What is the iRankMovies score for Ikiru?

Name: Ikiru
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Genre: drama
Released: 1952
Duration: 2 h 23 min
Rating: 8.3

Ikiru has an iRankMovies score of 88.8/100, based on a weighted combination of IMDb (×3.0), Rotten Tomatoes (×2.0), Metacritic (×1.5), and TMDb (×1.0).

Ikiru (1952)

生きる

A big story of a little man which will grip your soul...

Release:1952

Runtime:2h 23m

Country:Japan

Director:Akira Kurosawa

Language:Japanese

Genre

Drama

See the best drama movies →

Keywords

Dying And DeathJapanBureaucracyAge DifferencePraiseOfficeNight LifeSense Of Life

iRank89

Ikiru rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb8.3/10· 101K votes

Rotten Tomatoes98%

Metacritic92%

TMDb8.3/10· 1K votes

With 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 8.3/10 on IMDb and 92/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About Ikiru

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.

Cast of Ikiru

Takashi Shimura
as Kanji Watanabe
Haruo Tanaka
as Sakai
Nobuo Kaneko
as Mitsuo, son of Kanji
Bokuzen Hidari
as Ohara
Miki Odagiri
as Toyo
Shinichi Himori
as Kimura
Minoru Chiaki
as Noguchi
Minosuke Yamada
as Subordinate Clerk Saito
Kamatari Fujiwara
as Sub-Section Chief Ono
Makoto Kobori
as Kiichi Watanabe, Kanji's Brother
Nobuo Nakamura
as Deputy Mayor
Atsushi Watanabe
as Patient

Ikiru facts

Original title: 生きる
Box office: $55.2K

Our take on Ikiru

Kurosawa's 1952 humanist masterpiece follows a hollow bureaucrat who, told he has terminal cancer, sets out to give his empty life meaning before it ends. Tender, unsentimental and quietly profound, it finds transcendence in one small act of public good. If its meditation on mortality and purpose moved you, seek out contemplative dramas about ordinary people seeking grace and meaning in their final chapter.

Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026Methodology Data sources

Audience opinions

What the audience liked

•Poignant meditation on mortality and meaning achieves profound emotional resonance deeply
•Subtle performance captures existential despair and quiet personal transformation authentically
•Humanistic perspective examines bureaucratic alienation exploring universal themes of purpose

What the audience disliked

•Relentlessly somber tone and meditative pacing limit mainstream appeal considerably
•Delayed character revelation and slow narrative development test sustained viewer patience