Ikiru (Essential Art House) (1958) On DVD

Actor:          Minosuke Yamada, Yunosuke Ito, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara
Director:     Akira Kurosawa
Genre:         Drama 
Year:            1958
Studio:         Criterion Collection.
Length:        143
Released:    February 10, 2009
Rating:         Not Rated (MPAA Rating)
Format:        DVD,NTSC
Misc:            Black & White
Language:   Japanese
Subtitles:     English

DESCRIPTION:

In what could be called Akira Kurosawa's It s a Wonderful Life, Takashi Shimura portrays Kanji Watanabe, an isolated, inward city office clerk who discovers he has stomach cancer and little time left on Earth. With a compelling, radical narrative structure, Kurosawa depicts Watanabe's last months and then how his final decisions have affected those left behind. Ikiru is one of the Japanese master's darkest, yet most life-affirming works.