Ikiru shows Kurosawa 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 two-part structure and shot with perceptive, humanistic clarity, Ikiru is a multifaceted look at what it means to be alive.