Dir: Akira Kurosawa
1955
*****
I live in fear is not typical of Kurosawa's work but it is probably one of the most important films he made. A reaction to and a social commentary on the bombing of Hiroshima, a subject avoided at the time in Japan, so much so that they had to use a giant Lizard to express and represent their fears. Kurosawa opened up Japan's usual conservative attitude and lead debate on societies fear and anxiety and in doing so built bridges of understanding with the western world. The world feared the bomb but Japan suffered the bomb, paranoia versus realism, the big difference between 'fear of the bomb' films typical of Hollywood and the rest of the world at the time. Toshiro Mifune is brilliant in a role unfamiliar and unusual for him, and although the film is one of Kurosawa's least popular, it just might be one of Mifune's greatest performances. He is joined by the ever brilliant Takashi Shimura once again, although he really doesn't get enough screen time for my liking. Touching but never melodramatic, engaging and bold, unfairly overlooked for the masterpiece that it is.
"If the birds and the animals knew what we know, they would leave?"
No comments:
Post a Comment