Ikiru
Holy fucking shit.
There's a saying in film that if you want to learn it you should study Hitchcock but my (maybe misinformed) opinion is that you should study Kurosawa. Getting into film Kurosawa's filmography was a bit of a hurdle for me, it intimidated me as much as it fascinated me but then one day I ended up watching Seven Samurai in one sitting. There's something so entrancing by a Kurosawa film that I've never really had the language to understand until I saw Ikiru. Again, this movie has intimidated me since I was about 14 or 15 and discovered it and it's taken me until 21 to see it but I genuinely think it showcases about everything I love in film. It's got the grandiose shots of the best cinematographers, it's got emotional (albeit slightly hammy) performances, the sound is excellence but most of all it's got a huge heart that grabs your own and strangles it until it can't feel anymore. This is just one of the films that makes you just appreciate the form and life itself.