CINEXA

Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe is a civil servant. He has worked in the same department for 30 years. His life is pretty boring and monotonous, though he once used to have passion and drive. Then one day he discovers that he has stomach cancer and has less than a year to live. After the initial depression he sets about living for the first time in over 20 years. Then he realises that his limited time left is not just for living life to the full but to leave something meaningful behind... Use this page to compare cast context, genre fit (Drama), release year 1952, and whether this film matches tonight's mood.

Ikiru poster on CINEXA

Story of Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe is a civil servant. He has worked in the same department for 30 years. His life is pretty boring and monotonous, though he once used to have passion and drive. Then one day he discovers that he has stomach cancer and has less than a year to live. After the initial depression he sets about living for the first time in over 20 years. Then he realises that his limited time left is not just for living life to the full but to leave something meaningful behind...

Use this page to compare cast context, genre fit (Drama), release year 1952, and whether this film matches tonight's mood.

Title facts

  • Type Movie
  • Release year 1952
  • Released 25 Mar 1956
  • Runtime 143 minutes
  • Content rating Not Rated
  • IMDb rating IMDb 8.3/10 from 100,520 votes
  • Metascore 92/100
  • Genres Drama
  • Languages Japanese, Latin, English, French
  • Countries Japan

Cast

Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori

Direction and writing

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Written by: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni

Awards and recognition

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award6 wins & 2 nominations total

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