Japan
1952
143 minutes
Black and White
1.33:1
Japanese
221
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.
| 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 |
| 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 |
The monthlong Akira Kurosawa centennial celebrations continue with the release this week of Rizzoli’s gorgeously illustrated hardcover book Akira Kurosawa: Master of Cinema, written by frequent Criterion contributor Peter Cowie. Combining biography and analyses of the individual films . . .
“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 . . .
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 . . .
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