Ikiru

Synopsis: Kanji Watanabe is a civil servant. He has worked in the same department for 30 years. His life is pretty boring and monotonous, though he once used to have passion and drive. Then one day he discovers that he has stomach cancer and has less than a year to live. After the initial depression he sets about living for the first time in over 20 years. Then he realises that his limited time left is not just for living life to the full but to leave something meaningful behind...
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Akira Kurosawa
Production: Cowboy Pictures
  Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 5 wins.
 
IMDB:
8.3
Rotten Tomatoes:
100%
NOT RATED
Year:
1952
143 min
3,928 Views


TOHO CO., LTD.

Toho 20th Anniversary Film

Arts Festival Selection - 1952

IKIRU:

Produced by

SOJIRO MOTOGI:

Screenplay by AKIRA KUROSAWA,

SHINOBU HASHIMOTO, HIDEO OGUNI

Cinematography by

ASAKAZU NAKAI:

Music by

FUMIO HAYASAKA:

Cast:

TAKASHI SHIMURA:

Directed by

AKIRA KUROSAWA:

This stomach belongs to

the protagonist of our story.

At this point, our protagonist

has no idea he has this cancer...

PUBLIC AFFAIRS:

SECTION CHIEF:

My child has sensitive skin,

and that water gave him an awful rash.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS DEPARTMEN Plus it breeds mosquitoes like crazy.

And it stinks, besides.

Can't you do something? It would make

a great playground if you filled it in.

Please wait a moment.

Sir, they've come to complain

about a sewage pond.

- Engineering Section.

- Yes.

Ah, here is our protagonist now.

But it would only be tiresome

to meet him right now.

After all,

he's simply passing time

without actually living his life.

In other words,

he's not really even alive.

Odagiri,

how dare you,

during business hours?

But it's so funny.

Funny? What is?

It's the "Liar's Club. "

Someone sent it around.

Read it to us.

"I hear you've never even

taken a vacation.

Is that because City Hall

couldn't function without you?"

"No, because everyone would realize

that City Hall doesn't need me at all. "

Oh, no, this will never do.

He might as well be a corpse.

In fact, this man has been dead

for more than 20 years now.

Before that, he did live a little.

He even actually tried

to do real work.

A PROPOSAL FOR I NCREASI NG

DEPARTMENTAL EFFICI ENCY

SUBMITTED 1930

But now, there's barely a trace of

his old passion and ambition.

He's been worn down completely by

the minutia of the bureaucratic machine

and the meaningless busyness

it breeds.

Busy, always so very busy.

But in fact, this man does

absolutely nothing at all.

Other than protecting

his own spot.

The best way to protect your place

in this world is to do nothing at all.

Is this really

what life is all about?

Is this really

what life is all about?

Before our friend will

take this question seriously,

his stomach has

to get a lot worse,

and he'll have to waste much,

much more time.

But any proposal

for creating a park

goes to the Parks Department.

This really seems to be

a question of hygiene,

so you'd better try

the Health Department.

Go to the Sanitation Department.

See Environmental Sanitation.

Department of Prevention.

Infectious Diseases.

Lots of mosquitoes?

That's a job for

the Division of Pest Control.

The problem is seeping waste,

which means

it's a problem for

the Sewage Department at City Hall.

Originally, it was a ditch

with a road running over it,

which means the Roads Department.

We're waiting on a decision

from City Planning.

Go to Ward Reorganization.

The Fire Department objected

to draining that cesspool.

There are water pressure problems

in that area.

Are you kidding?

All we need's a good water supply.

There's no reason it has to

breed mosquitoes and cause rashes.

Think what a time we'd have

getting that filth out of our hoses.

Of course, we'd love a kiddie pool

in that neighborhood.

Try the Education Department. They

should have a Child Welfare Committee.

But the problem doesn't only

affect children.

We've had enough trouble

just rebuilding all the schools.

A problem this big belongs with your

Ward Representative to the City Council.

I'll give you an introduction

to the Deputy Mayor.

Show him my card

and he'll meet with you immediately.

Please, sit down.

Thank you for all your hard work.

The truth is that we truly appreciate

folks like you,

who know to bring

such complaints directly

to our attention.

That's precisely what inspired

our new Department of Public Affairs.

Don't skimp on your complaints.

Hey, you. Show these folks

the Public Affairs desk.

You'll need to take that up

with Engineering. Desk 8.

How dare you?

Stop giving us the runaround.

What the hell's this poster mean?

To help us kill time?

We call people like you time-killers.

All we want is to get

that stinking cesspool cleaned up.

If it's Engineering, Sewage,

Health, Sanitation or the Fire Department,

Public Affairs should sort it out.

Forget it.

We won't bother you anymore.

You're just laughing at us.

What a mockery of democracy.

Let's go.

Um, excuse me.

Unfortunately, the section chief

took the day off,

and it'd be easier for us

if you'd put this in writing.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS:

SECTION CHIEF:

What do you think?

The section chief

never takes days off.

Yes, he's been

kind of listless recently.

But we really can't have him

taking extended time off.

Exactly. It's not like him to take

a day off over a little cold.

Nothing moves unless he stamps it.

Yes, you're right.

I must say,

it's a terrible shame.

One more month

and he'd have broken the record of

30 years without a single absence.

Trust me, some people are

happy to have him gone.

Only a bureaucrat schemes

to replace his boss as soon as he's out.

What's that medicine

he's been taking?

Stomach medicine. He always slurped

his noodle bowl to the bottom,

but lately, he barely touches it.

Plain noodle soup. In all these years,

I've never seen him eat anything else.

And if the worst happens,

who'll replace him?

What's the rush? Lots more guys

have to die before it's your turn.

Rate this script:4.6 / 5 votes

Akira Kurosawa

After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater creative freedom. Drunken Angel (1948)--"Drunken Angel"--was the first film he made without extensive studio interference, and marked his first collaboration with Toshirô Mifune. In the coming decades, the two would make 16 movies together, and Mifune became as closely associated with Kurosawa's films as was John Wayne with the films of Kurosawa's idol, John Ford. After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made his international breakthrough film Rashomon (1950) in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Seven Samurai (1954), the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation Throne of Blood (1957), and a fun pair of samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear." He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Maadadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Rashomon (1950) as The Outrage (1964), Seven Samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Ikiru" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/ikiru_10629>.

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