I Live in Fear

I Live in Fear
File:Ikimono no kiroku poster.jpg
Directed by	Akira Kurosawa
Produced by	Sōjirō Motoki
Written by	Akira Kurosawa Shinobu Hashimoto Fumio Hayasaka Hideo Oguni
Starring	Toshiro Mifune Takashi Shimura
Music by	Masaru Sato Fumio Hayasaka
Production company	Toho Studios
Distributed by	Toho Company Ltd.
Release dates	November 22, 1955 (1955-11-22)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

I Live In Fear (生きものの記録, Ikimono no kiroku, aka Record of a Living Being or What the Birds Knew) is a 1955 Japanese film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. It was co-written by Shinobu Hashimoto, Fumio Hayasaka, and Hideo Oguni. The story concerned an elderly factory owner (Toshiro Mifune) so terrified of the prospect of a nuclear attack that he becomes determined to move his entire extended family (both legal and extra-marital) to what he imagines is the safety of a farm in Brazil.

The film stars Kurosawa regulars Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. It is in black-and-white and runs 103 minutes. The film was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

Cast

• Toshiro Mifune as Kiichi Nakajima
• Takashi Shimura as Dr. Harada
• Minoru Chiaki as Jiro Nakajima
• Eiko Miyoshi as Toyo Nakajima
• Kyoko Aoyama as Sue Nakajima
• Haruko Togo as Yoki Nakajima
• Noriko Sengoku as Kimie Nakajima
• Akemi Negishi as Asako Kuribayashi
• Hiroshi Tachikawa as Ryoichi Sayama
• Kichijirō Ueda as Mr. Kuribayashi's father
• Eijirō Tōno as Old man from Brazil
• Yutaka Sada as Ichiro Nakajima
• Kamatari Fujiwara as Okamoto
• Ken Mitsuda as Judge Araki
• Masao Shimizu as Yamazaki, Yoshi's husband

Plot

Kiichi Nakajima (Toshiro Mifune), an elderly foundry owner convinced that Japan will be affected by an imminent nuclear war, resolves to move his family to safety in Brazil. Nakajima's fervent wish is for his family to join him in escaping from Japan to the relative safety of South America. His family decides to have him ruled incompetent and Dr. Harada (Takashi Shimura), a Domestic Court counselor, attempts to arbitrate. Harada, a civil volunteer in the case, sympathizes with Nakajima's conviction, but the old man's irrational behavior prevents the court from taking his fears seriously.

Production

This was the last film that composer Fumio Hayasaka worked on before dying of tuberculosis in 1955. He had been Kurosawa's close friend since 1948 and had collaborated with him on several films.

External links

• I Live in Fear at Rotten Tomatoes
• I Live in Fear at IMDb
• I Live in Fear (Japanese) at the Japanese Movie Database
• I Live in Fear at AllMovie