A tale of a young executive that was hunting down his father’s killer. This was another perfect collaboration of Akira Kurosawa and his favorite sidekick Toshiro Mifune. The legendary filmmaker guru combined excellently the elements of Hamlet and an American flick noir to a spine chilling effect to expose the corruption in the boardrooms of postwar corporate in Japan.
This movie was produced by the very own production outfit of Kurosawa. He took advantage of this great opportunity to create his boldest political picture in the history of Japanese cinema, He tackled on the issue about the vicious and malignant cancer in every country. – CORRUPTION. However, the well – known director gave it a different treatment. This time, he made it an epic style with magnificent proportions. To describe the movie. this was the most stylish film of Kurosawa ever produced since he started to learn and appreciate the art of movie making. Speaking of his cinematic methodology, he took on the route of nasty, tragic film noir plotline that magnificently intertwined with the elements of Hamlet; however, inadequate to refer to it as an adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece. The movie in focus was often referred to by some as “farcical comedy,” to others it was somewhat a horror. Movies will not complete and interesting without villains. They spice up every scene to the delight and oftentimes, disgust of the viewers. However, this seemed not to be the case in this motion picture. The “bad guys” appeared to be cartoonish and a caricature character. Likewise, only a single character could be personified as dignified. On the contrary, the others were like puff – up mirrors that can be easily toppled while Iwabuchi remained to be untouchable.
With respect to the stronger part of the movie, it was the establishing scene that can be seen in the opening salvo. It was similar to “The Godfather” with a lengthily wedding scene aimed to introduce the principal characters in the picture and to set its tone as well. Interestingly, the central pot of Nishi, who was orchestrating a thrilling and spectacular revenge, was full of amazing set pieces. There were influences of Hitchcock as Kurosawa shoves some essential objects right – up to the camera. In addition, the use of music was perhaps, spellbinding. However, the pacing was a bit slow.
Overall, the movie is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
