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.
Acting
Takashi Shimura's face contains multitudes. Watch him eat cake.
Direction
Kurosawa's ruthless editing: the bureaucratic montage is satanic.
Writing
That screenplay structure—stealing the ending from yourself. Cruel genius.
Director
Akira Kurosawa
Takashi Shimura
Kanji Watanabe
Haruo Tanaka
Sakai
Nobuo Kaneko
Mitsuo, son of Kanji
Bokuzen Hidari
Ohara
Miki Odagiri
Toyo
Shinichi Himori
Kimura
Minoru Chiaki
Noguchi
Minosuke Yamada
Subordinate Clerk Saito
Kamatari Fujiwara
Sub-Section Chief Ono
Makoto Kobori
Kiichi Watanabe, Kanji's Brother
Nobuo Nakamura
Deputy Mayor
Atsushi Watanabe
Patient
Isao Kimura
Intern
Masao Shimizu
Doctor
Yūnosuke Itō
Novelist
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kurosawa shot the bureaucratic paperwork sequence for seven minutes straight, then cut it to two—still feels eternal.
The film's bureaucratic critique was so sharp that Japanese government officials initially tried to suppress it; today it's required viewing for civil service reform.
JP
