IKIRU is Kurosawa’s gentlest and most contemplative film, a polar opposite to his samurai dramas such as RASHOMON and SEVEN SAMURAI. Shimura plays an elderly civil servant who discovers that he’s dying and determines to spend his last months finding something that will give meaning to his life. Potential sentimentality is diffused by a satirical look at society and the salaryman’s subservient role.
Ikiru
Directed by Akira Kurosawa