Ikiru (1952) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

Considered by some to be Akira Kurosawa’s greatest achievement, Ikiru presents the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an exploration of a man’s death. Takashi Shimura portrays Kanji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer forced to strip the veneer off his existence and find meaning in his final days. Told in two parts, Ikiru offers Watanabe’s quest in the present, and then through a series of flashbacks. The result is a multifaceted look at a life through a prism of perspectives, resulting in a full portrait of a man who lacked understanding from others in life.

Cast

Kanji Watanabe	Takashi Shimura
Mitsuo Watanabe	Nobuo Kaneko
Kazue Watanabe	Kyoko Seki
Kiichi Watanabe	Makoto Kobori
Tatsu Watanabe	Kumeko Urabe
The maid	Yoshie Minami
Toyo Odagiri	Miki Odagiri
Ono	Kamatari Fujiwara
Saito	Minosuke Yamada
Sakai	Haruo Tanaka
Obara	Bokuzen Hidari
Kimura	Shinichi Himori
Deputy mayor	Nobuo Nakamura
City assemblyman	Kazuo Abe
Doctor	Masao Shimizu
Intern	Ko Kimura
Patient	Atsushi Watanabe
Novelist	Yunosuke Ito
Hostess	Yatsuko Tanami
Newspaperman	Fuyuki Murakami
Gang boss	Seiji Miyaguchi
Gang member	Daisuke Kato
Policeman	Ichiro Chiba
Housewives	Kin Sugai
Housewives	Eiko Miyoshi
Housewives	Fumiko Homma

Credits

Director	Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay	Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni and Akira Kurosawa
Producer	Shojiro Motoki
Cinematography	Asakazu Nakai
Art director	So Matsuyama
Lighting	Shigeru Mori
Sound	Fumio Yanoguchi
Music	Fumio Hayasaka

Disc Features

New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
Audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
A Message from Akira Kurosawa (2000): a 90-minute documentary produced by Kurosawa Productions and featuring interviews with the director on the set of his later films
A 41-minute documentary on Ikiru from the series, Akira Kurosawa: To Create Is Beautiful, including interviews with Akira Kurosawa, writer Hideo Oguni, actor Takashi Shimura, and many others
Original theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

From the Current

Ikiru

by Donald Richie Jan 5, 2004

“Sometimes I think of my death,” Kurosawa has written: “I think of ceasing to be . . . and it is from these thoughts that Ikiru came.” The story of a man who knows he is going to die, the film is a search for affirmation. The affirmation is found in the moral message of the film, which...

Ikiru

by Alexander Sesonske Nov 19, 1990

In the movies as in life, love and death hold sway, exerting an irresistible attraction on our imagination. Love usually dominates in cinema; we sit entranced for hours as affairs of the heart wax and wane. Death seldom holds the field for so long, but erupts in spectacular finales or provocative...