Story Line
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.
“A big story of a little man which will grip your soul...”
Top Cast
Takashi Shimura
Kanji Watanabe
Haruo Tanaka
Sakai
Nobuo Kaneko
Mitsuo, son of Kanji
Bokuzen Hidari
Ohara
Miki Odagiri
Toyo
Shinichi Himori
Kimura
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Rating
8.3/ 10
Release Date
1952-10-09
Runtime
2h 23m
Genres
Drama
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User Reviews (3)
CinemaSerf
7/10
•9/9/2022Takashi Shimura is "Watanabe", an elderly civil service lifer who is told that he has terminal stomach cancer. After years of a disciplined, rather pedestrian existence he now feels a need to emancipate himself and start to live a little. The story i...
Peter McGinn
7/10
•4/20/2023I watched the English follow-up version (Living) before watching this original, and wished I had reversed my order. I liked Living much more than this original, but since both were written by the same Japanese scriptwriter, my preference might be cul...
badelf
7/10
•7/18/2023Typical Kurasawa creative framing in the beginning of the movie. The scene of dancers shot through bead curtains swinging in time to the music was brilliant. His choice of Miki Odagiri for muse is brilliant. Her laugh is infectious. The last act stu...