Karami-ai

Masaki Kobayashi 's The Inheritance (1962) a.k.a Karami-ai, is like a slapstick comedy made on the lines of a Noir Style suspense Drama, with new twists and turns around every 1m of reel. A dying man quest to find his children in order to prepare his last will so that her not loving & somewhat selfish wife ;does not take everything from his 300 million yen fortune; takes an Agatha Christie novel like turn when all characters come into play to get theirs hands on the big bounty. There are a lot of characters but still we do not get confused with the plot and are able to witness the plans for various parties unfold in front of your screen, some to success and others to no avail. Tatsuya Nakadai's Character 'kikuo Furukawa' shines less in this film but Nakadai has still managed to give him some soul. It is keiko Kishi's "Yasuko" who turns from a mellow secretary to an Cunning Vixen, who; through clever strategies turn the tide of events in her favour. Kobayashi's this film is short, fast-paced, well structured, well executed, with a jazzy soundtrack and classy Tracking Shots ; to increase the interest and concentration of the viewers.

This Kobayashi is of the ranks of Kubrick's "The Killing(1956)", Billy Wilder's "Double Idemnity(1944)", Hawks's "The Big Sleep(1946), Akira Kurosawa's"The Bad Sleep Well" and also his own other great works like "Human Condition Trilogy", "kwaidan", "Samurai Rebellion", "Harakiri", "Black River" and should reciever more recognition as these above mentioned great works ; which from the imdb's number of votes and reviews, does not look favourable to its caliber. Definitely a treat for a Noir, Kobayashi, or any avid Cinema Fan.

I just watched this as part of Criterion's box set of Kobayashi's early movies. It was the movie he made right after completing The Human Condition, and while it's not in the same rank as that or some of his other masterpieces, it is still very enjoyable and very much worth seeing. A rich business executive is dying and decides he wants to meet with his three illegitimate children before dying to see if they're worthy of including in his will. This sets up a mad scramble between his relatives and employees to see who can best finagle the situation to their advantage. There's nothing much new here thematically (money corrupts, people are naturally greedy, etc.) but it's fun watching the story play out. Plus, beautiful cinematography and a great jazz score make this a must see.

The suspense is for finding the answer to "Who's going to grab the inheritance?" Who will succeed? And how? As in a good Agatha Christie novel, we witness a parade of characters that, yes, want the money. And money... changes everything. Intrigue and double-crossing plans, jazz music, femme fatales that start to appear everywhere and a spectacular visual film in high contrast low-key lighting (pure chiaroscuro) within unbalanced frames that take the most of a full 2.40:1 aspect ratio.

Kobayashi is one of the finest directors, perhaps very underrated. A few months later he would shoot "Harakiri". He knew his craft. This is a solid film to enjoy.

In this morally black play for money everyone are wearing fake faces, and I must say, though it is based on a book, it's rare plot is so original that you can never guess where it is going. A wealthy businessman is dying of cancer, and his much younger wife in a loveless union is expecting to get everything, but the man reveals that he in fact has 3 illegitimate children - as investigators attempts to find them and plots are being hatched out from all angles tension grows.

Described as a drama this feels much more like a thriller. Some might have a problem with the lack of essentially any "likeable" and "good" characters (in that case this probably isn't for you), but if you seeing the darkest corners of humanity put on display this might even put a smile on your face. Yes, there is a certain level of dark glee in seeing these treacherous characters put on acts, switch on their game faces and play everyone else for a fool - and the game only becomes more and more exciting as each pawn is placed. Made in the middle of Kobayashi's golden stretch it's a shock that such a strong entry is not more acknowledged. 8.5/10.

Worked through all of Kobayashi's higher profile movies during 2020, but it'll be nice if his less well-known stuff all turns out to be as good as this.

The story isn't quite as engaging as the narratives displayed in The Human Condition trilogy, Harakiri, or Kwaidan, but it's still interesting for most of its runtime.

I did like the noir feel, especially the jazzy soundtrack and the voiceover, and it's nice to see a female protagonist (who isn't your typical femme fatale) in a noirish movie like this.

It's probably a more minor work in his overall filmography, but yeah, still pretty good.