A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.
Kanji Watanabe is a civil servant. He has worked in the same department for 30 years. His life is boring and monotonous, though he once used to have passion and drive. Then one day he discovers that he has stomach cancer and less than a year to live. After the initial depression he sets about living for the first time in over 20 years. Then he realises that his limited time left is not just for living life to the fullest, but to leave something meaningful behind.—grantss
Sadly, dutiful Japanese top-level bureaucrat Kanji Watanabe is living on borrowed time. And as the terminally-ill government official grapples with the shocking certainty of mortality and the appalling inevitability of death, a sudden discovery shatters his soulless existence: Kanji has squandered 30 years of his life at Kafkaesque Tokyo City Hall for nothing. As a result, faced with the indisputable truth that he has never lived, Mr Watanabe now tries to make up for lost time by making his last days count. After all, life can be sweet, exciting, and everything in between. But only if one dares to live. What if you discovered you only had a few months to live? Would you continue to feed an empty existence with lies, or would you seize the day?—Nick Riganas
Long widowed Kanji Watanabe, the current Senior Chief of Public Affairs, is a thirty year bureaucrat at City Hall. Like most of the senior bureaucrats, he is a proverbial paper-pusher: doing a lot of work (he not having taken a day off in thirty years) while really accomplishing nothing that betters the city. He once had dreams of doing great things but fell into the trap that is the non-functioning of City Hall in hitting roadblocks at every turn when he tried to do anything of substance. He is biding his time to get his retirement bonus and saves every penny eventually to pass along to his now grown son, Mitsuo. What he is unaware of is that Mitsuo and his wife Kazue care nothing for him in he never having been a present father, they only now expecting that money so that they can buy their own modern house. Kanji's outlook changes when he is told by his physician that he has a mild ulcer, which he is told by another patient in the know that that is code for stomach cancer in they being unable to do anything for him. The true prognosis is six months to live, the cancer and his imminent death which he tells to no one in his family or social circle. Kanji's unfocused change in outlook changes once again in meeting a pulp fiction novelist. While he doesn't know what to do in that subsequent change, it eventually becomes a little more focused in a chance encounter with a young woman in his department named Toyo, who has a young person's zest for life and a keen sense of observation, she understanding the nature of all the people with who she works and understanding that if she stays at City Hall much longer that she will eventually turn into one of them.—Huggo
Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He learns he is dying of cancer and wants to find some meaning in his life. He finds himself unable to talk with his family, and spends a night on the town with a novelist, but that leaves him unfulfilled. He next spends time with a young woman from his office, but finally decides he can make a difference through his job.—Mike Rosenlof <[email protected]>
Ikiru, meaning "to live", is the story of a top Japanese bureaucrat coming to terms with his impending death, and of his work to create a positive, lasting effect on a community. The story opens with an image of an X-ray. A voiceover informs the audience that unbeknownst to him, Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) has terminal stomach cancer. Kanji, Section Chief of Public Affairs, is hard at work stamping papers and overseeing his employees when the Kuroe Women's Association approaches the division for help. Their goal is to have a cesspool in their community replaced by a park where their children can safely play. Sakai (Haruo Tanaka) receives their request and asks Kanji for advice. Without a second's hesitation, Kanji instructs him to send them to Public Works.Later that day, a burst of girlish laughter rings out in the silent room when the only female staffer, Toyo Odagiri (Miki Odagiri), reads a joke about how the bureaucracy is merely wasting their time in busywork. Sub-Section Chief Ono (Kamatari Fujiwara), full of self-righteousness, asks Toyo how she dares to laugh in the middle of a workday. Toyo explains that she has just read a funny joke. They make her read it to them; however, they do not find it amusing. The voiceover continues that Kanji has already "been dead for twenty years." Kanji reaches in his drawer for paper to use to clean his stamp, removing the top sheet. The audience sees that it is a title page of a report that he did recommending how to improve efficiency twenty years before.Public Works sends the Kuroe Women's Association on to another division, beginning endless rounds of the bureaucracy. They finally arrive at the office of the Deputy Mayor (Nobuo Nakamura) where he, after using political speak to promise them nothing, sends them back to where they first began. The Kuroe Women's Association returns to Public Affairs; however, Kanji has taken the day off to visit a physician. Sakai, not remembering them, again directs them to Public Works. In frustration after facing rejection yet again, the women loudly complain as they turn to leave. Chastened, an apologetic Sakai follows them, recommending that they