Toshirô Mifune lives in fear in Akira Kurosawa classic
I LIVE IN FEAR (IKIMONO NO KIROKU) (Akira Kurosawa, 1955)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Saturday, April 16, and Sunday, April 17, $13, 11:00 am
Series continues through August
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
Akira Kurosawa’s powerful psychological drama begins with a jazzy score over shots of a bustling Japanese city, people anxiously hurrying through as a Theremin joins the fray. But this is no Hollywood film noir or low-budget frightfest; Kurosawa’s daring film is about the end of old Japanese society as the threat of nuclear destruction hovers over everyone. A completely unrecognizable Toshirô Mifune stars as Nakajima, an iron foundry owner who wants to move his large family — including his two mistresses — to Brazil, which he believes to be the only safe place on the planet where he can survive the H bomb. His immediate family, concerned more about the old man’s money than anything else, takes him to court to have him declared incompetent; there he meets a dentist (the always excellent Takashi Shimura) who also mediates such problems — and fears that Nakajima might be the sanest one of all. I Live in Fear is screening this weekend at 11:00 am at the IFC Center as part of its Weekend Classics: Kurosawa series, with fifty percent of ticket sales benefiting the Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund.