If you’re in need of a Monday night movie watch to kickstart the week, Bill Nighy’s highest-rated drama has just landed a free streaming service in the UK. The highly-acclaimed drama Living was first released in cinemas in 2022, and saw him nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars.
Based on the 1952 film Ikiru by legendary director Akira Kurosawa and written by Japanese-British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, the film follows a senior London County Council worker who receives a terminal diagnosis.
After finding himself unsatisfied with life and unable to do much in his job due to constant red tape, he becomes determined to recapture some of his youthful energy and make a positive difference in the city.
If that sounds like something you want to watch, Living is now available to watch for free on Channel 4’s streaming service, following its airing on Channel 4 on Saturday night. It’s available to watch for the next 28 days.
Ross Ferguson / Lionsgate UK
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The film holds the distinction of being Nighy’s highest-rated drama on Rotten Tomatoes, with a near-perfect score of 96% positive from over 200 critic reviews.
It’s his third-highest rated project on the site overall, behind the TV movie and satirical comedy Antonia and Jane, and excellent animated film The Wild Robot.
Rolling Stone praised the film for successfully translating Kurosawa’s original film about Japanese salarymen culture into one about British specificities, and for capturing that time and location perfectly.
Above all, the publication stated that it was Nighy’s performance that made Living “vital and unmissable”.
Ross Ferguson / Lionsgate UK
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The Austin Chronicle called Nighy’s performance a “career-best”, while The Times called him “an actor at the peak of his powers” in a “mesmerising” film.
“The quietly powerful Living defies expectations at every turn”, wrote Baltimore Magazine, while Mark Kermode in The Observer noted that Sex Education star Aimee Lou Wood (a few years before The White Lotus season 3) matched Nighy in giving a “deeply affecting performance”, and said the film itself had “a winning simplicity that is hard to resist”.
Living is now available to watch on Channel 4’s streaming service.
The new edition of Living Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Sir David Attenborough, is here! Buy Sir David Attenborough in newsagents or online.
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.