It is a high-profile wedding: the daughter of Mr Iwabuchi, a wealthy businessman, is marrying Mr Nishi, a car salesman. However, Mr Iwabuchi and other senior members of his company are suspected of corporate malfeasance and the wedding becomes a bit of a farce, with the press swarming all over it. To add to the discord, the company officials are rather publicly reminded of an ignominious event which occurred a few years ago - a senior employee committed suicide by jumping from the 7th floor of their offices. Now other senior officials are committing suicide and it looks like it is related to that death of a few years ago.
Directed, and co-written, by Akira Kurosawa, and he is in fine form. Great revenge plot that is quite Shakespearean in its flow and "no good deed goes unpunished" modus operandi. Reminded me a lot of Hamlet though it is not a clear adaptation - the characters don't exactly map to characters in Hamlet, and the plot, while feeling Hamletesque, is not exactly the same. Not that Kurosawa didn't adapt Shakespeare's plays - Throne of Blood was an adaptation of MacBeth and Ran was an adaptation of King Lear.
Plot and tension build well. Things start off rather innocently, with a wedding, and disjointedly as the relevance of certain characters and connections between different characters aren't always obvious. But as time goes the strands all start to coalesce and everything starts to come together.
By the end the tension and intrigue are ramped up to the max, leaving you glued to the screen. The ending is poetic, but I felt that something more positive and definite was in order.
Solid performances all round. Toshiro Mifune is there, of course - it wouldn't be a Kurosawa movie without him - and does a great job.
Directed, and co-written, by Akira Kurosawa, and he is in fine form. Great revenge plot that is quite Shakespearean in its flow and "no good deed goes unpunished" modus operandi. Reminded me a lot of Hamlet though it is not a clear adaptation - the characters don't exactly map to characters in Hamlet, and the plot, while feeling Hamletesque, is not exactly the same. Not that Kurosawa didn't adapt Shakespeare's plays - Throne of Blood was an adaptation of MacBeth and Ran was an adaptation of King Lear.
Plot and tension build well. Things start off rather innocently, with a wedding, and disjointedly as the relevance of certain characters and connections between different characters aren't always obvious. But as time goes the strands all start to coalesce and everything starts to come together.
By the end the tension and intrigue are ramped up to the max, leaving you glued to the screen. The ending is poetic, but I felt that something more positive and definite was in order.
Solid performances all round. Toshiro Mifune is there, of course - it wouldn't be a Kurosawa movie without him - and does a great job.