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Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe has worked in the same monotonous, bureaucratic position in the Tokyo public works department for thirty years and is close to retirement. His wife is dead, and his married son, Mitsuo, lives with him only so he can legally claim his estate upon death. At work, Watanabe is a witness to constant bureaucratic inaction. In one case, a group of parents who simply want permission to drain a cesspool so they can install a playground are endlessly sent back and forth between different offices in the same building.

After learning he has stomach cancer and has less than a year to live, Watanabe attempts to come to terms with his impending death. He plans to tell Mitsuo about the cancer but decides against it when his son does not pay attention to him. The old man explores the pleasures of Tokyo's nightlife, guided by an eccentric novelist whom he has just met. In a nightclub, Watanabe requests a song from the piano player, and sings " Gondola no Uta " (transl. Life is Brief) with great sadness. His singing greatly affects those watching him. Eventually, he realizes that hedonistic pleasure is only a distraction, not a solution.

The following day, Watanabe encounters Toyo, a young female subordinate, who needs his signature on her resignation. He takes comfort in observing her joyous love of life and enthusiasm and tries to spend as much time as possible with her. She eventually becomes suspicious of his intentions and grows wary of him.

After persuading her to join him for the last time, he opens up and asks for the secret to her love of life. She says that she does not know, but that she found happiness in her new job making toys, which makes her feel as if she is playing with all the children of Japan. Inspired, Watanabe decides that he should do something meaningful with his job. He surprises everyone by returning to work after a long absence and begins pushing for the playground project, overcoming concerns that he is intruding on the jurisdiction of other departments.

Watanabe dies months later, and at his wake, his former co-workers gather after the opening of the playground to figure out what caused such a dramatic change in his behavior. As they drink, they slowly realize Watanabe must have known he was dying, even when his son denies this truth, as he was unaware of his father's condition. They also hear from a witness that, in the last few moments in Watanabe's life, he sat on the swing at the park he built, singing "Gondola no Uta" as the snow fell. The bureaucrats vow to honor Watanabe's memory by following his example yet fall back into the same patterns as before the second they return to their offices, except for one. The film ends with this specific bureaucrat overlooking children frolicking in the new playground and admiring the sky, just like Watanabe.