RECORD OF A LIVING BEING
(aka I LIVE IN FEAR)
(Japanese Title:
Ikimono no
kiroku)(Alternate English Title: What The Birds Knew)
(1955 - Japan)
With Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Eiko Miyoshi
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Black and White
Reviewed by JB
One of Kurosawa's most personal movies, RECORD OF A LIVING BEING
suffers from a lack of story. Toshiro Mifune plays Kiichi
Nakajima, a foundry owner living in fear of dying from an atomic bomb
or radiation. His fear
consumes him so much that he wants to move his whole family to
Brazil, but is blocked from any action by their court
injunctions. Without any avenue of escape, he slowly descends
into madness.
And that's pretty
much the whole
story, which runs close to two hours. An almost
unrecognizable
Mifune does a fine job conveying Nakajima's madness, but is not allowed
to reveal anything else about the character or his past. Two
years
prior, Kurosawa made IKIRU,
a similar film about an older man trapped
inside his own anxieties, but in that film, we were allowed to know
Kanji Watanabe, played by Takashi Shimura.
IKIRU showed a complete, although fragmented, picture of one man's
life. All we know about Nakajima is that he fears the bomb.
It's
not enough. This might sound blasphemous to fans of Mifune, but
it might have worked better if the older and subtler Shimura were
allowed to play the lead in this film.
But after SEVEN
SAMURAI, Mifune was the
star in Japan, which is likely why Kurosawa cast him as
the lead and relegated Shimura to a smaller part. Yet it is
Shimura who comes off as the more sympathetic figure as a local member
of the medical board who follows Nakajima's journey into madness.
RECORD OF A
LIVING BEING is not really a misfire - Kurosawa did exactly what he
wanted to do with this film - but it is one of his least accessible
works,
despite the important topic, and
definitely not the place to start if you are new to Kurosawa. 
½
- JB
Akira Kurosawa Toshiro Mifune The Stuff You Gotta Watch
ALL YOUR QUOTE BELONG TO US
"Why can't you say some mature words? You only peep
on my assets! All are not loyal!"
---- bad subtitles on a Hong Kong DVD of RECORD OF A LIVING BEING
This is the first time I experienced
Kurosawa on
something other than a Criterion DVD release, and my review may be
skewed due to the unpleasantness of having to follow a story through
horrendous subtitles. Along with the quote above, I noted
these
unique turns of phrase: "Say something! Don't look
like a
man!" and one that should be inducted to the Bad Subtitle Hall of Fame
immediately: "Chung wanted to find a piece of peace land on
earth. In South America. Planned to migrate to
Basil." After seeing this film presented so horribly, I will
not
review another Kurosawa film from this company. Nor will I
ever
migrate to Basil. - JB
http://thestuffyougottawatch.com
Copyright © 2010 John V. Brennan, John Larrabee