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First screening 6pm - Monday 10 MarchSecond screening 8.30pm - Tuesday 11 March
Both screenings in the Grand Theatre of the Embassy and open to all Wellington Film Society members - join today to come along.
https://wellingtonfilms.nz/films/ikiru/?occurrence=2025-03-10&time=1741629600
We begin our 2025 Akira Kurosawa screenings with his most affecting drama. Filmed in stunning black and white and newly remastered in 4k, Ikiru provides the rare opportunity to watch not one but two masters at the height of their craft – the director and his lead actor, who collaborated on 11 films together.
Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) is a widower who has been working as a local government bureaucrat his entire life. When he is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he has to confront the realisation that, despite his age, he has not discovered how to truly live. Watanabe has to make this voyage of discovery not only against a literal deadline, but against a society that seems ambivalent towards his existence.
Although Ikiru is predominantly a scathing critique of Japanese bureaucracy, it remains deeply resonant with modern audiences, who might well recognise Watanabe’s sense of directionlessness. This is almost entirely due to Shimura’s sympathetic performance: nowhere is the actor’s steadfast dignity more pronounced than here, cast into stark relief by the world he’s placed in.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Embassy Theatre, 10 Kent Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand 6011, New Zealand
