VividSimon Simply Perfect

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

WILLIAM FLANIGAN Viewed on DVD. Restoration = nine (9) stars. What to do if you fear imminent nuclear annihilation and have no interest in sharing an underground bomb shelter with your extended family? This film offers up an alternative "solution" which is no longer an option today. An above average "modern" Kurosawa movie with a solid script (Kurosawa is but one of four credited writers which seems to have held in check his tendency to write silliness into scripts) and taught direction (and editing). Large ensemble of actors provides an across-the-board set of believable characters with which the viewer can easily bond. Toshiro Mifune delivers an outstanding performance that is so unusual and atypical that viewers might want to double check the opening credits to ensure that Mifune is, indeed, the lead actor! Dialog is crisp and clearly enunciated by all performers except Mifune who delivers his characteristic mumbling staccato barks. Intentionally or not, the film depicts dental hygiene as being essentially nonexistent at the time. Of special interest are Tokyo street scenes circa 1954 shown under the opening credits. (All the men seem to be in shirtsleeves on the streets, but not in the film.) Cinematography is fine as are the subtitles (they are most needed when Mifune is speaking). Music consists of two stunning theremin micro concerts during the opening and closing credits (and a bit beyond). Restoration is outstanding except for a few wear lines here and there. The movie comes from the past, but is especially relevant, since the fear remains ever present and continues into the future. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

GyatsoLa A minor film by Kurosawa's standard, but still surprisingly gripping. I put off watching this for some time - I felt the theme would be very dated and many reviews of it have been lukewarm. But it is actually a tight, gripping and superbly acted drama. What makes it truly stands out is that Kurosawa never falls into the trap of siding too much with one or other character. The central character, a businessman called Nakajima, is obsessed with the H-bomb and convinced that Japan is doomed tries to persuade his family (including his mistresses and their children) to move to Brazil, where he feels they will be safer. His family, unsurprisingly, think he has gone mad and try to have him declared incompetent so they can seize control of his business. But there are no bad guys or good guys here - everyone is struggling to do the best they can. All this is observed by a sad eyed dentist (Harada), played brilliantly as usual by Takashi Shimura who is left wondering who is mad - a man who seeks to flee nuclear destruction, or those who simply shrug and accept it as inevitable.As usual with Kurosawa, the editing, photography, and camera movements are outstanding. Not many directors can create visually memorable images from an essentially domestic drama, but Kurosawa is one of them. I found one of the final scenes particularly striking - the two main characters looking at the sun, shaded through blinds - the now completely insane Nakajima convinced its the burning earth. It was impossible not to think that the obsession of the latter half of the 20th Century of nuclear Armageddon has turned into another fear, of a heating planet. So even when dealing with the immediate concerns of his day, Kurosawa still manages to be contemporary for our time.

poe426 J. Robert Oppenheimer, from the book of his collected lectures (ATOMIC ENERGY AS A CONTEMPORARY PROBLEM): "There are examinations which are given with open books, because all the answers are not to be found in books. The field of atomic energy is an open-book examination." Ditto, Akira Kurosawa's I LIVE IN FEAR/RECORD OF A LIVING BEING. Toshiro Mifune, in a role that would've been better served by Takashi Shimura (but which Mifune handles capably enough), comes to see the writing on the proverbial wall- and, not unlike the scientist who sees his mental block literally falling apart under the telepathic assault of his tormentors in the original version of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, does everything within his power to stave off disaster. Mifune, chameleoned grim and bent, peers closely at everything through his glasses with a determination that can't be argued with: he's a man on a mission and, while I would've liked to have seen Shimura in the role, Mifune never once stumbles in the role. There's no scenery-chewing here. From Dan Kurzman's book DAY OF THE BOMB: "... silence conveyed what words could not." Mifune's character is understandably concerned- to the point of obsession. In a world where it turns out that there have already been over 200 atomic tests conducted (when it was previously thought that there had been less than a hundred), and where said tests have actually turned fish into air-breathing land animals, is such concern unwarranted? As this is being written, an American-grown "domestic terrorist" is said to have had the means to construct a "dirty bomb" for use against his fellow Americans. (His wife, we've been told, tired of his abuse, killed him.) Oppenheimer himself (the generally acknowledged "Father of the Atomic Bomb"), upon hearing of the successful detonation of the two bombs dropped on Japan (Ground Zero for one of which was a Japanese Christian church), said, quoting Krishna of Bhagavad-Gita: "I am death, the all-devouring, and the origin of things that are yet to be." He became a devout anti-nuke speaker following the war, but the genie had already been let out of the bottle. Kurosawa would revisit the idea of nuclear devastation late in his career with DREAMS and RHAPSODY IN AUGUST. One can't help but recall one of the final scenes in I LIVE IN FEAR: Shimura stands silent witness as Mifune, driven mad, stares wide-eyed out of the window in his (padded) cell at the sun and cries: "The earth is burning! The earth is burning!"

tbeadow I Live in Fear is yet another masterpiece by Akira Kurosawa. It tells the story of an aging patriarch who is terrified nuclear attack will destroy his family and the business he has worked to build up his entire life. His children do not wish to leave the comfortable life in Japan which his labours have provided. They believe he is mad and take him to family court for mediation. It becomes the difficult duty of a mediator to decide whether his fears are rational or not. The shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are palpable in the feverish eyes of legendary actor Toshiro Mifune as the father. A thought-provoking time capsule of post-war Japan, the combination of Kurosawa and Mifune should never be missed.