Ikiru (Vivre): what age is it for? 13 alone, 12 with a parent
13 alone, 12 with a parent.
Official US rating: NR; zinema says 13. In France, zinema would say 13.
Alone, or with you
The official US rating is NR; we never go below it, and here we go above: 13. Alone from 13; from 12, with an adult or by talking about it afterwards.
The sweet spot: around 16-19, the age at which you wonder what you will do with your life, and a man discovering he spent his on nothing becomes devastating. Why a sweet spot?
The trailer
What it's about
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
Why 13
- Above the official rating, and whyRated NR in the US (). We say 13: A film with no violence at all, whose subject is a man learning he will die and failing to tell anyone. What sets the age is two hours twenty of slowness in black and white, and the weight of the subject. Thirteen years old, twelve with a parent.reading
- A man learning that he is going to dieWatanabe understands he has stomach cancer, cannot tell anyone, not even his son, and spends a whole night in the bars of Tokyo looking for pleasure and finding none. An hour of loneliness filmed in close-up. He then dies, and the second half of the film is his wake, where his drunken colleagues piece together his final months.
- A long, slow film, in JapaneseTwo hours twenty, in black and white, in postwar Japan, with long office scenes and a structure that breaks the story in two halfway through. You have to read the translation at the bottom of the frame and accept a pace that no longer exists. That is what sets the age, far more than the content.
What the movie brings
- The question asked without evasion: what would you do with six months left, and why are you not doing it now?
- An administration shown from inside, where each department sends residents on to the next, and a man who finally forces his way through.
- The closing image, a man alone on a swing in the snow, singing: one of the best-known shots in world cinema.
Watching it together
The subject is a father's death; if that is close to home, know it before starting the film.
at 13 and up
His colleagues swear to change after the funeral, then go back to their paperwork: why is it so hard?
See the facts
For the same age, on zinema
- Borgen 17
- The Madison 17, 16 with a parent
- Suits 14
- The Good Wife 14
The latest guides
- Runner 13
- Un ours dans le Jura 13, 12 with a parent
- Lady Bird 17
- About Time 17
A zinema reading from September 23, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made