Watch I Live in Fear For Free

I'll tell you why so serious

As Good As It Gets

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

An aging, industrialist Japanese man (Toshiro Mifune) becomes so fearful of nuclear war that it begins to take a toll on his life and family.Viewers watching this have to sympathize with the protagonist. He might be eccentric, but his fears are not baseless: indeed, at the time this film was released, Japan had been hit only ten years earlier. The possibility of being hit again was very real (other than the fact it was now peace time) and Brazil is actually a smart place to go if you want to be free of nuclear bombs. Even today (2016) I don't believe there are any nuclear weapons in South America.The question is asked: is it crazier to have this irrational (or semi-rational) fear, or to have no fear at all? Modern writers have even taken to comparing this film to 9/11 and terrorism. I find that a tad odd (say what you will, but the bombs were far worse than any terror attack). But it's a valid point. Should we be overly wary of terrorism or ignore it altogether? It seems the only correct response is to embrace Aristotle and recognize that too much on the spectrum one way or the other is folly.

This film touches on a natural human feeling, which is being afraid of something, almost verging on phobia. In this case, our main character, Kiichi Nakajima (enacted by great and renowned Toshirô Mifune), lives in fear of nuclear bombs, given that Japan had just come out of World War Two. This fear completely affects him that it begins to interfere with his daily and family life. He has then made up his mind, and decides the best thing to do is flee his country and embark on a trip to Brazil, which, according to him, is the safest place to be. However, he is so selfish and focused on said idea, that he has not considered the consequences and how it may alter his family relationship. In the end, this film raises thoughtful questions that may have you thinking for a while. Those questions are: Was he doing the right thing for him and his family? Was he just crazy about it or sane enough to see the danger others could not?This film, in my opinion, though not Kurosawa's best, is definitely deserving of praise for the complex and daring subject matter it treats.My score: 8.6/10

Based on reviews I had read, I was expecting either a facile ban-the-bomb message film, or a story about greedy relatives trying to have an old man committed so they can get his money.I should have known better. Part of Kurosawa's genius in his great middle period (1950-1965) is that he refuses to insist on anything. He fairly presents a series of events and invites us to decide what, if anything, they mean.Everyone in this film has a point. No one here is really a villain. Even those who are jerks (notably the second son, Jiro) are really trying to do the right thing. And the film reminds me a little of THE CAINE MUTINY in that it very artfully moves our sympathies in one direction for most of the film before presenting us with events that make us wonder if we were wrong.Toshiro Mifune gives a fine performance as Nakajima, but to tell the truth, I wish Kurosawa had given the role to Takashi Shimura, not only because I think Shimura would have played the role even better, but because it would have given him one more tour-de-force leading role in a Kurosawa film, coming directly after IKIRU and SEVEN SAMURAI. Granted, though, that such a move probably would have caused problems with both Toho and Mifune.

I felt I had to post because this film, not one of my favorites by Kurosawa but still a one of quality and intelligence, keeps getting bashed by reviewers. The low score (compared to other Kurosawa films) shouldn't discourage potential viewers. Granted, this film takes more patience than some of his other films. However, the subject matter of the atomic bomb and how Japanese society and individuals deal I thought was very seminal. The whole concept of fear is deeply imbued into the film and it questions the sanity of the viewer and the world who live under the constant threat of universal destruction with ignorant self-assurance. The ideas are intelligent and presented with clarity. This film is complete and good in itself and doesn't need to rely on the name of Kurosawa to justify itself. Not a good Kurosawa film to start off with if one is trying to nurse an interest in his fecund movies but a good movie to watch nonetheless particularly if one is at all curious about how Japanese people feel about the horror of the atomic bomb.