabe , Fuyuki Murakami , Toranosuke Ogawa , Minosuke Yamada

Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru details the existential struggle of one ordinary man in his desperate search for purpose. Upon learning he has terminal stomach cancer, a low-level government bureaucrat (Takash... read more read more...i Shimura) leaves his job of thirty years without a word to find meaning in the year he has left to live. He is completely alone in the world -- his wife is dead, his son is practically estranged, and his co-workers (the people with whom he has more contact than any others) are little more than strangers. Rather than face a death alone in pathos, Shimura opts to make up for lost time by going to the bar (for the first time in his life), spending every last yen in his wallet and drinking himself to death. There he meets a black-clad artist (a Mephistopheles to his Faust) who leads him on a hellish (and darkly humorous) tour of the city after dark as the two crawl through every booze-soaked juke-joint in town (Kurosawa's classical training as a painter surfaces in this sequence; many critics have noted the striking similarity of the crowded dance hall scenes to the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch, (particularly Walpurgis Night). Realizing he has missed nothing, Shimura then sets his sight on a pretty young girl from the office to divert his attention from his looming mortality. Although the girl fails to serve as a lifebuoy, she does give him the inspiration to do something meaningful -- to leave a legacy, however small, that makes the world a better place. A synopsis of Ikiru cannot serve the film justice; it simply must be seen. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi

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30 critics

PG, 2 hr. 14 min.

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Release Date: March 25, 1956

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DVD Release Date: January 6, 2004

Stats: 1,465 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,465)

  • fb1710827246
    October 31, 2011
    fb1710827246
    A well crafted film with a heartfelt story that is poignant, deep, this masterpiece of a film laments life's biggest truths about our own measly, mortal existence. I haven't seen a modern movie quite like it. Ikiru is a brilliant film because of the ingenious cinematography, one ... read morewould certainly agree to such; that it concerns us, because the problems faced are very real and speaks of truth, however sad(or liberating) as one may see fit. Ultimately, it works because it succeeds in doling out quintessential truths about our humanity, of our very lives.
  • hunterjt13
    May 20, 2011
    hunterjt13
    After being lied to by his doctor, a bureaucrat discovers that he has inoperable stomach cancer, and he searches hedonism, a co-worker, and his work for fulfillment before he meets his end.
    This film is simply marvelous. The performance by Takashi Shimura as the dying man is rem... read morearkable for his quiet sadness and determination. The scenes in which he sings on the swing and in the bar are nearly magical in their ability to draw the audience in to Watanabe's mental state. His outbursts to Toyo are passionate and riveting.
    Kurosawa's direction is at top form. I think my favorite shot is the foregrounding of the dying man and his co-worker at a restaurant while in the background there is a joyous birthday celebration. It is pure visual poetry, as the background action carries on, each of its participants doomed to one day be in the foreground.
    What is Kurosawa saying with this film? It can't simply be reduced to another "carpe diem" anthem, though there are elements of this. Rather, I think Kurosawa realizes that we've all heard "carpe diem" before, but the tragedy of life is that we fail to recognize its exigence until it's too late. We see this both in Watanabe's reaction to his impending death and the wake scene in the third act.
    Overall, this is undoubtedly Kurosawa's best film, focusing on the frailty of the human condition and the temporal limitations of life.
  • webalina
    February 22, 2011
    webalina
    Films don't come much better than this. Ikiru, which means "To Live" in Japanese, is the story of a city employee who after 30 years on the job, never having missed a day of work, finds out he has cancer and has less than a year to live. As he starts to evaluate his life, he re... read morealizes that he didn't have one. Not only had he never had any fun in his life -- he's even accused of being miserly several times -- he doesn't even know HOW to have fun. His entire time on earth was just a prologue to his death. After much soul-searching, he discovers he can make a contribution and end his life with some kind of accomplishment uder his belt.

    Takeshi Shimura, who was a staple of director Akira Kurosawa's earlier films, gives a heartbreaking performance as Mr. Watanabe. A memorable scene is when Watanabe is in a bar and begins to sing a song that begins "Life is brief". The camera pans in for a close-up and tears well up in his eyes and roll down his face as he sings. You realize that he never gave that phrase a second thought until that very moment. After just one viewing of this film, I can place Shimura's performance in my top favorites of all-time.

