I Live in Fear

aka: Ikimono no Kiroku
Japan 1955, 99 minutes
Dir. Akira Kurosawa
In Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: [PG]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama

Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura

Aroview: Convinced a nuclear holocaust is imminent, an elderly industrialist (Mifune) decides to uproot his reluctant family (even his mistresses!) from Tokyo to rural Brazil, but must first fight it out in the family court for the right to carry out his plans.

Although not quite of the first rank of Kurosawa's films, this remains a superbly-shot study in Cold War paranoia and its emotional cover-up, with even the oddly-cast Mifune proving a scratchy, energetic presence playing a character twice his age.