Rating: 
Summary: The best movie you've never seen untill...
Review: Until you've seen it that is. Then it becomes the best film you HAVE ever seen. I am no being sentimental, nor am I the type of person who only enjoys the finest of film, right now 'Ikiru' is sitting next to 'Cabin Boy' and John Woo's 'Killer' on my movie shelf. I do however appreciate a good product, and 'Ikiru' is so much better then just good that it even transcends the term great. 'Ikiru' is about living and creating, and it succeeds in a such a beautiful, perfect way that it's nearly impossible not to emulate it in your own life. I've never seen a film before that didn't just change my life, it changed how I lived it. Do yourself a favor and at least watch it, this is one movie that will not disappoint.
Rating: 
Summary: Great film in a terrible transfer
Review: I have been told many times to keep the VHS tapes of important films, and Ikiru is definately one to keep in tape format. This DVD flickers and has large white lines down the center of the picture. Check out the scene where Wantanabe is in a restuarant with his new-found friend, and offers to spend 50,000 Yen on a good time. You can hardly see the two men; the film flickers and whiteness enters the scene covering the entire picture, continuing for a long time, reaching into other scenes that follow. The sound is very scratchy, and the subtitles many many tikmes unreadable because of the whiteness and the constant flicker. Then there are the sharp white lines down the center... an unforgiveable transfer. I have the VHS tape..great shape. Hang on to this or buy this tape fast before it goes out of print, and you are stuck with yet another bad Criterion transfer. Be warned..this is the worst yet I have ever seen on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: A STUNNING MASTERPIECE
Review: Finally, this soaring masterpiece gets the proper DVD release that it deserves. Simply, one of the great artistic achievments of the 20th century.
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Summary: A powerful meditation on the fragility of human life.
Review: As a big fan of Kurosawa and the Criterion Collection, I couldn't wait to recieve this DVD in the mail. Human life can be lost before a person dies, Kurosawa's film shows, and it is difficult for anyone to remain truly alive with all of life's challenges and setbacks. Like a thin thread, life's inspiration is easy to lose. But what happens when a man loses that thread for decades and discovers it again only months before dying? The answer to this question is both heart-warming and heart-breaking. But ultimately this film will burn brightly in the viewer's mind. Two years after becoming world famous for Rashomon, Kurosawa released this thematic sequal - a meditation on truth and meaning in the modern world. While Rashomon became a cinematic landmark, I think this film blows rashomon away. It, along with Ozu's Tokyo Story, are the most moving films I've ever seen. What makes Kurosawa so great here? It is the centrality of the movie's meaning. We all die and we all struggle to find truth. Watanabe, a placid and unquestioning bureaucrat, glimpses the truth about his life when he finds that he has only months to live. He immediately sets out to live his life to the fullest - eventually granting the dearest wish of the citizens that the other bureaucrats would just rather ignore. But like the man who emerges into the sunlight from the cave in Plato's allegory - none of the other cave dwellers understand his actions.In fact, it's worse, the grandstanding officials claim credit Watanabe's inspired actions, despite having stood in his way. But ultimately the truth saves Watanabe before he dies. This is masterful filmaking - more on par with Kurosawa's heroes Dostoyevsky and Shakespeare than his cinematic peers. It is a must purchase for his fans and, I think, a story that will move the viewer towards greater compassion and consciousness of life passing by. Perhaps it's no wonder Criterion chose this fim to include two feature documentaries on Kurosawa on a second disc. And the commentary track is done by the always entertaining Stephen Prince. You can't go wrong here.
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Summary: Life is a preparing for death
Review: This is a film that easily could have become dated, and one may question the humanism of the movie as somewhat naive and simplistic. However, what really saves this film and makes it Kurosawa's greatest film after Seven Samurai is the message that helping others is to help oneself. The movie's emotional power culminates when we see the dying Watanabe swaying on a swing in the snow. He's all alone, perhaps no one will give him credit for what he's done. But, it doesn't matter. For the first time in decades he's happy, satisfied with himself.
In this sense, this isn't just a movie with social message but one that peers deep into the human soul.
The movie's also valuable as a record of socio-cultural-political landscape of post-war Japan.
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Summary: so sorry...overrated
Review: not his best work, no matter what the hippies tell you.
