Ikiru (1952)

Toho Company released Ikiru on October 9, 1952. Akira Kurosawa directed the film starring Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, and Shin’ichi Himor.

‘Ikiru’ Plot Summary

Kanji Watanabe is a civil servant in the Public Works division in a city in Japan. He is a man who has worked tirelessly for thirty years and sometimes at the cost of his relationship with his own family. One day, Kanji discovers that he has stomach cancer and has only six months to live. Initially, Kanji is depressed and tries to drown his pain and sense of emptiness in vices. However, he soon decides to leave something as a meaningful legacy as to what it means to live. Kanji champions a project to build a park in a rundown neighborhood. However, when he encounters the city bureaucracy that he used to be a part of, the question becomes whether he will outlast the bureaucrats in the time he has left.

Read the full summary.

Disclaimer