When the pianist calls for requests he does not hesitate. To ask for this particular song is the most assertive thing he has done since getting the bad news.
— Geoffrey O’Brien (Criterion)
Ikiru eviscerates the government bureaucracy for both its feudal vestiges and false American promises in the face of proletarian poverty.
— Ben Livant (Slant Magazine)
Synopsis: Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.