Akira Kurosawa’s film, Ikiru, was released in Japan in 1952. The cast included: Takashi Shimura (as Kanji Watanabe), Nobuko Kaneko (as Mitsuo Watanabe), Kyoko Seki (as Kazue Watanabe), and Nobuo Nakamura (as the Deputy Mayor). The film was directed by Akira Kurosawa. The script was by Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni. Photography was by Asaichi Nakai. The film was produced by Shojiro Motoki.

The protagonist, Kanji Watanabe, is an elderly civil servant, who has worked in a government agency for thirty years doing useless paperwork. He has accepted and become part of a meaningless bureaucracy. One day, he learns that he is dying of gastric cancer. In his despair, he thinks of his wife, who has been dead for many years. He recalls his longing for the love of his son, Mitsuo, with whom he has lived for many years. Meanwhile, his son and daughter-in-law, who are unaware of his illness, plan how to persuade him to leave his job, and how to spend his retirement money.

Watanabe is absent from work for the first time in twenty-five years, and instead of going to his office, spends his time trying to enjoy himself in the city. His family wonders whether he has taken a mistress. He questions the meaning of his life, and feels that he has not lived for any purpose. He tries to get drunk, and to lose himself in forgetfulness. A prostitute steals his hat, and he buys a fancy new hat. The flamboyant new hat becomes the symbol of his search for a new life.

He meets a young woman who works in his office, and who is quitting her job because of its boredom. She is vibrant and cheerful, and makes him laugh. He is refreshed by her youth, and by her zest for life. She admits to him that at work he has been nicknamed "The Mummy." He resolves to find some purpose or meaning for the brief time that he has left to live.

He returns home, and tries to talk to his son, but his son will not listen to him. Instead, Mitsuo asserts his rights to whatever is left of his father’s property.

Watanabe returns to his office in the city, and tries to bring meaning to his work. A group of women has petitioned to have a playground built for the children in their neighborhood. Watanabe struggles with a quiet resolve and remarkable perseverance against government bureaucracy to have the project undertaken and brought to completion. When the park is completed, he is able to accept his approaching death.

The Deputy Mayor takes credit for the success of the project, but when the other bureaucrats gather at the wake after Watanbe’s death, they gradually realize that Watanabe knew that he was dying, and they realize that through his selfless devotion to helping others in the last months of his life, he triumphed over hopelessness and despair and brought meaning to his life.