Ikiru

"A big story of a little man which will grip your soul..."

1952 2h 23m JA

🙌

8.3

BANGER

🔥

98%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

8.3

IMDB

★8.3TMDB · 1,405🍅98%Rotten Tomatoes●92Metacritic★8.3IMDB · 100,520

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“A big story of a little man which will grip your soul...”

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Cast

Takashi Shimura
Kanji Watanabe
Haruo Tanaka
Sakai
Nobuo Kaneko
Mitsuo, son of Kanji
Bokuzen Hidari
Ohara
Miki Odagiri
Toyo
Shinichi Himori
Kimura
Minoru Chiaki
Noguchi
Minosuke Yamada
Subordinate Clerk Saito

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Shinobu Hashimoto, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 65% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

74 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Akira Kurosawa, shot by Asakazu Nakai. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Fumio Hayasaka. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Akira Kurosawa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Takashi Shimura and Haruo Tanaka and Nobuo Kaneko carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A big story of a little man which will grip your soul...".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Akira Kurosawa directs. Asakazu Nakai behind the camera. Fumio Hayasaka scores. Akira Kurosawa cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 65% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
374 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Directed by Akira Kurosawa, shot by Asakazu Nakai. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Fumio Hayasaka. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Akira Kurosawa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Takashi Shimura and Haruo Tanaka and Nobuo Kaneko carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "A big story of a little man which will grip your soul...".
9IMDB entry: tt0044741 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 27 themes, including "dying and death", "japan", "bureaucracy", "age difference".
11Released under 17 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Asakazu Nakai
Original score: Fumio Hayasaka
Editing: Akira Kurosawa
Production design: Takashi Matsuyama
Runtime: 143 min · 2h 23m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $85,000
Box office: $55,240
Return: 65% of budget
Original language: JA
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Ikiru (1952)
Rotten Tomatoes: 98% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 92/100
IMDB rating: 8.3/10 · 100,520 votes
MPAA: Not Rated

Awards

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award6 wins & 2 nominations total

Also by

Akira Kurosawa

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Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-09-09
★ 7/10
Takashi Shimura is "Watanabe", an elderly civil service lifer who is told that he has terminal stomach cancer. After years of a disciplined, rather pedestrian existence he now feels a need to emancipate himself and start to live a little. The story is told through two threads: one looks at the end of the old gent's life from his own perspective; the second takes a retrospective view from the wake as his family and colleagues gather to remember him. Kurusawa is clearly making a point with this delicate, poignant film - perhaps life needs to be appreciated and enjoyed - not necessarily in a jovial, happy fashion, but by achievement. In this case "Watanabe" sets about using his position to help locals get a park, but he also starts an empowering relationship (platonic) with a younger girl, who is quite keen on her food, it has to be said. As his colleagues at the wake suffer from excesses of saké their traditionally stiff, reserved, view of their late friend becomes more of a tool to evaluate their own roles and purpose as they determine to be more like him.... The writing has plenty of humour and again, Kurosawa uses weather as a wonderfully potent instrument to create a great atmospheric feel to this gentle story of profound change, and - maybe - contentment.
Peter McGinn2023-04-20
★ 7/10
I watched the English follow-up version (Living) before watching this original, and wished I had reversed my order. I liked Living much more than this original, but since both were written by the same Japanese scriptwriter, my preference might be cultural rather than due to quality issues, not to mention the scriptwriter had come up with improvements through the intervening years. The club and bar scenes near the beginning seem to go on much longer than in the remake, or at least it felt like it! And the same for the later scenes with the young woman. Then again, that wouldn’t be surprising since this older version is 40 minutes longer. Still, the differences in the details based on the separate cultures are interesting to note, and I recommend both versions, though I would start with the older one as I mentioned above.
badelf2023-07-18
★ 7/10
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.