What do you do when your life is changing, everyone around you is changing, your entire country is changing, but you don’t want to? What do you when there is a better life waiting for you but you need to seek it out, but the life you have now is comfortable - or at least it feels comfortable?
This movie feels so unbelievably modern. Not just in how it was shot, but how it portrays men: how easy it is to…
I was really just along for the ride on this one, and it was fun ride. Dustin Hoffman is so damn good and there are so many scenes that were stressful, intense, and shrouded in a lot of mystery. Both the story and cinematography felt heavily inspired by Melville, but maybe with a more driving narrative and more sympathetic character, which is interesting because this has to be one of the last neo-noir films made.
This is lowkey one of the coldest posters on Letterboxd.
One of the greatest viewing experiences ever released on film. An absolute pleasure to watch. A story with flawless pacing, amazing acting, and a strong philosophy. The restored black and white is so fabulous, with such visual range and deep saturations, it made every scene Kobayashi captured that much more eye-popping. A unique style where the placement of people created such wonderful visuals. All this to culminate in one of the greatest third acts I've seen.
As much as I love Ikiru, crime will always be my favorite Kurosawa genre. He is able to build so much suspense and weave together such intricate stories, even when they are based on such old texts. Being able to learn about his past, Japan's past, and how they intertwined to inspire such compelling, thrilling, and compassionate leftist tales was incredibly rewarding.
I think most interesting of Nishi's character is that he refused to take advantage of Yoshiko. That even…
