Akira Kurosawa’s Record of a Living Being

One of the sections of this article that struck me as particularly relevant right now was this passage:

"Kurosawa later claimed that I Live in Fear was inspired by conversations he had with his longtime film composer Fumio Hayasaka, who had become seriously ill during the making of Seven Samurai. Hayasaka had said to him, “The world has come to such a state that we don’t really know what is in store for us tomorrow. I wouldn’t even know how to go on living – I’m that uncertain. Uncertainties, nothing but uncertainties. Every day there are fewer and fewer places that are safe. Soon there will be no place at all.”

Hayasaka died during the filming, and "Kurosawa was devastated by his friend’s death", which affected the direction the film took.

I recently watched Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice which also deals with the threat of nuclear destruction. The main character is having a birthday dinner when the news informs everybody about the nuclear threat. The simplicity in which this information is revealed and the transition from the mundane to abject fear connected really well to modern times.

It's interesting seeing film ideas repeat and be interpreted by multiple directors. It's almost like some ideas need to bounce from director to director before they find the right outlet. I Live In Fear begets Dr Strangelove begets The Sacrifice.

I have not seen "I Live in Fear" yet. That being said, Ikiru is my favorite movie.

Thanks for sharing this.

For the first time I watched Akira Kurosawa's films (mostly all of them in few weeks, but not yet "I Live in Fear") ten years ago.

"Yume", "Hachi-gatsu no rapusodi" and "Madadayo" are those which impressed me too much.

This is a great site. Does anyone know if there's a good online resource to stream this Kurosawa movie? And actually to stream any of the types of movies on cinemasojourns? Back in the day most major cities has a handful of cinephile type video rental places and now that those are long gone the only options have been the independent arthouse theater which of course are all closed on account of the pandemic. I looked into the Criterion streaming service at one point but was disappointed by how many of their titles weren't available on the service.

This site is a great resource. Do people have recommendations for other similar cinephile sites like this?

Another film that deals with Nuclear Holocaust, albeit more of the direct aftermath is BBC's Threads[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film)

Any new Kurosawa movie is a treasure for me to discover. Dreams also had themes of nuclear holocaust. Quite topical today as the spectre of nuclear armageddon still hovers above.

Am I the only one in awe for those beautiful posters?

I've practiced fighting with knives/swords for a long time, this is of my all-time favorites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Ypt67TQyI