What Culture recently asked which movie you'd like to see on your last day on earth, offering Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru as their selection. While a film about a man dying of cancer in post-war Tokyo might sound like a morbid viewing experience, in Kurosawa's hands it transcends expectation and touches on something deeply profound about human nature and death. Taking Leo Tolstoy's story The Death of Ivan Ilyich as his starting point, Kurosawa casts regular Takashi Shimura as a government bureaucrat who, upon being diagnosed with stomach cancer, searches for purpose in the midst of a city struggling to repair itself both physically and spiritually after World War 2. After indulging in the hedonistic pleasure of Tokyo's nightlife he discovers a purpose in the construction of a playground. Ikiru is a poignant examination of both life and death delivering well beyond its bleak-sounding premise to become something warm and humane. Often cited as Steven Spielberg's favourite film, it avoids the maudlin sentimentality of Hollywood tear-jerkers in favour of a delicate affectation, and is quite rightly considered by many to be one of the greatest movies of all time.
