I Live in Fear

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I Live In Fear (Ikimono no kiroku) is a full-length Japanese movie that was written and directed by Japan’s most famous director: Akira Kurosawa. It was released in 1955, directly after Seven Samurai, which is arguably the most well-known Kurosawa movie. I Live In Fear, though, is not the huge production that Seven Samurai was, and is instead a movie that focuses more on emotions and what goes on in the brain. There has been some debate between Kurosawa fans and Literature scholars, that I Live In Fear is mainly derived from Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Synopsis

The movie opens with a dentist. This dentist has a job to do, which is to help decide if an old man is sane or insane. Kiichi Nakajima, played by Kurosawa veteran Toshiro Mifune, is an older man who begins to argue with his children. They believe that he is going to sell his foundry, their only source of income, and will squander the money. The children get together and decide to have him declared mentally incompetent so that they will be able to control what happens with the foundry and the money. If he is found mentally incompetent, he will be sentenced to live out the rest of his days in an asylum, and while some members of his family struggle with this, others do not.

It is eventually discovered that Kiichi is not being so unrational because of his greedy children, but is instead convinced that a nuclear bomb will destroy Japan in a very short time. His reasoning behind selling the foundry is to be able to move the entire family to a farm in Brazil. Kiichi has a few mistresses, and several illegitimate children, and even they get into the mix, clamoring to get into Kiichi’s will should he be remanded to a mental institution. Kiichi even ends up burning down his foundry in order to convince his family to go with him.

After a time, the family ends up having to make a decision on where they stand with their father. The decision is made for them when, during a family meeting, Kiichi starts beating on his youngest son for making a small remark. The movie ends with Kiichi sitting in a cell in a mental institution. He sees the sun setting and believes that it is a fire caused by the nuclear bomb that he always knew would explode. In Kiichi’s eyes, he was right.

Misc Info

There has been some debate over Kurosawa’s decision to cast Mifune as the main character. At the age of thirty-five, Mifune is much younger than Kiichi is. Although makeup, especially back then, has a way of hiding an actor’s facial features, Mifune pulls it off beautifully. It should be noted that he is a bit more active than a real elderly man would be, but the emotion and power he put behind the performance carries it through believably. Kurosawa, one of Japan’s finest directors, cast Mifune in many roles through out his long movie career, and for good reason.

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Categories: Japanese movies | Movies directed by Akira Kurosawa

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-'''Heaven and Hell''' (Tengoku to jigoku) is a full-length Japanese movie that was released in [[1963]]. ''Heaven and Hell'' was directed and co-written by [[Akira Kurosawa]]. Kurosawa is known world-wide for his amazing movies. While he is most well-known for his historical films, Kurosawa also made movies that detailed the human condition. Heaven and Hell is said to have been based on a novel by an American author named Evan Hunter. Using the pseudonym Ed McBain, Hunter is most remembered for his crime fiction novels. It is said that Kurosawa was influenced by Hunter’s novel, ''Kings Ransom''. ''Heaven and Hell'' can also be found under the title ''High and Low''.
+'''I Live In Fear''' (Ikimono no kiroku) is a full-length [[Japanese movie]] that was written and directed by Japan’s most famous director: [[Akira Kurosawa]]. It was released in [[1955]], directly after [[Seven Samurai]], which is arguably the most well-known Kurosawa movie. I Live In Fear, though, is not the huge production that Seven Samurai was, and is instead a movie that focuses more on emotions and what goes on in the brain. There has been some debate between Kurosawa fans and Literature scholars, that I Live In Fear is mainly derived from Shakespeare’s King Lear.
-== Synopsis ==
+==Synopsis==
-''Heaven and Hell'' is better described as being a play that takes place in two acts. In the beginning, the viewer finds Toshirō Mifune, a Kurosawa regular, as a high-flying executive named Kingo Gondo. Gondo wants to get control over the National Shoe Company in order to take complete control of the company. One side of the company wants to make cheap shoes and sell them cheaply. The other side wants to keep making high-quality shoes at expensive prices. Gondo is in the middle. He wants to make good quality modern shoes with low prices.
+The movie opens with a dentist. This dentist has a job to do, which is to help decide if an old man is sane or insane. [[Kiichi Nakajima]], played by Kurosawa veteran [[Toshiro Mifune]], is an older man who begins to argue with his children. They believe that he is going to sell his foundry, their only source of income, and will squander the money. The children get together and decide to have him declared mentally incompetent so that they will be able to control what happens with the foundry and the money. If he is found mentally incompetent, he will be sentenced to live out the rest of his days in an asylum, and while some members of his family struggle with this, others do not.
-Gondo mortgages everything he has and is ready to make the purchase when he is told that his son has been kidnapped. The kidnappers demand a very large ransom from Gondo and he gets ready to make the payment when he learns that the kidnappers have messed up. Instead of stealing Gondo’s child, they have taken his chauffeur’s. The buyout is imminent and Gondo is forced to decide if he should pay the ransom or take over the company, as he truly wants to.
+It is eventually discovered that Kiichi is not being so unrational because of his greedy children, but is instead convinced that a nuclear bomb will destroy Japan in a very short time. His reasoning behind selling the foundry is to be able to move the entire family to a farm in Brazil. Kiichi has a few mistresses, and several illegitimate children, and even they get into the mix, clamoring to get into Kiichi’s will should he be remanded to a mental institution. Kiichi even ends up burning down his foundry in order to convince his family to go with him.
-Gondo is unable to hide the fact that he wants to get controlling interest when his most trusted aide tells the other side what Gondo is up to. He realizes that his aide only told the other executives about his plans in order to save his own neck, but the betrayal is still bitter. It means that if Gondo does not purchase the stock, the executives will vote him out. Eventually Gondo chooses to pay the ransom. After a long evening of listening to his wife and his chauffeur, he realized that it was the right thing to do. The executives at the National Shoe Company get ready to kick Gondo out when they discover that he has become a national hero. Consumers threaten to boycott the company if they get rid of Gondo.
+After a time, the family ends up having to make a decision on where they stand with their father. The decision is made for them when, during a family meeting, Kiichi starts beating on his youngest son for making a small remark. The movie ends with Kiichi sitting in a cell in a mental institution. He sees the sun setting and believes that it is a fire caused by the nuclear bomb that he always knew would explode. In Kiichi’s eyes, he was right.
-The second half of the movie is where the crime drama comes in. It follows the police as they attempt to find the kidnapper in order to put him in jail. For Kurosawa, there are no glitzy police scenarios. The viewer can clearly see how grueling police work really is as the case is meticulously built against the criminal. The movie goes from having it all, Heaven, to the lowest depths of Japan’s lower class, thought of as Hell.
+==Misc Info==
+There has been some debate over Kurosawa’s decision to cast Mifune as the main character. At the age of thirty-five, Mifune is much younger than Kiichi is. Although makeup, especially back then, has a way of hiding an actor’s facial features, Mifune pulls it off beautifully. It should be noted that he is a bit more active than a real elderly man would be, but the emotion and power he put behind the performance carries it through believably. Kurosawa, one of Japan’s finest directors, cast Mifune in many roles through out his long movie career, and for good reason.
 [[Category:Japanese movies]]
+[[Category:Movies directed by Akira Kurosawa]]