Akira Kurosawa

[FlyingWindows]

I've been watching a lot of his films lately. Ikiru is my top favorite thus far.

I don't think there is a Kurosawa thread so I figured I'll start one.

[Dan Warburton]

A very fine idea. So, what do you have you say?

[FlyingWindows]

A very fine idea. So, what do you have you say?

I actually only own Ikiru.

So far I've seen other than Ikiru:

Rashomon
The Bad Sleep Well
High and Low
Dodesukaden
Dreams
Madadayo

I am planning on watching The Seven Samurai, Stray Dog, and Drunken Angel next.

[Jesse]

A world unto himself, Kurosawa.

But if you're taken with his work, check out some of Donald Richie's writings [he is sometimes on commentary tracks on Kurosawa, and some other Japanese directors', DVDs].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Richie

[FlyingWindows]

A world unto himself, Kurosawa.

But if you're taken with his work, check out some of Donald Richie's writings [he is sometimes on commentary tracks on Kurosawa, and some other Japanese directors', DVDs].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Richie

I checked out The Films of Akira Kurosawa from the library a while ago. I've been enjoying it.

[jpeatt]

I really loved the Bad Sleep Well.

I've been meaning to get around to some more of his non samurai material.

Ikiru is top of the list, any others I should make a priority?

[billygomberg]

I don't see Ran anywhere on this thread.

I've skipped (unintentionally) a lot of Kurosawa, but there is a lot of it. The "classic" samurai films are hard to beat, Toshirō Mifune even harder. Throne Of Blood , Yojimbo...take yr pick really.



For some reason High & Low never clicked w/me, what can I say.

[FlyingWindows]

I really loved the Bad Sleep Well.

I've been meaning to get around to some more of his non samurai material.

Ikiru is top of the list, any others I should make a priority?

High and Low, Rashomon, (it has a samurai character, but I'd hardly consider it a "samurai" film), Dodesukaden (Not as strong as his earlier black and white films, but I still think his first color film is interesting)

[Dohol]

Kurosawa was a master...and his influence in the West is immense, but I've always been astonished how low his reputation is in Japan..

[Sugartime]

I can only speak on Yojimbo: it's fantastic. It's comical and incisive, and it's got a bangin' score. Plus, Mifune is hard as nails. I would suggest watching it soon after (or soon before) A Fistful of Dollars. It's cool seeing how Sergio Leone adapted it to the lawless West (although Yojimbo was itself allegedly inspired by Westerns...what a strange circle).

[cheerios]

Dreams was great, a lot of cool imagery, the film segments were kind of like short stories, which was cool. There were a lot of neat quirks about it. A real visual feast. Recommended.

[ALAP Magazine]

I hosted a festival of Kurosawa films in my apartment a few years back -- we watched all of them (save for "Those Who Make Tomorrow," which was impossible to find, and was a directorial collaboration anyway) over the course of two very long weekends. An amazing experience. Based on my pressure-cooker approach to viewing, here were my thoughts a few days after it was all done.

Top 10:

1. Ikiru: Hard for much to top this. One of the most emotionally stunning films I've ever seen, and as Roger Ebert once said, "one of the few films that might actually make viewers want to change their lives." While most Kurosawa fanatics consider Mifune to be Kurosawa's best actor, I'm personally more drawn to his most-used actor, Takashi Shimura, and this is Exhibit A. The scene where Shimura's aged salaryman, realizing he has six months to live and unable to enjoy life, sings a song of his youth in a Japanese piano bar, his anguished face filling the entire frame, his voice croaking the youthful refrain ("Life is so short/fall in love while you can, dear maiden/while your lips are still red/and before you are cold/for there will be no tomorrow") is 100% guaranteed to choke me up every single time I see it from now until I die. Recommended unquestionably.

2. The Seven Samurai: I can think of no other three-and-a-half hour movie that I recommend to anyone and everyone. Not a wasted second in this thunderous epic. Everything works, all the time -- the action scenes were duplicated stylistically for generations, and the film's ability to boil down an unbelievable amount of backstory, exposition, and side-plots with ruthless efficiency make this a textbook for any aspiring filmmaker with an interest in going big. The recent 3DVD Criterion set is loaded to the gills with amazing full-length features about the film, the history of Japanese cinema, as well as three full-length commentaries and brilliant sound/picture.