file a written request.Kanji is in the waiting room at the medical center when the name of a patient rings out over the loudspeaker. A man moves closer to confide in Kanji that the man who just left is dying of stomach cancer. He tells Kanji the symptoms, which terrify Kanji because they resemble his own. The man explains that the physicians here do not tell their patients the truth, and he tells Kanji what they will say instead if you are dying of cancer. Visibly shaken, Kanji listens as the man states that if they say it is only an ulcer, no need for surgery, and eat whatever you like, you have less than a year to live. He continues, once you start vomiting, you have only three months left. When Kanji finally gets to see the doctor, the physician gives him the diagnosis of an ulcer, explains that there is no need for surgery, and tells Kanji to eat whatever he would like. Kanji drops his coat in horror, remembering the man's words. As the nurse picks up his coat, Kanji begs the doctor to be honest with him and to admit that he has cancer. The doctor instead denies Kanji an honest diagnosis. Dejectedly, Kanji lowers his head to the table.Kanji is a widower with a son he has raised alone since boyhood. Kanji adores his beloved son Mitsuo (Nobuo Kaneko) and rushes home to both tell Mitsuo and to derive comfort from him. Mitsuo is not home, so a shaken Kanji huddles on the floor in the dark, waiting for the son he adores. Unaware that he is waiting there in the dark, Mitsuo and his wife Kazue (Kyoko Seki) walk into the room carrying on a conversation about how they cannot wait to inherit Kanji's money. In despair, Kanji listens as they discuss how they want access to his money now so that they can finally buy a home of their own. When Mitsuo turns on the light, they see a heartbroken Kanji. In tears, Kanji runs downstairs to his own room, his faith in Mitsuo shaken.Perplexed, the Public Affairs employees send a staffer to Kanji's home because, after 30 years of perfect attendance, Kanji has not shown up for work or even called in sick for five days. Shocked, Kazue calls her husband to tell an equally perplexed Mitsuo that even though Kanji has been leaving faithfully every single day, he has not gone to work. Kanji is passing his days in a bar, drinking to forget his troubles. A writer at the bar befriends Kanji, and after learning that Kanji is dying, invites him for an evening of "enjoying life." They go to a red-light district where a drunken Kanji despairingly sings the theme song about how quickly life passes.Determined to resign from the bureaucracy, Toyo hunts for Kanji, finally running into him by happenstance on the street. After she explains that working in the bureaucracy is killing her soul, he agrees to stamp her resignation letter. She goes home with him so that he can get his stamp. His housekeeper (Yoshie Minami) witnesses Toyo grabbing his hands in excitement. As Toyo prepares to leave his home, Kanji asks if he might go with her; she agrees. From their window, a surprised Mitsuo and Kazue witness Kanji and Toyo leaving together. Kanji convinces Toyo to spend the day with him, and they forge a friendship.Kanji decides to try again to tell Mitsuo about his terminal cancer. Mitsuo, however, misunderstands about Kanji's relationship with Toyo. Before Kanji can confide in him, a furious Mitsuo demands Kanji protect his inheritance from Toyo. This incident, combined with the conversation he previously overheard, leads Kanji to believe that his son cares more about his money than about him.Toyo's hectic new position in industry leaves her stressed; however, Kanji does not see this. He continues to spend time with her searching for insight into how she manages to be so full of life. Toyo explains that she finds fulfillment by making toy rabbits for the children of Japan. Kanji has a revelation, and he leaves hopeful; however, Toyo despairingly realizes that she is the one not truly living. Kanji, remembering the cesspool, decides to create a lasting effect in Kuroe.Five months after his visit to the medical center, Kanji dies. At his funeral, the Kuroe Women's Association pays its respects, sobbing in grief. A police officer shares that he saw Kanji swinging in the park the night he died, joyfully singing. In flashbacks, we see Kanji visiting to assess Kuroe; working tenaciously to overcome every barrier; and chuckling when the Yakuza threaten his life, the life of a dying man, due to his interference in their plan to turn Kuroe into a red-light district. As the bureaucratic staffers reminisce, they finally credit Kanji with building the park. This leads the staffers to drunkenly vow to follow Kanji's example.A group of citizens approach Public Affairs for help, however, when Sakai asks newly appointed Section Chief Ono for advice, he directs them to another division. Kimura jumps to his feet reproachfully, wanting to remind Ono of the vow made at Kanji's funeral. Ono stares aggressively at Kimura until he rights his chair and sinks down at his desk, buried under a mound of paperwork. Weighed down with despair, Kimura stops on the bridge over Kuroe as he makes his way home. He pays his respects to Kanji as he watches the children of Kuroe happily playing in their new park. He remembers how Kanji overcame barriers to build this safe place for the children of Kuroe to grow and thrive. As he walks on, the viewer has the honor of determining whether he will give in to pressure, or if he will instead strive to overcome barriers, following Kanji's example, and help an oppressed group.
