Ikiru
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.
Critics Sentiment
Watanabe sings Gondola no Uta with great sadness in nightclub
Former coworkers gather at Watanabe's wake to discuss his transformation
The film drops significantly during the wake sequence as reviewers found it static and slow-paced, before recovering with the powerful revelation of Watanabe's final moments.
Ikiru maintains consistently high sentiment throughout most of its runtime, with particular peaks during Watanabe's nightclub singing and his inspiring transformation. The film experiences its only notable dip during the wake sequence, which some reviewers found overly long and static, but recovers strongly with the poetic final revelations. Overall, reviewers consistently praised it as a masterpiece of humanistic cinema.
Full cast
Showing 20 of 62
Takashi Shimura
Kanji Watanabe
Haruo Tanaka
Sakai
Nobuo Kaneko
Mitsuo, son of Kanji
Bokuzen Hidari
Ohara
Miki Odagiri
Toyo
Shinichi Himori
Kimura
Minoru Chiaki
Noguchi
Minosuke Yamada
Subordinate Clerk Saito
Kamatari Fujiwara
Sub-Section Chief Ono
Makoto Kobori
Kiichi Watanabe, Kanji's Brother
Nobuo Nakamura
Deputy Mayor
Atsushi Watanabe
Patient
Isao Kimura
Intern
Masao Shimizu
Doctor
Yūnosuke Itō
Novelist
Yoshie Minami
The Maid
Kumeko Urabe
Tatsu Watanabe
Eiko Miyoshi
Housewife
Noriko Honma
Housewife
Yatsuko Tan'ami
Bar Hostess
Crew
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