Wednesday | March 14, 2007 7:00 pm

I Live in Fear
(Ikimono no kiroku)

Screening on Film

Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
With Toshiro Mifune, Eiko Miyoshi, Haruko Togo.
Japan, 1955, 35mm, black & white, 113 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: Janus Films

Toshiro Mifune delivers one of his most unusual performances as a prematurely old man paralyzed by an apocalyptic vision of nuclear holocaust. His fear compels him to move his family to a safe haven in Brazil, prompting his relatives to contest his decision in family court. Among Kurosawa’s most rarely screened films, I Live in Fear is a powerful study of post-atomic Japan and the heavy burden of an overly sensitive soul.