Rating:
Summary: A Story of Spirtual Resurrection, and Dying with a Legacy
Review: Ikiru is a prime example of Akira Kurosawa's personal directorial motive, which seems to drive much of his work. In Ikiru, we are placed at the precipice of a life-altering experience, a cataclysmic event that will unalterably change the course of Watanabe(the main protagonist)'s life in the film. In this way, I see Watanabe as the spiritual embodiment of Kurosawa himself, and the film as a sort of personal reflection on the matter of a "second chance" at life, reminiscent of Kurosawa's own earlier experiences in the Canto earthquake, World War II, as well as his literary exposure to Dostoevsky and Shakespeare, who certainly have much to say about life after near-death. I see Kurosawa as the type of person to pay mind to the notion of resurrection and what a "reborn life" can entail for a person after he's survived the edge of it for himself. As it is, I'm not surprised Ikiru would dare to take on such a dramatic, and deeply reflective theme on what it means to live your life. Initially, Watanabe is portrayed as a sort of epitome for the modernized corporate-Japan, in which life isn't human per se, but more like a robot's, or a machine's, with the daily routine of the corporation reducing men to mere tools or "cogs in the wheel." When he finds he has cancer, however, and that he has less than a year to live, it puts into question everything he has lived for, and it asks the hardest questions of all: What can I do now? and What will remain of me when I am gone? I think the notion of legacy is important here. The idea of leaving a mark on the world, and not being forgotten in the way that most spirits are after their bodies are laid to rest and buried. We see this especially when Watanabe, early in the film, cherishes memories of his son, (memory, as we will see, figures greatly into what things we put our value into) and that up until that point, everything he did in his life was for the sake of his young boy. This does not last for long, however, and when push comes to shove, and that "legacy" is put to the test, Watanabe finds out the hard way that 30 years of hard work amounts to nothing more than a largesse for his son to capitalize on, if not outright steal, rather than what he really wishes it to be--a prosperous and grateful son who will always remember how hard his father worked to provide for him a good and comfortable life. (On an ancillary note, I found it interesting when Watanabe discussed this with a young female worker. She responded with something along the lines of, "Why are complaining like this? Your son never asked you to provide him a good life. How can you expect him to be grateful?" It brought to my mind the idea of 'blind love' and how this can be the most difficult type of love of all since it often goes unseen. Working constantly in the background, blind love is hardly ever the focus of attention and thus becomes easily forgotten. It's easy to see why it would go on thankless and unrequited--it was never valued in the first place. I think this is what happened in Watanabe's case.) When his own son turns on him, Watanabe is forced to reconsider his personal meaning in life (remember now, his son has downgraded him to a mere means-to-an-end, not an ends-in-itself), and determine a new "ends" in life, much in the spiritual vein of King Lear. After a series of different tricks and ploys to learn what he wants out of life, he discovers what is truly important is to have legacy--to have something to be remembered by, which becomes embodied in the form of the new park that he builds. I believe it is this message that Kurosawa is trying to instill in his viewers--that all human beings, regardless of what they do or want to do, at the end of their lives, they want to feel as though they've done something they will be remembered for and by. Everyone desires a "legacy" in the twilight of their life. Watanabe finally managed his, and it serves as a tribute to him that we're watching the film in this way, i.e., "in memory" of Watanabe, much as we read about important figures through memoirs. The "memories" of Watanabe are what will last, and the park will always be there to remind us of his toil, sweat, and blood. This is what will truly be his enduring high-note, i.e., how hard he worked to bring about that park, and the type of man he was in perservering through his cancer, even to the final moments of his life, to make it a reality. That is truly a memorable legacy indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Emotional Stress
Review: I will not go into detail regarding this movie about a man with limited time. I will say that this could be one of the most traumatizing movies I have ever seen. If you are simply going through the motions in your life and you think that you are a living, connected person, check this movie out. If you don't get it, there is no hope for you.
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Summary: Powerful Memento Mori to find your own Purpose in Life
Review: This film is a sensitive yet robust masterpiece which fulfils the true function of Art-to reflect the mystery of Life and Living back to You.
The film highlights the imminent dilemma of each one of us-we are mortal beings whose life will end at a certain point in time. Given this usually supressed knowledge, we have to ask ourselves: Are we living a life worth living, regardless of what happens after death?
Only you can answer that question!
Rating: 
Summary: To Live
Review: Ikiru (To Live) is a beautiful film. Before I bought it, I read the sypnosis and I felt that I was able to relate the Watanabe's story. I had been searching for the same things that Watanabe searches for after he wakes up from his thirty-year torpor. So, I bought this film since I had already seen several of Kurosawa Akira's films and he had quickly become my favorite director (preferred over Johnny Depp, Stanley Kubrick, and Inagaki Hiroshi combined.) In contrast with other films, especially the American film industry, this film is God, but when it is compared with other Kurosawa films, I don't think it is the best. Red Beard (Akahige), another Kurosawa film, asks the very same question in a less direct manner, but also focuses on mental evolution, change. I felt that Red Beard is truly Kurosawa's greatest accomplishment. In fact, I believe Red Beard to be the best accomplishment in the history of cinema arts. I suggest buying Ikiru first though, just because it was made before Red Beard, which was made in 1965. I also highly endorse The Hidden Fortress, even though it has less of a psychologically altering impact. Get The Hidden Fortress, too, before you get Red Beard. I think it is best to get them in chronological order, which puts emphasis on Kurosawa as a person. Cinematography-wise, I didn't like how Ikiru was put together. About Schmidt was a terrible film, but I thought it was edited better. I don't like the flashback sequences. I like to think of cinematography in a more theatrical, histrionic manner. Flashbacks are nearly impossible to execute on the stage and I like films that really implement the theatre into them, just like Kurosawa did with his film Throne of Blood. In any case, buy this film. About Schmidt failed to communicate what Ikiru and Red Beard succeed in.
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