05-10-2020, 02:07 PM
Mifune is a wealthy industrialist whose son is kidnapped and held for ransom. The real twist, which happens early, is that the kidnapper takes the chauffeur's boy by mistake, and the industrialist's readiness to pay the ransom for his own son falters when it's for the son of a servant. But he is not without ethics, and has a conscience; and after much soul-searching and the pitiful pleas of his devastated chauffeur... Anyway, a lot of tortured souls in this one, and pairs of doors with a tiger behind one, as well as twisted corridors down which the plot unspools in unexpected ways.
I didn't really want to watch Mifune as a wealthy industrialist, especially in a film with a running time of two and a half hours. Boy, was I wrong. This is a terrific movie. It's front-loaded with an almost unrecognizable Mifune, after which he slips into the background as the investigation proceeds. Still, it's a huge front load, and Mifune does appear throughout, and comes to the forefront again at the end.
Tatsuya Nakadai, the smirking gun-toting villain from Yojimbo, plays the dogged and resourceful chief investigator trying to track down the kidnapper through a good part of the movie. He is so charismatic.
Takashi Shimura has a small role as an investigator.
Kurosawa's brilliant camerawork is in full evidence, along with his amazing ability to shoot crowded street scenes, dance halls, grungy heroin dens. Also, the investigation has a very trippy and unpredictable feel to it, especially towards the end, much of it owing to the camerawork.
Highly recommended, even without sword fights.
I didn't really want to watch Mifune as a wealthy industrialist, especially in a film with a running time of two and a half hours. Boy, was I wrong. This is a terrific movie. It's front-loaded with an almost unrecognizable Mifune, after which he slips into the background as the investigation proceeds. Still, it's a huge front load, and Mifune does appear throughout, and comes to the forefront again at the end.
Tatsuya Nakadai, the smirking gun-toting villain from Yojimbo, plays the dogged and resourceful chief investigator trying to track down the kidnapper through a good part of the movie. He is so charismatic.
Takashi Shimura has a small role as an investigator.
Kurosawa's brilliant camerawork is in full evidence, along with his amazing ability to shoot crowded street scenes, dance halls, grungy heroin dens. Also, the investigation has a very trippy and unpredictable feel to it, especially towards the end, much of it owing to the camerawork.
Highly recommended, even without sword fights.
I'm nobody's pony.
