quite long and for most of the movie simply heart wrenching.

main message of the movie is to not waste your life, the folly of bureaucracy, and the contrivance of those we live with day in and day out.

one of the most interesting aspects of the movie for me was the portrayal of a western american culture saturated post-war japan. there were several points in the film where characters sang american songs (in english), nearly everyone wore western clothing styles, listened and performed american music, danced in the style of american post-war jitterbug, etc. all the while with more traditional japanese architecture to play it all out in. it was something i have read about but found it to be very striking to see.

the movie itself played out much like an american hollywood production of the time, only with the ‘drawn-out-ness’ that seems to be a part of many asian films i watch (not a bad thing) (expressing ideas without a crap ton of worthless dialogue). the ‘western-ness’ of the movie production was something that i’m still not sure how i feel about. i guess this in itself is just another layer of american culture impacting japan.

overall, good. i guess i’m not quite at the whole, ‘this is a masterpiece’ feeling about this movie…but not bad. i really enjoyed ‘onibaba’, a japanese piece from this era of film making. i would suggest that movie over this…more subtle theme and an original story (original to me…i think it may be based on traditional japanese folklore).

Near the end one of the men says, “Doing anything but nothing is radical.”

Brilliant.

What a triumph for Kurosawa. I cannot begin to lavish this film with praise, as it’s as much a masterpiece in the realms of storytelling, directing as in acting! Takashi Shimura works wonders as the lead man, and I wont even tell you anything about it other than praise it. Brilliance.

Anybody with a crap job should REALLY see this.