I had a bit of a time deciding whether to give this set 5 or 4 stars, But these are key films in Kurosawa's career and deserve to be seen by completist.1. "Drunken Angel" is cited as the first film in which Kurosawa expressed his real philiosphy of life. This film was very popular in Japan and re-released several tmes. Set immediately after the war, it is a neo-realist film on the hopes for a better society and how difficult it is to achieve. Takeshi Shimura plays the title character in one of his superlative performances. But this was Toshiro Mifune's first film for Kurosawa and his first lead role. Mifune gives a great, unbridled performance, that stunned Kurosawa, who didn't know how to control him and just let him go. Result: a one-of-kind performance and stardom. Mifune is often compared to John Wayne, but here and in "Fear" it is clear a more approriate analogy is the young Marlon Brando. The entire film is wonderfully made, but the ending in which Mifune tries to redeem himself and find meaning is almost transcedent. Incredible with a foretaste of things to come in masterworks such as "Ikiru" and "Roshamon."
2. "Scandal" is a weak film by Kurosawa's standards. An unbalanced attack on the press, it begins with Mifune as a rebellious artist suing a tabloid for slander. But halfway through the film lurches into the lawyer's film in a brilliant performance by Shimura, made even more impressive by the overweaning and, often, misconceived script. Here Kurosawa is struggling with the problem of "truth" and "reality," that the following year he solved in one of the great achievements in all film "Roshamon."
3. "I Live In Fear" originally titled "Record Of a Living Being" made 10 years after "Drunken Angel" and six after "Scandal", is the only film Kurosawa made dealing in detail with the consequences to the human psyche of nuculear bombs. It is a dark, tragic film, with an all but unrecognisable Mifune as the head of a family who wants to move himself and his family to a place they will be "safe" from the radiation from nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific. Beginning with an eccentric, but sensible plan, Mifune's character goes from healthly worried ending in insanity as his family fights his every suggestion. The final scene with Shimura, as the one person genuinely disturbed by questions raised, visiting an "insane" (or is he) Mifune in a mental hospital is the one of the most brilliant and disturbing scenes I know.
These films are records of Kurosawa's growth and problems in becoming one of the irreplacable giants of the century. More than worth a few looks.
