Anatomia do Medo

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.

From the very very beginning during the opening credits sequence, we are given the ominous feeling of paranoia, the feeling with which it's vital to sympathize with Toshiro Mifune's character, an old foundry owner convinced that Japan is on the brink of nuclear obliteration, trying to force his reluctant and resentful family to safety in Brazil.

Mifune's performance is so very masculine and real, as are nearly all of them. In this film, he displays a self-assurance that allows him to descend into pathetic helplessness. Of all the post-war Kurosawa films that I've seen so far, I Live In Fear is the most direct and informative. America may feed off of the dread showcased by the Japanese culture in this film and some may feel terribly sad for the individualistic portrayal of the debilitating fear stricken into the immovable hearts of stubborn old men like Mifune's character.

Even as early as WWII, I learned, America's most powerful weapon has been fear. However, in those times, it was a much purer, less vain utility. But what about the people it destroys for the sake of its own feeling of security?

Akira Kurosawa's I LIVE IN FEAR (1955) is one of his lesser-known and sadly underrated films, with a revelatory performance by Toshiro Mifune as a character nearly double his real age at the time. Mifune plays the old owner of an iron foundry who has become so paranoid about the possibility of another atomic attack that he first tried to build a bomb shelter and now is planning to move his entire family to a farm in Brazil.

Naturally his adult children and even his wife have no desire to move from their comfortable Tokyo home and try to get him declared mentally incompetent. Takashi Shimura is a dentist serving as conflicted judge on the court mediation panel. This excellent look into the personal psychology of 1950s nuclear paranoia is a huge step above the numerous propaganda films of the era and an ideal complement to the numerous allegorical sci-fi horror films from the same period (especially GODZILLA, from the year before and also starring Takashi Shimura), as well as some of the more interesting Cold War post-apocalyptic films like WORLD WITHOUT END (1956) and PANIC IN YEAR ZERO (1962).

This is a surprisingly complex film that continues to build and grow right before your eyes. Some of the action and plot mechanism may need to be "accepted" to work, but once you realize that this is not merely an exercise on moral judgements, but a very sly re-working of familiar King Lear themes, the film's power and nuances become evident. For all those who see Kagemusha as a high point, and Ran as a huge failure, they may seek solace in this film, which pushes the trope of the rash old man, who has become so accustomed to getting and doing what he wants, that he cannot and will not accept his extended family's naysaying and interference. A really great film.

In 1955 millions of Japanese signed petitions against American atomic testing in the Pacific. Needless to say their concerns were totally ignored and there were reports of people moving to Brazil, although the numbers are not known.

Here we have seventy-year old foundry owner Nakajima played by thirty-five year old Toshiro Mifune, who is so obsessed with the threat of a nuclear holocaust that he plans to sell up and move his extended family, including two mistresses and their offspring, to South America. His family's attempts to have him declared mentally incompetent have the most dire and tragic consequences for them all.

Apart from his ill-conceived and interminable version of Gorky's 'Lower Depths', the consistent quality of Kurosawa's work throughout the fifties and sixties is both staggering and unparalleled.

Unsurprisingly this gloomy opus was a commercial failure and had to wait six years before being shown at the Berlin Film Festival. A further six years were to elapse before its theatrical release in America. It still remains mystifyingly underrated.

All of the acting kudos has been reserved of course for Mifune who is mesmerising in the role. It is such a pity that he and Kurosawa parted company in the late sixties as theirs was a partnership made in heaven.

Every character in this is beautifully drawn and one cannot fail to mention Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura as domestic mediator Harada who is consumed with guilt and remorse over Nakajima's fate. This comes three years after his own stunning performance in 'Ikiru' for the same director. Ironically he appeared a year earlier in another film dealing with fear of a nuclear holocaust, 'Godzilla', which naturally cleaned up at the box office.

The touches of a master film maker are here in terms of sound effects, editing and grouping of actors. The constant mopping of brows and waving of fans captures perfectly the unbearable heat and of course a Kurosawa film would not be complete without a torrential downpour or two.

This is an immensely powerful work which raises so many issues not least of which is the thin dividing line between rational/irrational behaviour. Does Nakajima 'go too far'? Many would say 'yes'.

It is Nobuo Nakamura as the psychologist who has the most telling speech when asking: "Is he crazy or are those who are unperturbed in an insane world the crazy ones?"

The final shot of the disconsolate Harada trudging down the stairs of the asylum whilst one of Nakajima's daughters, with child on back, walks up to visit her deranged father, is one of cinema's most devastating endings.

In a world presently paralysed by fear and paranoia this timeless film is ripe for rediscovery.