Kurosawa’s masterpiece endures, still finding new ways to scare me and speak to me after all this time. —Guest post by Kenji Fujishima

| Jun 10, 2022

[Kurosawa] is implemented with satirical brilliance and fine human interest... Lassitude in bureaucracy and skullduggery in politics are here to stay, he concedes, and only does the soul of man transcend his frailties.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 22, 2021

It illuminates a reeling society while telling a story of deep human emotion.

| Jun 12, 2020

Kurosawa achieves the piercing emotion and poetry of the Italian neorealists, but by opposite means: he doesn't make the camera disappear; instead... he deploys his camera so sharply and unerringly that it seems to take X-rays of the spirit.

| Apr 8, 2016

Meticulously constructed, beautifully played and poignant.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 27, 2009

Akira Kurosawa's greatest film.

| Apr 27, 2009

A masterwork of burning social conscience and hard-eyed psychological realism.

| Apr 27, 2009

Kurosawa performs a tour-de-force in keeping a dramatic thread throughout and avoiding the mawkish.

| Mar 26, 2009

Kurosawa's eclectic style is a delight: his striking, varied compositions reflecting the old man's journey from darkness to some kind of light right until the moving finale.

| Jun 24, 2006

If you have never seen it, you should. If you have seen it before, your admiration will only increase.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 25, 2003

It is a strangely fascinating and affecting film, up to a point.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 20, 2003

Take a look at this film. At the very least, it'll prompt you to assess your balance of work and life, and you may find yourself putting in for a little vacation time.

Full Review | Feb 7, 2003

There has never been a smarter, more compassionate film about imminent death.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 5, 2003

Often heavy-handed but never less than heartfelt, Ikiru (To Live) is universal in its thrust and startlingly astute in its narrative engineering.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2003

I think this is one of the few movies that might actually be able to inspire someone to lead their life a little differently.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000