Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1952 • Japan
Starring Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Kyoko Seki
One of the greatest achievements by Akira Kurosawa, IKIRU shows the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an exploration of death. Takashi Shimura beautifully portrays Kanji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer who is impelled to find meaning in his final days. Presented in a radically conceived twopart structure and shot with a perceptive, humanistic clarity of vision, IKIRU is a multifaceted look at what it means to be alive.
Up Next in Voices of Protest
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Ashes and Diamonds
Directed by Andrzej Wajda • 1958 • Poland
On the last day of World War II in a small town somewhere in Poland, Polish exiles of war and the occupying Soviet forces confront the beginning of a new day and a new Poland. In this incendiary environment we find Home Army soldier Maciek Chelmicki, who...
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Youth in Fury
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda • 1960 • Japan
An alienated young man flirts with extremism during a major student protest. Directed by Masahiro Shinoda.
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The Children Were Watching
Directed by Robert Drew and Richard Leacock • 1961 • United States
In this Drew Associates classic, Richard Leacock photographs the first week of school integration in November 1960 in New Orleans. As black students enter their new schools under the escort of U.S. Marshals, their classmates’ whi...
