I Live in Fear

1955 [JAPANESE]

Action / Drama

13
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 76% · 11 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 76% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 6079 6.1K

obsession paranoia psychiatric hospital psychiatrist foundry post war japan

Plot summary

An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.

Director

Akira Kurosawa Photo
Akira Kurosawa

Top cast

Kichijirô Ueda Photo
Kichijirô Ueda as Mr. Kuribayashi father
Akemi Negishi Photo
Akemi Negishi as Asako Kuribayashi
Toshirô Mifune Photo
Toshirô Mifune as Kiichi Nakajima
Eijirô Tôno Photo
Eijirô Tôno as Old man from Brazil
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
951.1 MB
934*720
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 1
1.72 GB
1392*1072
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 12

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AlsExGal 7 / 10

One of Kurosawa's lesser known films

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).
Reviewed by jzappa 9 / 10

A Very Informative and Enlightening Post-War Film

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?
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