Made shortly after the first H-bomb tests in the Pacific caused renewed fear in Japan of nuclear war, this relatively neglected Kurosawa film has only grown in relevance. It also remains a remarkable testament to the versatility and daring of actor Toshiro Mifune, who at age thirty-five took on the role of a crusty, eccentric old patriarch, Nakajima, who attempts to sell his small foundry and move with his family to Brazil, out of range of the nuclear cataclysm he envisions as imminent. Like King Lear, he watches, outraged, as his large family (including his mistresses and their children) seek to protect their financial interests by having him declared insane. Kurosawa infuses the film with sun and heat imagery as, for Nakajima, the life-giving orb is transformed into a fiery holocaust-not such a stretch, for anyone paying attention.