Ikimono no kiroku (1955)

An aging Japanese industrialist becomes so fearful of nuclear war that it begins to take a toll on his life and family.

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Shinobu Hashimoto, Fumio Hayasaka (story)

Stars:

Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toshirô Mifune	...	Kiichi Nakajima
Takashi Shimura	...	Domestic Court Counselor Dr. Harada
Minoru Chiaki	...	Jiro Nakajima
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Toyo Nakajima
Kyôko Aoyama	...	Sue Nakajima
Haruko Tôgô	...	Yoshi Nakajima
Noriko Sengoku	...	Kimie Nakajima
Akemi Negishi	...	Asako Kuribayashi
Hiroshi Tachikawa	...	Ryoichi Sayama
Kichijirô Ueda	...	Mr. Kuribayashi father
Eijirô Tôno	...	Old man from Brazil
Yutaka Sada	...	Ichiro Nakajima
Kamatari Fujiwara	...	Okamoto
Ken Mitsuda	...	Judge Araki
Masao Shimizu	...	Yamazaki, Yoshi's husband (as Gen Shimizu)

Storyline

Kiichi Nakajima, an elderly foundry owner, is so frightened and obsessed with the idea of nuclear extermination that his family decides to have him ruled incompetent. Nakajima's fervent wish is for his family to join him in escaping from Japan to the relative safety of South America. Harada, a civil volunteer in the case, sympathizes with Nakajima's conviction, but the old man's irrational behaviour prevents the court from taking his fears seriously.

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Plot Keywords:

nuclear | foundry | all knowing psychiatrist | financial worries | nuclear hysteria | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

25 January 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

What the Birds Knew

Filming Locations:

Toho Studios, Tokyo, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Toshiro Mifune was 35 years old when he played the role of a 70 year old.

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Quotes

Kiichi Nakajima: [seeing the sun from his window] Oh! The Earth is burning!

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Connections

Referenced in Hachi-gatsu no rapusodî (1991)

User Reviews

what is an existential threat in a post-nuclear age? Kurosawa asks this in near-excellent film

In any other hands the weight of the subject matter of I Live in Fear (or Record of a Living Being, which may or may not be the more accurate title) would be handled with the ham-fisted pounding-over-the-head drive of a Paul Haggis. Under Akira Kurosawa's direction, however, there's somehow subtlety, or at least ambiguity, in how the characters are depicted in the scope of the message.

It might have even seemed a little more dated- total blind fear and paranoia about the possibility of *the* bomb falling down and wiping out civilization- if not for the current state of affairs, in some parts of the world, regarding terrorism. What is it to be loaded up, whether it's from seeing it first hand (which isn't to downplay the tragedy of that experience) or being affected by media hype or propaganda, and made to believe that getting murdered in such a way to consider it an existential threat? How does one contemplate something, like nuclear threats or terrorism? Mifune's character, in a sense, might not be totally wrong. It's nothing to be ashamed of to take precautions to protect your family (in ten years Kiichi Nakajima has had the H-Bomb threat on his mind). It's the extreme nature that throws his big family for a loop - taking everyone off to Brazil (you know, like the song, as well as South America) - to avoid the nuclear fallout from the presumed bomb drop. This includes a bitter family battle over his right to do this, or to sell the factory he owns and his family and others work at, and just how much to take him seriously.

What ends up happening in Kurosawa's treatment of Nakajima isn't hitting you over the head with its message, be it that there is a big danger of the bomb or that you need to take care of the mentally ill no matter if they're right or wrong. It's about Nakajima in the scope of his family. The H-bomb fear is real for him, but it's seen by the family in a split vision- some will go wherever he wants to, and some want him committed and look to pilfer his will- that brings the drama. In fact, as one of Kurosawa's lessor seen works (i.e. not as well-known as his classics from the 50s Seven Samurai, Ikiru), it's one of his most compelling.

And Kurosawa has two gambles that he takes with the film, the kind that if they go wrong will affect the film in a negative way. The first is Mifune's performance. At first one might think he's playing it without much dimension, but there's something about his physical transformation that makes it a unique performance- almost an embodiment, to say it pretentious-like- one that makes Nakajima a purely neurotic character, with his big round glasses, buzz-cut hair, and grizzled, old look. We've never seen Mifune like this, and he adds great little note to a career that seems to be filled with mostly BIG performances (i.e. Throne of Blood) or star vehicles. There's that extra bit of effort, as Kurosawa does in the writing and spare direction, to add some humanity to a part that should be cut and dry. Anyone who wants to see Mifune the 'actor', should check out this or Samurai Rebellion for sure, as opposed to the 'bad-ass' of Yojimbo.

The second thing is the music, or what appears to be a lack thereof. The original composer apparently died midway through and was replaced, but it's ironic since I don't notice much of a music score at all during the film. There's the opening theme, which is quite extraordinary, but a lot of times we're just left in these awkward, tense dramatic scenes (like the Office, only not funny). Unlike other Kurosawa small-scale dramas where the music is piled on a bit (Scandal comes to mind), this is just very bare-bones in relation to the material. It's a little startling after a while, but it works. A-