Fish farm dude ranch milk bar

I don’t know the land means a lot to me. Connective. There’s something there. Siblings fighting over it. Estranged mom returns the son near her as she hangs linens bedsheets bright washed on the clothesline to dry outdoors. Is it possible for everyone to be back together again? Does fate bring the motorist back to prevent YUKATA from finding a way to make his own happiness by destroying what he’s built on the land? Thinking about how Yukata acts like FUJIMORI dumping hazmat there isn’t a big deal.

 

License to Live (1998, Kiyoshi Kurosawa) is a tender mumblecore existential comedy about youth the theme of which seems to be leave the past behind you and pour your kindness and heart into the here and now wherever you are because it’ll be gone before you know it and those who cross your path and yourself the mutual exchange interactions will be all you have left once they or you are gone. 
     This film sets itself apart as cinema early on if you consider how generic the premise of someone waking up from a coma after ten years could otherwise be handled. Dude the way Kôji Yakusho plays Fujimori sitting in that hospital room when Yukata asks him about all these major news historic events and to each his lackadaisical response is always like yeah so what who cares whatever type reactions. I think it’s kind of punk. Current events are so boring. Hey can’t I laugh this is a comedy? 
     I wanna say the motorist sets up one of the most often recurring themes running throughout Kurosawa’s films that is something like old people being selfish stubborn in conflict with youth feeling stifled like it prevents any meaningful connection genuine sincere reciprocity of existing in harmony with one another. And what his youth do in reaction to all of it. License to Live feels like it belongs in a loose mumblecore disaffected youth trilogy along with Barren Illusion (1999, Kurosawa) and Bright Future (2002, Kurosawa).

This dates from the Cambrian Period 550 million years ago it's called a Eurasian King's Eyes

You know how there’s that line the math teacher asks the students in Serpent’s Path (1998, Kiyoshi Kurosawa) now what happens when we add dualism? I think that’s a joke about Eyes of the Spider (1998, Kurosawa). As heavy as the moralizing and confronting those who contribute to the lowest depravities in society is in Serpent’s Path we now see all that turned on its head and get its complete opposite Eyes of the Spider.

 

Eyes of the Spider is this heartwarming tender set amid rural splendor slow peaceful quiet meditation comedy that allows us to empathize with a man whose young daughter was killed along the path he follows in life after his albeit pretty quickly handled revenge shooting the man responsible. This is also one of the most indicative examples of just when you think you’ve hit lower tier Kiyoshi Kurosawa you are proven to have been too hasty to judgement.
     But think about Serpent’s Path for a second. This time around in Eyes of the Spider our everyman again Shô Aikawa plays a character with the exact same name NAOMI NIIJIMA is now the protagonist we follow. After he gets recruited by an old high school friend into the yakuza their first job finds them trying to verify the identity of a target and it’s so easy it’s funny what does Niijima do? He checks the man’s license. This is hilarious if you remember how hard this was in Serpent’s Path. But so yeah in the same sequence the boss asks Niijima to shoot the man and Niijima hesitates for a second then the boss says no problem and does it himself. Ultimately the biggest difference is the yakuza IWAMATU just wants to be buddies with Niijima.
     The dramatic conflict turns out to be a higher ranking yakuza played by Ren Ôsugi implores Niijima to supply him with info reporting on Iwamatu who later turns out to be breaking the rules dealing with the head of the Kinsai Family. But okay the old dude Ren Ôsugi plays is this kind rock collector who spends all his time hunting for precious stones in the mountains. Drastic tonal shift from Serpent’s Kiss this film makes it okay for us to love these dudes. The yakuza in Eyes of the Spider is this aimless hijinks workplace comedy.
 
