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Actors: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about I Live in Fear (Record of a Living Being) |
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Between the sword epics "Seven Samurai" and "Throne of Blood," the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa chose to make a contemporary (1955) film about a man obsessed by the H-bomb. Before the movie starts, he has bought land in the hinterlands and tried to build an underground shelter. Now he wants to sell his home and factory and take his large family -- as well as several mistresses and their children -- to Brazil, where he thinks they'll all be safer from fallout. The family, unwilling to go and fearful about the loss of the family fortune, takes him to court to get him declared mentally incompetent. A dentist (Shimura) who volunteers as a mediator in the family court serves as chorus and audience surrogate, trying to weigh the hero's sense and sanity. Mifune, then 35, plays a man twice his age, and though his makeup is poor and body language inconsistent, it's still a striking performance in a thought-provoking movie.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of I Live in Fear (Record of a Living Being) |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1930's-1950's
Family, struggling with
Yes
Struggle with:
- Father
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Struggle with
- (General) search for meaning/identity
Ethnic/Regional/Gender story?
Yes
Main Char. ethnic: (if not US Caucasian)
- Japanese
Culture of surrounding area:
- Japanese
Brain/Body not working?
- mental illness
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- business executive
Age:
- 60's-90's
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
- obsessed
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- white
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Events of movie makes character more...
- irritated
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Japanese
How sensitive is this character?
- soggy whimpering jelly muffin
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- healthy but a geeky weakling
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- white/grey
Hair style
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) average build
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Japanese
Setting
Asia/Pacific/Middle East
Yes
Asian country:
- Japan
City?
Yes
Misc setting
- mental hospital
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Movie makes you feel...
- challenged
Check here if B&W
Yes
Non-American film?
Yes
What language?
- Japanese
Subtitles?
- Yes
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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