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Added 2021-05-22 07:29:40 +0000 UTCNext weeks breakdown will be on Akira Kurosawa's 'High And Low'! Drop your reviews below and we'll read them out on the show!
Accompanying our breakdown will be our 'Top 10 Director/Actor Combos'. Let us know your all time favourite, all the way to your top 10, or anything in between!
Comments
I have to admit that I struggled a bit with this. My main issue is that I never felt that I got to know/empathise with Gondo’s situation. We get quite a lot from him in the first hour, most of it showing him in unflattering terms as he initially refuses to give the ransom. Rather than exploring the moral dilemma in some detail, he appears to then abruptly change his mind. We then see very little of him for the next hour as the procedural elements take over the narrative. The social concerns of the film are clear, but apart from an engaging and visually interesting final scene, we don’t get to explore much from the antagonist perspective either. Undeniably there are some very effective scenes, such as the train sequence, but I found some of it too ponderous and a little underwhelming overall. I’m certainly perplexed at the massive 4.5 score on Letterboxd! 3/5
Jamie Russell
2021-05-23 21:01:43 +0000 UTCClocking in at 2 hours and 23 minutes, this film does not feel like a 2hr 23min film. Other than a brief period following the recovery of Shinichi, it never really lags. The fact that nearly the entire first hour takes place in one location and still manages to keep you engaged is a testament to the prowess of both Kurosawa’s storytelling and Mifune’s acting. When they recover Shinichi, all the ultimate result of mistaken identity kidnapping, I caught myself wondering where we’re going for the last hour of the film. Kingo Gondo’s moral decision to pay up for the release of a child that is not his gains him praise as a hero while also ultimately costing him everything he had with National Shoes. While the first half of the film leans on the moral dilemma aspect of doing what is right, the second half of the film plays out as more of a noir crime drama as the hunt for the kidnapper is on, all while examining the bottom rungs of the hierarchical ladder of societal wealth and providing plenty of twists and turns along the way. The first Kurosawa film for me that isn’t samurai related also turns out to be my favorite Kurosawa film that I’ve seen to date. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Jason
2021-05-23 18:45:16 +0000 UTC
