After witnessing the vast epic Seven Samurai (1954-also reviewed) from the four disc Criterion box set,I planned to get the next title Akiria Kurosawa had made from out of the Criterion set AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa, only to find that I had actually gotten the disc out,and had misplaced it somewhere!
Recently picking up The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie for £2 from a local book shop, I decided to do a long search, and finally found the disc, which led to me discovering what it is like to live in fear.
View on the film:
Revealed in the third edition on The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie that the script was originally planned to be a satire, with co-writer (with regular collaborators Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni, and Fumio Hayasaka - who was a close friend and composer of earlier scores for the film maker,and had in-depth discussions on the title before his passing in 1955) / directing auteur Akira Kurosawa later saying "We decided together, and then talking to other people, that a satire would be the best way of saying what we wanted to do." But, as the writing continued, Kurosawa found "As we (the writers) worked on the script it became less and less satire and more and more something else."
Although far more serious then originally planned, the screenplay retains the biting urgency of satire, coming across most prominently in those around Kiichi attempting to counter his fear of another nuke being dropped on Japan,with the most paper-thin reasoning to try and normalize the situation.
Landing as a companion work to Ikiru (1952-also reviewed), the writers brilliantly explore the 70 year old Kiichi, (played by 35 year old Toshiro Mifune, who captures the anxiety Kiichi is unable to escape from) trying to protect his family, from what he fears could be the end of their lives. The writers have the dread seeping into his dreams, (dreams being a major theme in Kurosawa's works) and leave Kiichi waking up to find, that the family have increased their labeling of his nuclear fears as mad, and pushed him deeper into a box, in order to keep their image of normalization intact.
Reuniting with his regular cinematographer of this period Asakazu Nakai, directing auteur Akira Kurosawa expands on their earlier boiling hot Film Noir Stray Dog (1949-also reviewed), via stylish panning shots gliding over everyone being sweaty, dripping wet and sitting next to fans to cool off, which ignites a superb atmosphere of everything reaching a boiling point.
Blowing out the candle with a poetic final shot which builds on the differing stages of life for the generations highlighted in the birthday sequence of Ikiru, and panning shots on grinding machinery, with the increased importance of machines in the modern/business world, being a theme Kurosawa would go deeper in exploring, Kurosawa and Nakai give the audience no breathing space at all, thanks to tight, claustrophobic shots keeping Kiichi boxed in, to a eerie sound design of white blasts of thunder and a baby crying,as Kiichi lives in fear.
Recently picking up The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie for £2 from a local book shop, I decided to do a long search, and finally found the disc, which led to me discovering what it is like to live in fear.
View on the film:
Revealed in the third edition on The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie that the script was originally planned to be a satire, with co-writer (with regular collaborators Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni, and Fumio Hayasaka - who was a close friend and composer of earlier scores for the film maker,and had in-depth discussions on the title before his passing in 1955) / directing auteur Akira Kurosawa later saying "We decided together, and then talking to other people, that a satire would be the best way of saying what we wanted to do." But, as the writing continued, Kurosawa found "As we (the writers) worked on the script it became less and less satire and more and more something else."
Although far more serious then originally planned, the screenplay retains the biting urgency of satire, coming across most prominently in those around Kiichi attempting to counter his fear of another nuke being dropped on Japan,with the most paper-thin reasoning to try and normalize the situation.
Landing as a companion work to Ikiru (1952-also reviewed), the writers brilliantly explore the 70 year old Kiichi, (played by 35 year old Toshiro Mifune, who captures the anxiety Kiichi is unable to escape from) trying to protect his family, from what he fears could be the end of their lives. The writers have the dread seeping into his dreams, (dreams being a major theme in Kurosawa's works) and leave Kiichi waking up to find, that the family have increased their labeling of his nuclear fears as mad, and pushed him deeper into a box, in order to keep their image of normalization intact.
Reuniting with his regular cinematographer of this period Asakazu Nakai, directing auteur Akira Kurosawa expands on their earlier boiling hot Film Noir Stray Dog (1949-also reviewed), via stylish panning shots gliding over everyone being sweaty, dripping wet and sitting next to fans to cool off, which ignites a superb atmosphere of everything reaching a boiling point.
Blowing out the candle with a poetic final shot which builds on the differing stages of life for the generations highlighted in the birthday sequence of Ikiru, and panning shots on grinding machinery, with the increased importance of machines in the modern/business world, being a theme Kurosawa would go deeper in exploring, Kurosawa and Nakai give the audience no breathing space at all, thanks to tight, claustrophobic shots keeping Kiichi boxed in, to a eerie sound design of white blasts of thunder and a baby crying,as Kiichi lives in fear.