IKIRU

Doomed aka Living/To Live
1952



directed by
Akira Kurosawa

As I like most of Kurosawa's work so much, it becomes difficult to express my admiration for those that I love even more. Ikiru is among those, and not only because of the marvelous performance given by Takashi Shimura, with Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune one of the three greatest actors Kurosawa worked with. Shimura was in virtually all Kurosawa movies until Akahige/Redbeard. (He's also in Godzilla)

Shimura plays a very petty official who just acts out a lonely daily routine. But when he hears he has cancer and will die in 6 months, he starts to work for a playground for children. He finally succeeds after a Kafkaesque fight with officialdom and burocracy. The end sequence has him sitting on a swing, in the falling snow, absolutely happy and singing this very moving and touching song:

Life is so short, Fall in love, dear maiden, While your lips are still red And before you are cold, For there will be no tomorrow. Life is so short, Fall in love, dear maiden, While your hair is still black, And before your heart withers, For today will not come again.

make a dream come true


famous Toho rain machine in action

Credits:		Cast:
producer screenplay photography art director lighting Sound recording music by	Shojiro Motoki Shinobu Hashimoto Hideo Oguni Akira Kurosawa Asakazu Nakai So Matsuyama Shigeru Mori Fumio Yanoguchi Fumbio Hayasaka	Kanji Watanabe —Chief, Citizens' Section Mitsuo Watanabe, His Son Kazue Watanabe, Mitsuo's Wife Kiichi Watanabe —Kanji's Elder Brother Tatsu Watanabe, Kuchi's Wife The Maid Toyo Odagiri —The Girl In Watanabe's Office Ono, Sub-Section Chief Saito, Subordinate Clerk Sakai, Assistant Ohara, Assistant Kimura, Assistant	Takashi Shimura Nobuo Kaneko Kyoko Seki Makoto Kobori Kumeko Urabe Yoshie Minami Miki Odagiri Kamatari Fujiwara Minosuke Yamada Haruo Tanaka Bokuzen Hidari Shinichi Himori

Produced by Toho
Japan 1952

143 minutes, B/W, Academy screen

Ikiru

Thoughtful tale from Akira Kurosawa about a petty bureaucrat who, after he learns he has terminal cancer, tries to set his life in order and searches for the meaning of his existence. Takashi Shimura stars in this haunting, inspiring drama.

Academy 1.33:1

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