3. Ran: Standing just a hair's width away from "Seven Samurai," this is a bit more ponderous and overwrought at times, but by design -- the Noh theatre elements are thick and constant in this adaptation of Lear. Just as they say no young man can play Lear, a younger Kurosawa couldn't have given this film the full measure of regret and sorrow that permeates all but maybe the first five minutes of this preposterously huge film. Full to bursting with indelible images...the burning of the king's castle, as the Lear character sits inside with a stupefied, glazed stare, burning arrows whizzing all around him; the death of Lady Kaede, possibly Kurosawa's most indelible female character (even usurping Lady MacBeth in "Throne of Blood," though certainly cut from the same cloth); the ginormous battle scenes, red and yellow-clad armies descending upon each other in fields of gore, accompanied by Takamitsu's brooding score. Even though Kurosawa kept making films after this, this is as appropriate a last shudder as you'd need to see from the man.

4. Red Beard: I think this film is horribly underrated! Again, it's three hours, and really only has one action shot to break up the film (it's right in the middle, exquisitely choreographed, and contains not a bit of catharsis or release). It's the story of an impetuous young doctor who is assigned to work in the poorest medical clinic out in the middle of nowhere. Expecting that he'd end up as a hotshot in some big city, the young doctor rebels at first, treating his mentor (a wizened Torshiro Mifune, at the end of his tenure as Kurosawa's primary actor) with contempt, but eventually understanding the quiet dignity of giving solace to people who might not really be able to be cured, only comforted. Three hours, slow, ponderous, but it unfolds like great literature, thoroughly absorbing, and it's impossible not to be invested in every character by the end. Lotta tears while watching this one -- bring a jumbo box of Kleenex.

5. Yojimbo: STYLE. STYLE. STYLE. STYLE. Great story, great action sequences, but man, this film oozes STYLE out of every pore! The swaggering Samurai, the swinging soundtrack, swathes of dark humor...like "Seven Samurai" this was a template for filmmakers in and out of Japan for decades! (later remade by Sergio Leone as "A Fistful of Dollars" and Walter Hill as "Last Man Standing")

6. Rashomon: Not sure what to say about this, other than it's perfect, a perpetual motion machine of moral ambiguity. The more you think about it, the more sticky the situation gets, and the more you wonder if there is any absolute truth in the story that happened.

7. Throne of Blood: A much more thuggish take on Shakespeare than "Ran," less ponderous and more aggressive in some ways. Probably one of the best film adaptations of Shakespeare you're likely to see in any language or from any country; it's no surprise that Kurosawa's primary loves and influences were Shakespeare, John Ford, and Noh Theater; all three are artists or art forms in which stories hinge on a moral crossroads. Great soundtrack, eerie set pieces, perfectly evoking the "steaming woodlands" of The Scottish Play in a feudal Japanese context.

8. Drunken Angel: If we were scoring just on "enjoyment" value, rather than importance of films, this would be a lot higher on the list. It's "just" a noir film, but man, is it ever an enjoyable noir! Mifune's debut with Kurosawa is a must-see performance, chewing the scenery as a tubercular street-ruffian seeking, and then pushing away, help from Takashi Shimura's gruff, alcoholic doctor (the "Drunken Angel" of the title). Deeply, highly recommended not just for the outstanding acting by both men, but also for the shots of post-war Japan (shot in 1946), the evocation of not only rebuilding, but a period where the Yakuza were coming back into power and most young people were either in a gang or running from one. A great fight scene near the end and an amazing dance sequence in the middle are just icing on the cake.

9. Stray Dog: As above, this would be higher for enjoyment value, even though it's "just" a detective film. Best evocation of a hot summer until "Do the Right Thing," and one of the most involved police chases ever, tracking the criminal through the streets of Tokyo, baseball stadiums, fields, all over the place. Something that could have been little more than a knock-em-out "cop drama" is a really sensitive and fully-realized character study about the poor, crime, and desperation. Drags a bit at times, but it's easy to get immersed in the slow progress.

10. High & Low: Another great "police procedural" with a difficult moral quandary at the beginning. A small businessman, just about to expand his shoe empire and sitting on a large pile of cash, discovers that his son has been kidnapped. He is, of course, unselfish about using the store's money (essentially bankrupting him) to get his son back, until the twist happens, and he discovers that the kidnapper, intending to kidnap his son, has actually kidnapped the son of his personal assistant, who can't pay the ransom. Are you still willing to fork over a half a million dollars for the life someone else's son? It's a heady film, and then, the second half abruptly switches to a detail-heavy police story in which the kidnapper is stalked by detectives. The final scene, in which the businessman and kidnapper confront each other before the kidnapper is sent to prison, is chilling. Recently re-re-released by Criterion, meaning I have to buy it again. Sigh.


