Product Details

• Actors: Takashi Shimura
• Directors: Akira Kurosawa
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: February 10, 2009
• Run Time: 143 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001LMU1B4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,643 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

IKIRU - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Greatest Films of All Time - An Exploration of Inner Strength, February 17, 2009

By 

Gerard D. Launay (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ikiru - Essential Art House (DVD)

During the 1950's, my father was a fashion designer who spent months in Japan every year. During that time he came back home and told me he had been profoundly moved by a film he viewed in Japan - a Kurosawa masterpiece entitled "Ikiru." Perhaps a year or two later I had the chance to see the movie - and yes, I too, was deeply, even spiritually changed by the film. Many others, perhaps thousands, have encountered this effect.

The film opens in Tokyo with Mr. Watanabe, perhaps in his early 60's, as a low level office clerk stamping papers for his superiors - actions without meaning. When he starts feeling gastric pain, he visits a doctor and learns, to his horror, that he has only a few months to live and has contracted a painful stomach cancer. Like some who learn they have contracted AIDS or another terminal illnesses, he is forced to review what he has accomplished in his life. In this soul searching, he comes to the conclusion his life has meant little to others.

Scared, he goes into the Tokyo night district and is attracted to a young woman - a person of youth - as if contact with her would change his fortune. But on reflection, he realizes that he must search elsewhere, within himself, for the solution to what matters in his life. Shortly thereafter, he is confronted with a standard document at work, an application for approval to build a playground for young children in the inner city.

In the past, Watanabe would have routinely stamped the project "denied" or taken no responsibility at all...but this time, looking at his life, he decides differently. Of course, Mr. Watanabe, by himself, has no power to approve the project, so he makes it his life's work - for the months that he has left - to see that the children's playground gets approved and is actually built. It is through these efforts that Watanabe's life takes a turn to radiance.

One could argue that the film does not have the technical photographic perfection of, let's say, Director Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai" or "Throne of Blood." Nevertheless in a quiet and profound way, the film is actually more powerful, more moving, more life-affirming. There are several moments in the film that deeply touch the viewers...one in which Mr Watanabe sings to himself a melancholy folk ballad that the young should enjoy life for "life is short." The second is a moment when he observes a gorgeous sunset and realizes that he has not taken the time in his life to contemplate, or to meditate, on the beauty of that experience.

Indeed, I consider the movie one of the 25 best black and white films ever made. Kurasawa's "Ikiru" is therefore not about dying but about life, about living, about the choices we make in obtaining life.

What does the film mean to me, today? In those situations where I falter and need "inner strength," I remember the film to find that secret energy to remain true to my integrity and life spirit.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Law of Exception and the Loneliness of Enlightenment, February 14, 2010

By 

Harrison Koehli - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ikiru - Essential Art House (DVD)

Thanks to Criterion for making this masterpiece available. Kurosawa's retelling of Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich is beautiful on every level. No other filmmaker has or had the talent to frame every shot perfectly, while keeping his subject matter deeply human. Kurosawa knew humanity, its quirks, weaknesses, regrets, follies, and most importantly, the heights to which it can soar. Ikiru tells the story of a many who does what proves to be nearly impossible in the lives of most. Upon learning he is to die of stomach cancer, he changes his life. He learns to Live. But as with any tale of enlightenment, of those who gain an inner clarity about themselves, and who live their lives guided by that clarity, in truth and goodness, the majority do not understand. Boris Mouravieff call it the Law of Exception. Like drops jumping from the stream, only a few on the surface ever leave the inexorable pull of dictates of culture. The ones that remain cannot fathom those who have become free. And so, as Kanji Watanabe becomes free, as he Lives and as his work produces fruit born of his Being, those who follow are unable to overcome the resistance of inertia and entropy. A deeply saddening, but equally uplifting film. Highly recommended.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful!, March 28, 2010

By 

L. B. (WI United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ikiru - Essential Art House (DVD)

This was my first "non-samurai" Kurosawa film I bought and found it more powerful and moving than all of his samurai films. Kurosawa draws you in and comfortably holds your attention throughout. And even though I knew the full plot of the film, in the end, I was moved and touched more so than any other film I have seen in a very long time. Every shot is a masterpiece and all of the actors preform at a level you do not see often. If you love his samurai films, take the next step and try this one!