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About
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.
Theatrical
Mar 25, 1956
Digital
Oct 27, 2015
Box Office
$55K
Budget
$85K
Return
0.6x
Theaters
1
Director
Writers
Producer
Music
Studio
TOHO
Original Title
生きる
Original Language
Japanese
Keywords
bureaucracy
japan
age difference
office
night life
sense of life
dying and death
playground
praise
obsequies
swing
loneliness
office politics
black and white
co-workers relationship
infatuation
wake
public works
bureaucrat
thoughts of retirement
terminal cancer
city park
civil servant
monotonous life
accomplishments
office gossip
depressing
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That's now how I remember it.
Quotes
See all →Yearning for Youth and Purpose
Toyo
What help am I?
Kanji
You — just to look at you makes me feel better. It warms this — this mummy's heart of mine. And you're so kind to me. No; that's not it. You're so young, so healthy. No; that's not it either... You're so full of ]. And me... I'm jealous of that. If I could be like you for just one day before I died. I won't be able to die unless I can do that. I want to do something. Only you can show me. I don't know what to do. I don't know how. Maybe you don't know either, but, please... if you can... show me how to be like you!
[[life]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Tragedy of Life's Beauty and Mortality
Novelist
How tragic that man can never realize how beautiful life is until he is face to face with death.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Cast
Full credits →T
Takashi Shimura
Kanji Watanabe
H
Haruo Tanaka
Sakai
N
Nobuo Kaneko
Mitsuo, son of Kanji
B
Bokuzen Hidari
Ohara
M
Miki Odagiri
Toyo
S
Shinichi Himori
Kimura
M
Minoru Chiaki
Noguchi
M
Minosuke Yamada
Subordinate Clerk Saito
K
Kamatari Fujiwara
Sub-Section Chief Ono
M
Makoto Kobori
Kiichi Watanabe, Kanji's Brother
N
Nobuo Nakamura
Deputy Mayor
A
Atsushi Watanabe
Patient
I
Isao Kimura
Intern
M
Masao Shimizu
Doctor
Y
Yūnosuke Itō
Novelist
Y
Yoshie Minami
The Maid
K
Kumeko Urabe
Tatsu Watanabe
E
Eiko Miyoshi
Housewife
N
Noriko Honma
Housewife
Y
Yatsuko Tan'ami
Bar Hostess
