Akira Kurosawa

[menschenjaeger]

Ikuru, Rashomon and High and Low are must-see's

You pretty much can't go wrong with Kurosawa, though. The ending of Throne of Blood is O_O

[CommanderJoe]

Yes. Throne of Blood's final scene is magnificent and taking into account that those are real arrows being shot by a high school kyudo team is scary and thrilling at the same time. That may account for the look of fear on Mifune's face.

The arrows were hollow of course, but still capable of inflicting damage.


I used to be a sherriff and then I passed my literacy test.

[Arbok]

Ikuru, Rashomon and High and Low are must-see's

Good list, assuming the person has already seen Seven Samurai. I would add in Yojimbo as well, as it pretty much defined a genre of the more comedic action movies that are so popular today.

I'm not as big of a fan of Kurosawa's more modern films, but Ran also tends to be associated as one of the director's best.

[Killswitch]

Yojimbo is a great film. I'm actually surprised Lucas hasn't used that idea for an episode of Clone Wars. A Jedi would be great in that role.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

Yojimbo is a great film. I'm actually surprised Lucas hasn't used that idea for an episode of Clone Wars. A Jedi would be great in that role.

Yojimbo has already been redone in so many different ways, that I'm not surprised George Lucas hasn't used the film. Yojimbo has kind of been done to death.

Also, seeing how Lucas said he quits, I don't think he'll ever use it.

[Legionmaster]

Yojimbo is a great film. I'm actually surprised Lucas hasn't used that idea for an episode of Clone Wars. A Jedi would be great in that role.

He did a Seven Samurai episode in season 2.

[Hellspawn28]

I can't believe that I have not post in this thread yet? I love Kurosawa and I think he is a amazing director. I haven't seen all of his films but I really love Seven Samurai and Rashomon. Dreams is the least favorite that he directed but I thought it was a alright film.

[CommanderJoe]

Speaking of High and Low, I just finished reading Ed McBains Kings Ransom which is, of course, the basis for the film. The first 10 minutes of the film are virtually lifted verbatim from the novel. And then everything changes. Read the book if you get the chance. Its excellent and gives you a nice counterpoint to Kurosawa's masterful adaptation.

[The H-Man]

Seen and enjoyed several of his movies: Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, Ran, Yojimbo among others. I''ve always wanted to watch Hidden Fortress, because it was one of the inspirations for the original Star Wars.

[CommanderJoe]

Hidden Fortress was the first DVD I ever purchased. Magnificent film, and a lot of fun to boot.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Speaking of High and Low, I just finished reading Ed McBains Kings Ransom which is, of course, the basis for the film. The first 10 minutes of the film are virtually lifted verbatim from the novel. And then everything changes. Read the book if you get the chance. Its excellent and gives you a nice counterpoint to Kurosawa's masterful adaptation.

Agreed. McBain's work is generally excellent.

[Wrinkledlion X]

Stray Dog is a favorite of mine. At the end of the movie, you actually get to see Toshiro Mifune chase down Ishiro Honda. Absolutely amazing scene, and a little funny knowing who he is in retrospect.

[Arbok]

The best thing about Kurosawa is the breadth of genres he covered. While I don't love all of his films, he did Samurai, Crime, Drama and more very well. Still the country's best director, and I don't see anyone surpassing him in that regard.

[eabaker]

Wow, this thread has been sitting silent so long, I never even knew it existed, and I am a massive Kurosawa fan.

When I was a kid, I thought I wanted to be an actor, and would often make my friends act with me in plays and short films. As I got a little older, I realized that I was more interested in telling the stories than in acting, and got it into my head that I wanted to be a screenwriter.

Then, early in high school, I saw Rashomon, and for the first time the confluence of elements that make up a film really clicked for me. I suddenly saw just how well script, performance, photography, editing, and music could merge together to create something so much greater than the sum of its parts.

And then I knew I wanted to be a director.

Rashomon did a great deal to set the course for the rest of my life, and yet it was only the beginning of my journey of discovery through the films of Akira Kurosawa. A remarkable man, and a remarkable storyteller.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Kurosawa is the greatest pulp fiction director of his generation. He took "genres of ill-repute," cloaked them in disarmingly art-house trappings, and set them loose on an unsuspecting world of film elitists. What really draws me to him is that he doesn't take crime or chanbara films and subvert them for effect, he works WITH their archetypal strengths to tell a scalpel-precise story in the most entertaining fashion possible. Rashomon could have been shot as a gimmicky B-crime picture, which would have fit like a glove given the number of Rashomon-like stories that exist in mystery fiction. Instead, Kurosawa takes a old idea and infuses it with vitality and a keen sense of style that shove it into the realm of masterpieces.

Of course, this isn't to diminish Ikiru or I Live in Fear, or any of his "safer" highbrow projects. Just as he infuses pulp with art, he brings entertainment and vigor to the most sober of subjects. Kurosawa was the definition of universal, appropriating whatever aspects of high art and popular culture he saw fit, and unifying them in such a way that viewers realize such distinctions are arbitrary nonsense. It's all our culture, and it should be treated as such.

I do have one gripe with Kurosawa, however. He never adapted Titus Andronicus as a samurai gangster western, and for that I shall never forgive him.

[eabaker]

^I always thought a Kurosawa version of Julius Caesar would have been pretty brilliant, but, then, I'm always trying to think of new genres to fit that story into.

[godzilla98rules]

Well, Seven Samurai finally came in from Netflix, so now I'll get to see it for the first time!

[eabaker]

Seven Samurai is showing at a theater in Santa Monica in a few weeks. I'm super excited! I think this will only be my fifth time seeing an actual film 35mm print of a Kurosawa flick.

[Gawdziller]

I just bought Seven Samurai on Blu-ray, something I've been meaning to do for a while.

Oddly what pushed me was the order included the new Twilight movie, which I wanted to pair up with the Rifftrax being released tomorrow. I kept thinking "I need to balance this out somehow...KUROSAWA please save me from my guilt."

Now I have a great film. While it doesnt justify the pile of ass that came with it, it eased the blow.

[eabaker]

I just bought Seven Samurai on Blu-ray, something I've been meaning to do for a while.

Oddly what pushed me was the order included the new Twilight movie, which I wanted to pair up with the Rifftrax being released tomorrow. I kept thinking "I need to balance this out somehow...KUROSAWA please save me from my guilt."

Now I have a great film. While it doesnt justify the pile of ass that came with it, it eased the blow.

I always love buying totally mismatched titles in stores, because I get to see the clerk trying to puzzle out what kind of person is buys Jules and Jim and Killer Tomatoes Eat France together (other than a very strange francophile, I guess...).