Runners-up:

1. The Bad Sleep Well: I LOVE this film! A stinging indictment of corporate corruption and revenge, this was obviously written from the heart, and Kurosawa peppers the screenplay with all sorts of Monte Cristo-esque barbed moments. Frequently innovative film ideas abound...I could spend an entire email on this film, but time is short. The Criterion release is crisp and beautiful, and has a good commentary on the backstory. Doesn't make the top 10 due to excessive expository dialogue, but well worth a rent.

2. Kagemusha: Too often overlooked as being "just" a dry-run for "Ran," this is a fully-realized epic in its own right, dripping with color (as someone who resisted the use of color until 1970, this was still a new thing for Kurosawa), huge and impressive, with a gory AND heartbreaking finale that hammers its point home relentlessly. Tatsuya Nakadai (the kidnapper in "High and Low") plays both the emperor (who is slain partway through the film) and a peasant who looks just like the emperor, and who has to play the emperor so that the army will not know that their beloved leader has been killed. He fools his wife and his child, but ultimately, he cannot fool his horse. Like "Ran," things end badly for all concerned. (The Criterion DVD set is chock-a-block with great extras, including several Suntory whiskey ads Kurosawa made at this period to raise cash for the film, one of them with his then-buddy Francis Ford Coppola, who, with George Lucas, got the film financed and distributed in the U.S.)

3. Madadayo: Kurosawa's FINAL film, and a quiet, dignified coda to his whole career. It's about a college prof and his 30 year relationship with some of his students, who help him celebrate his birthday every year. The title means "not yet," and is a refrain throughout the film. Each year, the professor, surrounded by his favorite students, who yell out "is it time yet?" (as in, time to die) He drinks a huge glass of beer and yells "Madadayo!" ("Not yet!") As you can imagine, it ends with a very soft, sad, sweet ending, and a full half hour of the film is given over to the prof losing his beloved pet cat. A different side of Kurosawa than you might be used to, but still very recommended, especially if you decide to go on a Kurosawa bender and watch a ton of his films in one or two weekends.

4. I Live in Fear: None of Kurosawa's films where old men fear the atomic bomb ever get any play, but this one is the best! Mifune also gets the award for best/least intrusive "old man" makeup in any movie ever...it's really hard to tell that he's actually 40 years younger than the man he is playing! A great, overheated, almost hallucinatory account of nuclear winter panic that hasn't aged a bit.

5. Sanjuro: Only a half-step the lesser of Yojimbo, though not as full with character study or dramatic tension. "Sanjuro" is played for laughs, and again is stylish through and through, but that's fine...the comedy is FUNNY and the sword-slinging is even more over-the-top than in "Yojimbo." The finale: often imitated, never equalled.

I was going to go to eight (6. "Scandal," 7. "One Wonderful Sunday," 8. "No Regrets For Our Youth"), but this has gone on too long. You get the idea.

Also worth a rent/steram, if not a purchase: the recent Criterion boxset of Early Kurosawa. "Sanshiro Sugata" is an excellent kung-fu vs. judo pic and a hell of an assured debut for the young filmmaker. Awesome scenery. "The Most Beautiful" is intriguing, but a bit insubstantial; Sanshiro Sugata II is hilarious for its weird American boxer stereotypes, but not strictly "good": "The Men Who Step On the Tiger's Tail" is turgid Noh drama, but tidy in length (60 minutes). As someone who bought awful Chinese grey-market versions of all of these for the festival, I'm still grateful as hell that Criterion re-released them, less for the enhanced picture quality than for the improved subtitles! The versions I had looked like they had been run through several babelfish-style language translators (Japanese to Mandarin Chinese to English, possibly with a detour into the Slavic regions). No matter how green a director Kurosawa was, I can't imagine he ever meant his actors to say things like, "Doing this stupid could make the karate down!" or "Please laugh at our you age and stupid mind."

[Dan Warburton]

Awesome post - thanks for taking the time. And reminding me I should finally watch the DVD of Kagemusha that's been sitting on my shelf for about six months (not the Criterion, alas - would have liked to check out those commercials). Damn.