    If it's possible for a film to change people's lives, this one could do it. High schools should make Ikiru required viewing for graduation. Even if it saved one person from wasting his or her life, it would be worth it.
  • bottcorecords1
    December 12, 2010
    bottcorecords1
    "This stomach belongs to the protaganist of our story. At this point he has no idea he has this cancer". So says the narration over the beginning of Ikiru, the 1952 film from Akira Kurosawa. It then goes on to show "the protaganist", a public relations section chief (of his lo... read morecal government) hunched over a desk in front of a wall of bundled papers. "It would be tiresome to meet him now, after all he's simply passing time without actually living his life. In other words, he's not even really alive." If he's not really alive, neither are his co-workers, who play bureaucratic hot potato with a group of citizens ("passing the buck" seems to be the natural state of government, or so the film says). Besides skewering government bureaucracy, Ikiru also draws parallels to Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film, "Wild Strawberries": with the looming specter of death at hand, a single father ponders the relationship he has with his son (and also his own mortality) while trying to cling to the vibrancy of life he finds in a younger girl. What's sad about this movie isn't necessarily that the old man is dying, but how everyone around him is barely living. The prostitutes, the writer, the mafia, his governmental co-workers, his family, even the doctors who tell him he's dying, none of them are honest or happy (or honest and happy, apparently you can't be both). Only his frivolous young female co-worker makes the most of the life she has. She doesn't waste a second of her time being in unhappy situations, and points out false sacrifice of dedicating his life for his son. The story of the old man who finds out he's dying and then has a change of heart may not be revolutionary, but the style and perspective in which it's told is more unique than similar stories. "To live", is what the film's title translates into, but "life without purpose is meaningless" is the message. Those without purpose are simply living to die. But if you do something good for others because you have nothing to lose and you know you're going to die, is that as morally good as doing something for others when you have something to lose? (Aren't we all dying in the long run, and shouldn't we live our lives accordingly?) Is it cynical to even ask? It's a discussion raised in the film, where the old man's co-workers decide to honor his memory by living as he did at the end. Kurosawa plays on the audience's emotions, especially our sense of outrage, quite effectively at the end. Whether it's a shot at politicians and bureaucrats or whether it's a shot at the human race in general is up for debate.
  • sanjurosamurai
    January 25, 2010
    sanjurosamurai
    profound. everything about this film is moving. it inspires the viewer to not waste his life. kurosawas shots are perfect as always and the side characters are just as compelling as the lead character. this is considered one of kurosawas 2 masterpieces along with seven samura... read morei, there are 5 or 6 kurosawa films i like better but thats only because everything he does is so good. this movie is near flawless and i highly reccommend it to anyone. it will tug at your heart and make you doubt whether anything you do is worth your time.
  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    A beautiful heart warming story of life, death and peace. Kurosawa is undoubtedly the greatest director ever and Shimura's Mr. Watanabe is probably my most favourite cinema character of all time. This is one of the greatest films ever made!
  • DrBenway
    December 19, 2008
    DrBenway
    Akira Kurosawa's brilliant 1952 film Ikiru (meaning "to live" in english) is one of the most important and moving essays on what it means to be truly alive. The film is one in a series of Kurosawa masterpieces made between 1952 and 1963, considered to be the filmmaker's richest p... read moreeriod, yet is frequently overlooked by new fans charmed by the action-packed samurai masterpieces that have become so popular in the West.

    This is a really great film, with some of the most memorable images I have witnessed on screen, making it easily one of Kurosawa's best efforts. To those that pay attention, it has the potential to be a life altering experience.
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  • MovieGeek13
    November 7, 2008
    MovieGeek13
    Everything you need to know about life is in this film.
  • shortcartoonist
    May 21, 2008
    shortcartoonist
    A highly humanistic and sympathetic film, Ikiru endeavours to shine light on the dark recesses of a modernising world - the corporate sector. The mundanity of work and it's ability to strip us of a real sense of purpose in life is explored as a pinhole in the grander notion of ou... read morer outlook of life - and death. It seems a strange point that life is cherished most when death is given a voice. With Kurosawa's brilliantly placed camera, segregating cast members as mere pylons in their environment, and the beautiful touches of Shimura in a class defining performance, Ikiru is a film that works well. Yet, while there are moments of tenderness and connection, it just feels as though the severity in the sombre tone of the film tends to draw back on the potential for audience connection to be taken to a peak. I was touched, but I was never moved like I should have been.
  • garyX
    April 10, 2008
    garyX
    Ikiru is Akira Kurosawa in full social commentary mode. It is the story of a civil servant who hasn't missed a day of work in 30 years, and when faced with the news that he is going to die, he realises that it was 30 years wasted. The engaging first half of the film is spent in t... read morehe company of Takashi Shimura as he deals with the prospect of death, and tries to figure out exactly what it is that will make his last 6 months on Earth worthwhile. It's a touching portrait of a man so entrenched in the mundane he has no idea what's important anymore; a kind of anti-Lester Burnham. When he finally realises what he must do, we are introduced to his funeral, where the various factions within his life bicker and relive his last weeks, trying to dissect it to discover what had brought about such a profound change. This rather dry and less emotionally involving section is Kurosawa's attack on the petty bureaucracy of Japanese government, too involved with it's own selfish ends and politics to care about ordinary people. Ikiru is a film that examines what it SHOULD be that drives us to live our lives, and compares it to what actually does. Although quite Capra-esque in it's representation of a man suddenly fighting for what is right, the rose tinted glasses definitely come off for the climax when Watanabe's example is quickly forgotten in the busy hum-drum of everyday life. That is not to say the film is downbeat though; after all, it's down to each of us to decide which example we decide to follow...

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Critic Reviews

Don Druker
April 27, 2009
Don Druker, Chicago Reader

Akira Kurosawa's greatest film. Full Review

April 27, 2009
TIME Magazine

A masterwork of burning social conscience and hard-eyed psychological realism. Full Review

Variety Staff
March 26, 2009
Variety Staff, Variety

Kurosawa performs a tour-de-force in keeping a dramatic thread throughout and avoiding the mawkish. Full Review

Michael Wilmington
September 25, 2003
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

If you have never seen it, you should. If you have seen it before, your admiration will only increase. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
May 20, 2003
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

It is a strangely fascinating and affecting film, up to a point. Full Review

Desson Thomson
February 7, 2003
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

Take a look at this film. At the very least, it'll prompt you to assess your balance of work and life, and you may find yourself putting in for a little vacation time.

Ty Burr
January 5, 2003
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

There has never been a smarter, more compassionate film about imminent death. Full Review

Michael Atkinson
January 1, 2003
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

Often heavy-handed but never less than heartfelt, Ikiru (To Live) is universal in its thrust and startlingly astute in its narrative engineering. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

I think this is one of the few movies that might actually be able to inspire someone to lead their life a little differently. Full Review

David Parkinson
April 27, 2009
David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

Meticulously constructed, beautifully played and poignant. Full Review

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    • Kanji Watanabe: Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens. Before the crimson bloom. Fades from your lips. Before the tides of passion. Cool within you, For those of you. Who know no tomorrow.
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