''Living'' is a 2022 British

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by Oliver Hermanus from a screenplay by

Kazuo Ishiguro Sir Kazuo Ishiguro ( ; born 8 November 1954) is a British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to Britain in 1960 with his parents when he was five. He is one of the most c ...

, adapted from the 1952 Japanese film '' Ikiru'' directed by

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dy ...

, which in turn was inspired by the 1886 Russian novella '' The Death of Ivan Ilyich'' by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

. Set in 1953 London, it depicts a bureaucrat in the county Public Works department (played by

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with '' The Illuminatus!'' in 1977. There he g ...

) facing a fatal illness. ''Living'' had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2022, and was released in the United Kingdom on 4 November 2022, by

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian- American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquarter ...

. The film received positive reviews, with Nighy's performance receiving particular acclaim.

Cast

as Mr. Rodney Williams *

Aimee Lou Wood Aimée Lou Wood (born 3 February 1995) is an English actress. After early stage roles in '' Mary Stuart'' (2016–2017) and ''People, Places and Things'' (2017), Wood made her screen debut on the Netflix series ''Sex Education'' (2019–presen ...

as Miss Margaret Harris * Alex Sharp as Mr. Peter Wakeling * Tom Burke as Mr. Sutherland * Adrian Rawlins as Mr. Middleton * Hubert Burton as Mr. Rusbridger * Oliver Chris as Mr. Hart * Michael Cochrane as Sir James * Anant Varman as Mr. Singh * Zoe Boyle as Mrs. McMasters * Lia Williams as Mrs. Smith * Jessica Flood as Mrs. Porter *

Patsy Ferran Patsy Ferran is a Spanish-British actress. Early life Ferran was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1989. Her father is from Barcelona and her mother is from Valencia. The family moved to England when Ferran was a child. She attended Notre Dame Scho ...

as Fiona Williams * Barney Fishwick as Michael Williams * Nichola McAuliffe as Mrs. Blake

Production

In October 2020, the project was announced with

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

-winning novelist Ishiguro as screenwriter, and Nighy and Wood attached to star. In December 2020,

acquired the UK distribution rights. In June 2021, principal photography began in the UK, Sharp and Burke were announced to have joined the film, and the first image from the film was released. It was also announced that

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the produc ...

, the distributor of the original film, had acquired the rights for Japan. London's County Hall provided the backdrop for the film; in addition, the film was co-financed through the County Hall Arts charity.

Release

In January 2022, the film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it was announced that Sony Pictures Classics had acquired the distribution rights in North America, Latin America, India, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Germany, South Africa, Southeast Asia and airlines worldwide. ''Living'' screened at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2022 and at the

TCL Chinese Theatre Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. The original Chinese ...

as part of the 2022

AFI Fest The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

on 6 November 2022. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 4 November 2022, with a

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...

in the United States set for 23 December 2022.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 125 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "''Living'' sets a high bar for itself in setting out to remake a Kurosawa classic—and director Oliver Hermanus and star Bill Nighy clear it in triumphant fashion." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it holds a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 80 of out 100, based on 20 reviews.

Accolades

References

External links

*
Official screenplay
{{The Death of Ivan Ilyich 2020s British films 2020s English-language films 2022 independent films British drama films British Film Institute films Film4 Productions films Films directed by Oliver Hermanus Films shot in London Films set in 1953 Films set in London Films with screenplays by Kazuo Ishiguro Lionsgate films Number 9 Films films Remakes of Japanese films Sony Pictures Classics films