Principal cast
Takashi Shimura as Kanji Watanabe, Haruo Tanaka as Sakai, Nobuo Kaneko as Mitsuo, son of Kanji, Bokuzen Hidari as Ohara, and Miki Odagiri as Toyo
Film 220 of 271 on the Screen Path
Ikiru
A big story of a little man which will grip your soul...
About the film
Ikiru at a glance.
Screen Path places this 1952 film at stop 220 in one curated journey through cinema. The learning experience adds context before you watch and deeper analysis after.
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.
Key craft credits
Asakazu Nakai (director of photography), Akira Kurosawa (editor), Fumio Hayasaka (original music composer), Hideo Oguni (screenplay), and Shinobu Hashimoto (screenplay)
- Director
- Akira Kurosawa
- Release
- 1952-10-09
- Runtime
- 143 minutes
- Genres
- Drama
- Country
- Japan
- Quiz
- 51 questions
The Screen Path journey
Before. After. Remember.
The featured film is watched outside Screen Path. The app provides the learning experience around it: a guide, an analysis, and a quiz with explanations.
01
Before you watch
Start with a spoiler-free video guide to the context and filmmaking choices worth noticing.
Spoiler-free02
After the film
Return after watching for a deeper video analysis of craft, meaning, and legacy.
Contains spoilers03
Quiz yourself
Answer 51 questions with clear rationales designed to make the ideas stick.
51 questions in this journeyWant to try a complete journey on the web? The Citizen Kane page includes the spoiler-free guide, after-film analysis, and a sample quiz.
Try Citizen Kane →Film data and images provided by TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.