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Watch and download "Ikiru" by Akira Kurosawa
This classic 1952 Japanese film is considered by some critics to be Akira Kurosawa's greatest and most compassionate achievement.
"Ikiru" is also thought to be one of the Japanese master's darkest, yet most life-affirming works.
In "Ikiru," Takashi Shimura (Seven Samurai) portrays Kenji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer forced to strip the veneer off his existence and find meaning in his final days.
Using an emotional, narrative structure, Kurosawa shows Watanabe's last months. See how his final decisions have affected those left behind.
IMDb review by Brave Sir Robin:
"Kanji Watanabi is a quiet, melancholy man who has spent all his life behind his office desk doing sweet eff-all. When he is diagnosed with stomach cancer he realizes that he has been petty much dead his whole life, and searches desperately for away to live again.
This is Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, yes, even better than Rashomon and The Seven Samauri. It is a perfect true story of everybody's life- how we don't even realize we have it until we know it will be over in a short while. Watanabi's quest for self-discovery is one of the greatest from any motion picture ever made.
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"Ikiru" Free Movie
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 The all-too-true paradox is one to end all paradoxes- that Watanabi is dead, and had been all his life, until he realized he was sick, which is when he began living for the first time. Takashi Shimura, the actor best known for his role as the wise, bald-headed Samauri in The Seven Samauri, and the professor out of the early Godzilla films, plays Watanabi perfectly- in my mind, it's one of the greatest film performances of all time.
Not everyone will love this movie. It was made a long time ago, the main character is an old fogey, it has subtitles, and it's pretty long. Many people today, especially young kids, would find it boring. Well, let 'em. There's no need to worry about them, they'll always have Pirates of the Carribbean, they'll always have The Matrix. Leave Ikiru and films like it to the true lovers of cinema."
Amazon.com essential video comment about "Ikiru"
Blessed with timeless humanity, grace, and heartbreaking compassion, Ikiru is one of the most moving dramas in the history of film. Legendary director Akira Kurosawa is best remembered for his samurai epics, but this contemporary masterpiece ranks among his greatest achievements, matched in every respect by the finest performance of Takashi Shimura's celebrated career.
Shimura, who nobly led the Seven Samurai two years later, is sublimely perfect as a melancholy civil servant who, upon learning that he has terminal cancer, realizes he has nothing to show for his dreary, unsatisfying life. He seeks solace in nightlife and family, to no avail, until a simple inspiration leads him to a final, enduring act of public generosity.
Expressing his own thoughts about death and the universal desire for a meaningful existence, Kurosawa infuses this drama with social conscience and deep, personal conviction, arriving at a conclusion that is emotionally overwhelming and simply unforgettable. --Jeff Shannon
More at IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044741/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiru
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
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© 2009 EMOL.org Free Movie Entertainment Magazin. This is a public domain archive. All rights reserved.
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by Akira Kurosawa (Author)
Publisher: Lorimer (January 1, 1981)
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NEW! Just Released on DVD
from Criterion Collection
Starring: Takashi Shimura Director: Akira Kurosawa
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Language: Japanese. Subtitles: English
In what could be called Akira Kurosawa's It s a Wonderful Life, Takashi Shimura portrays Kanji Watanabe, an isolated, inward city office clerk who discovers he has stomach cancer and little time left on Earth.
DVD Release Date: February 10, 2009
Run Time: 143 minutes
Ikiru - Criterion Collection
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(Paperback)
