Shimura Takashi, Odagiri Miki, Kaneko Nobuo, Seki Kyōko. Originally released as a Japanese motion picture in 1952. Partly inspired by Leo Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Full screen (1.37:1). Special features: Audio commentary from 2003 by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior's Camera: the cinema of Akira Kurosawa; A Message from Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies (2000), a ninety-minute documentary produced by Kurosawa Productions and featuring interviews with the director; Documentary on Ikiru from 2003, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create and featuring interviews with Kurosawa, script supervisor Teruyo Nogami, writer Hideo Oguni, actor Takashi Shimura, and others; Trailer; New English subtitle translation. An essay "Ikiru Many Autumns Later" by film critic Pico Iyer and a reprint "To Live" from critic Donald Richie's 1965 book The Films of Akira Kurosawa.
Summary:
A young Japanese businessman dying of cancer wants to give something back to society before his death, so he decides to build a playground for children.
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