Inspired by Tolstoy’s THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH, is a simple story of a bureaucrat (the great Takashi Shimura, in his first starring role for Kurosawa) who’s spent all his life in a boring administrative job, avoiding difficult decisions and passing on the buck, who finds out he has stomach cancer, is given only six months to live and seeks to give meaning to what remains of his life. It’s an intimist drama and yet the film is brimming with people. Workplace shots often feature twenty characters. Street scenes brim with life. There are dancehall scenes, beautifully composed with three musicians in the lower third of the frame, and then what seems like thousands of extras dancing in the background. The composition of the shots are pure art, not just gorgeous and striking to look at, but unfolding compositions in time and motion that create and/ or add to the drama. Even the discussions of the protagonists’ life at his funeral, the second and to me less satisfying part of the film, feature about twenty people. It was a big hit and remains a beautiful film.