So much happens in the last few minutes. Spanning time. And while normally I would have thought about how I was taught a passive protagonist is poor writing this exception proves the rule. It’s profound how Niijima just deals with the hand life deals him over and over again. 
     When his dead daughter Mitsuko appears at their home as a ghost he just denies it and says there’s nothing there. In any other movie that would be played up for its dramatic or horror impact potential. And when he and we see that dude in the wheelchair in the span of such a short runtime oh how he and we have changed the way we think about things. Zen existentialism. Flow through life like water. Be in harmony with your surroundings what a punch. Now we’ve all been transported back to a state of childlike innocence and wonder at how beautiful it is to be alive. 

What happens next? The clue is analytical theorem

Building on my take of Kurosawa’s previous film I read Serpent’s Path (1998, Kiyoshi Kurosawa) as a condemnation of depravity calling out the smallest cog in the machine the distribution of evil a lowly salesman is made accountable for and found guilty of contributing the worst overall whereby he’s led under false pretenses through an intricate trap that twists his own twisted morality back on himself. Its thesis is that only an innocent child has the sincerity to discern right from wrong yet none other than an innocent child is the one society is most affected by upon those transgressing said laws. I also kinda see it as dismantling the yakuza genre through directly confronting us its audience.

     The allegory in Serpent’s Path is the nastiest sfuff to be put on camera is perpetrated by the one selling it. This hits so hard with me because I’ve often pondered the nature of how just thinking about that this kinda stuff exists what disturbs me more than the acts themselves is that someone would film it. I never even thought to consider the culpability of someone who sells it. Beyond disturbing I now gotta agree someone marketing finding a clientel for said offensive taboo criminal contraband materials is too scary. More than that the way the MIYASHITA character is depicted oblivious in denial that he’s even done anything wrong. The chilling part of it all is that addressing all this is real life.

 
But the fun of it all is Shô Aikawa as NÎJIMA. The first time I saw Serpent’s Path he felt like this symbolizing embodiment of justice. As in the faulty legal system indiscriminately punishing not necessarily those who committed the crime but close enough. Somebody’s gotta pay. 
     Obviously though the twist ending is set up the first lines in the movie. Are you sure it’s the guy? It doesn’t matter they’re all connected. Miyashita laughs. Then at the end to Miyashita you were all in the same business right? The idea of the serpent’s path could refer to this grand tragedy very moralizing inevitable cause and effect tale of Miyashita making the wrong choice and paying for it. And Niijima is charismatic cool icon of countless yakuza films as against type teacher detached aloof yet driven his dialogue so revealing when he says in answer to the reason he’s doing all this I just wanted to try something like this.
     Then there’s the great image system wheels of justice Niijima constantly spinning that chamber. Also you ever notice when theyr’e playing darts that gag hearing Otsuki moaning off screen suggests though he’s obviously not really like he’s getting hit with the darts. Like he’s part of their game. Which he is. Which it turns out everyone is. And another weird image system thing is every time I see this you can’t help but notice that table of arts and crafts in the math classroom with funerary wreaths being assembled. And finally definitely not funny how do I wash this out of my brain the filthy slide swing set and chair with stirrups in the abandoned warehouse is the uh stuff that nightmares are made of. 
 
Finally there’s the way Serpent’s Path deglamorizes the yakuza genre. Like how Miyashita is having so much fun thrilled bloodthirsty bent on revenge giddy until he’s not. Once Niijima and we know Niijima intricately planned this whole thing gets Miyashita to shoot someone he doesn’t think any of this is as fun anymore. Nor do we. He becomes just this pathetic wretch loser. We realize we’re into something more now.
     The coolest most effective memorable scene in Serpent’s Path is when Miyashita crashes the classroom and right when he’s lulled into thinking he’s going to get what he’s come after. His reward. And by thanking the teacher they’re like friends or something. Like his dignity is intact. Like he’s in a place he can appreciate the child prodigy and her goodness. But no. He can’t. When he’s confronted by her outside that shot. The way his whole demeanor changes. And the blaring overwhelming sound of the el train behind them drowns us until it cuts to silence. Kiyoshi Kurosawa again here manages to make him accountable for what he’s done. And us too.
 
4/5/2026 4/8/2026 Plaza Theatre
Atlanta, GA