Ikiru poster

Ikiru

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

8.3(1,419)19522h 23m27

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.

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Status
Released
Budget
$85K
Box office
$55.2K
Language
Japanese
  • dying and death
  • japan
  • bureaucracy
  • age difference
  • praise
  • office
  • night life
  • sense of life
  • playground
  • obsequies
  • swing
  • loneliness

Top billed cast

Behind the camera

Gallery

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Videos

Release dates

  • United StatesUS

    • Theatrical (limited)25 Mar 1956
    • Digital / OTTNR27 Oct 2015
  • United KingdomGB

    • Theatrical30 Apr 1958
    • Physical12BFI DVD22 Sept 2003
    • Theatrical (limited) BFI Japan: 100 Years of Japanese Cinema season18 Oct 2021
    • PhysicalPGBFI Blu-ray19 Aug 2024
  • AustraliaAU

    • PhysicalPGDVD7 Apr 2006
    • Theatrical (limited)PGRe-Release25 Oct 2024
  • FranceFR

    • Premiere9 Oct 1952
    • TheatricalTP31 Aug 1966
    • Physical27 Apr 2016
  • GermanyDE

    • Physical1627 Apr 2014
  • IsraelIL

    • PhysicalBlu-ray21 Oct 2014
  • ItalyIT

    • TVRaiuno25 Jan 1986
  • JapanJP

    • Theatrical9 Oct 1952
  • NetherlandsNL

    • Theatrical12Re-release6 Mar 1980
    • Physical12DVD12 Mar 2013
    • Theatrical124k restored26 Jun 2025
    • Digital / OTT12Eye Film Player26 Jun 2025
  • South KoreaKR

    • Theatrical1527 Oct 2015
  • SpainES

    • TheatricalICAA 80885024 Jan 1972
  • SwedenSE

    • Theatrical159 Oct 1952

Frequently asked questions

Ikiru was released on 9 October 1952.

Audience reviews

3
  • C

    CinemaSerf

    9/9/2022

    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 co…

  • P

    Peter McGinn

    4/20/2023

    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 …

  • B

    badelf

    7/18/2023

    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!). Kura…

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