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| Ikiru | 
 enlarge | Director: Akira Kurosawa
Actors: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shinichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka, Minoru Chiaki
Studio: Bfi Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £8.08
You Save: £11.91 (60%)
New (6) from £8.02
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 13896
Format: Black & White, Pal
Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language)
Rating: Parental Guidance
Running Time: 140 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5035673005910
ASIN: B0000BZNJ7
Theatrical Release Date: March 25, 1956
Release Date: October 6, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Watch it once and you'll be hooked July 23, 2008
I've watched this film twice: I rented it first on Lovefilm but have just received my own copy through Amazon and am looking for another excuse to spend a Saturday afternoon on my sofa. Ikiru is a beautifully told story of a man coming to terms with his own impending death. The leading role of Mr Watanabe is fabulously acted by Takashi Shimura - such expressive eyes... It's slowly paced but please give it a chance and watch it right through and you'll be as hooked as I am.
 ? March 7, 2008
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
A film about a plodding bureaucrat with a plot that plods along, almost coming to a halt at times. The story told is of a man who works for the local council, for thirty something years, I felt like I was watching this film for thrity years, it never seemed to end. He gets diagnosed with cancer and mopes around with a face like death for the rest of the movie, infact I am not so sure that his face was like that before he got diagnosed. I didn't like to switch it off because so many of you so eloquantly commended it. I was waiting to be endeared, charmed moved or something more than vaguely intirgued. I am disappointed to say that none of the above apply. I really wanted to enjoy this film because there is so much hollywood trash around, but this was lost on me. I submit to the art house moviephiles. Perhaps you can tell me what happened to the acting. Some of the acting was lost on me, Infact it just got lost at times with actors sitting around drinking sake and staring at the floor without saying a great deal at all. Watch this only if you are planning a dissertation on Japanese film making history, if you really have to.
A gem January 11, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The age and condition of this film -- it's subtitled and it's in black and white and the pictures are not necessarily sharp either -- may make it slightly difficult to watch, but if you can get into it, it's worth the effort. Unlike Kurosawa's other favourite lead actor, Shimura is less well known and undeservedly so. In "Ikiru", he shines as the heretofore faceless, plodding bureaucrat who finds out he has a terminal disease. Rebelling against his dull existence to date, he breaks out of his rut to try to live before he dies: he grabs first at a worldly writer and then an artlessly modern young girl to show him how to do it and finds out before the end that his own position in local government will provide him with the answer. The film should be morbid, but as its title indicates it could hardly be less so: it has its moments of black humour and honest sentiment. Even as death slaps the film's hero with a sudden, imminent end, it focuses him as well on living.
The stultifying pace of petty bureaucracy and its almost instinctive inaction; the frustration of ordinary citizens trying to get someone to do something; the manouverings, self-aggrandizing, and deceptiveness of politicians; the menacing gangsters even -- all came across as distinctly Japanese and yet very familiar. I found myself rooting for Watanabe and the women petitioning for a park, loathing the oily Deputy Mayor, cringing from the threatening criminals trying to sabotage Watanabe's efforts, despising the sycophantic co-workers Watanabe left behind, and wanting to slap Watanabe's self-centred son, Mitsuo, and his petty wife.
I laughed, I smiled, I sneered, I cried. It's a story about an ordinary man, an ordinary life, an ordinary death, and what counts as living.
Superb, beautiful, moving, poignant October 17, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I cannot reccomend this film highly enough. It is utterlly captivating, beautifully written. And each frame is sumptious and well conceived and oozing with meaning.
It is at times blackly funny, and at the very next instant so moving you are too stunned to even weep.
Though it is slower than contemporary films, you sink in to it instantly. Very few films have held me captivated from start to finishas Ikiru did.
Do not be deceived by its seemingly "simple" premise. There is a great deal going on both in well placed visual clues, as well as an understated poignant script.
I found this just as provocative as Rashoman (also a masterpiece, but far darker in execution).
It is a spiritual and unsentimental look at life and death and relationships. Watch it and watch it again.
Quirky but loved it March 26, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I loved this film. It made no difference that I knew the plot in advance (everyone does) i.e that our hero has stomach cancer and was going to die.
It is a film that everyone can relate to and it explores an issue we all have to deal with (fear of dying) in a funny and compassionate way. I also liked listening to the way the hero's colleagues talked about him after he was gone, and resolved to change. If it had been Hollywood, they all would have changed rather than simply resolving to.
It was funny and touching and yet not over the top in any way. I loved it.
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