Poster from TMDB
Ikiru
Sign in to saveis a 1952 Japanese drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. The film examines the struggles of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat (played by Takashi Shimura) and his final quest for meaning. The screenplay was partly inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
Film · TMDB
8.3Kanji 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.
Cast
- Takashi Shimura as Kanji Watanabe
- Haruo Tanaka as Sakai
- Nobuo Kaneko as Mitsuo, son of Kanji
- Bokuzen Hidari as Ohara
- Miki Odagiri as Toyo
- Shinichi Himori as Kimura
Themes
- dying and death
- japan
- bureaucracy
- age difference
- praise
- office
- night life
- sense of life
- playground
- obsequies
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
8.3/10
100,520 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
98%
Metacritic
92/100
- Year
- 1952
- Runtime
- 143 min
- Genres
- Drama
- Rated
- Not Rated
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award6 wins & 2 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Film.name
- Ikiru
- Film.image
- Ikiru poster.jpg
- Film.caption
- Theatrical release poster
- Film.director
- Akira Kurosawa
- Film.producer
- Sōjirō Motoki
- Film.music
- Fumio Hayasaka
- Film.cinematography
- Asakazu Nakai
- Film.studio
- Toho
- Film.distributor
- Toho
- Film.runtime
- 143 minutes
- Film.country
- Japan
- Film.language
- Japanese
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 143
- FilmAffinity ID
- 246184
- Image
- Ikiru poster.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Ikiru
- publication date
- 1956-03-25
- title
- 生きる
- review score
- 4.5/5
Sources (15)
via Wikidata · CC0
~14 min read
Article
14 sectionsContents
- Plot
- Cast
- Themes
- Meaning of Life
- Bureaucracy
- Family life
- Production
- Release
- Critical reception
- Accolades
- Legacy
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
is a 1952 Japanese drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. The film examines the struggles of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat (played by Takashi Shimura) and his final quest for meaning. The screenplay was partly inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
The film's major themes include learning how to live, the inefficiency of bureaucracy, and decaying family life in Japan, which have been the subject of analysis by academics and critics. It won awards for Best Film at the Kinema Junpo and Mainichi Film Awards and is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time. Ikiru is regarded by some as Kurosawa's masterpiece alongside Seven Samurai.