I read the New York Times review of this film from when it was first released and it was not kind. I too found it tiresome and somewhat long. I didn't find it to be one of Toshiro Mifune's best performances. It did show his range as an actor. Before I had only seen him as a samurai or street gangster in other Kurosawa films.
I thought this film portrayed existential angst very well. At the time fear of the bomb was a very real concern of anyone alive at the time. The times reviewer seems to have missed that part and just gave a shallow review of characters without dealing with the deeper issue of the fear of nuclear annihilation and the utter disquiet it caused in not just Japan but the enitre globe. Yet, in Japan it was probably felt more intensely as Japan was bombed with nuclear weapons at the end of WWII. Even recently with the Fukushima disaster Japan has had further negative experiences with nuclear power.
This picture wasn't very inspired. Most of the time the camera was placed and the viewer was left to look where they wanted to. There was not use of closeups. There were a few shots where the camera angles were from behind the characters talking, but most of the time it was just there. I guess cinematography hadn't evolved to the mobility that can be seen in later Kurosawa films such as Seven Samurai or Ikiru. In fact I don't recall Kurosawa using many close-ups in any of his films. Perhaps he chose not to.
This film was the last in Kurosawa's post-war films. It was before Japan took off the controls of the Imperial state and the Golden Age really flourished. I had watched No Regrets for Our Youth and was dissappointed in that film. It was a propoganda film that was heavily censored by the government. I Live in Fear was a progression in Kurosawa's work as a film director. Perhaps not his best, but it was better than what he had done previously.
No comments:
Post a Comment