Ikiru

A lowly civil servant discovers that he is dying of cancer. After bouts of self-pity, a spell of hedonism and a doomed attempt at a platonic relationship, he commits himself doggedly to the task of converting a city dump into a children’s playground. Tough-minded and unsentimental throughout, this is one of Kurosawa’s finest films and also offers a vivid and satirical portrait of post-war Tokyo.