What Kurosawa Films???

[War Writer]

We all know that Kurosawa master piece was 'Seven Samurai'; but what other films should we know about the great director; I remeber he did a few films in the 80's and early 90's; what were they???

In my opinion another film in which should be shown is 'Yojimbo' a film in which is the idea for the brillant 'A fistful of Dollars' staring Clint Eastwood.

What's your choice???

War Writer. http://www.plauder-smilies.de/wavey.gif

[Zen Blade]

Kagemusha and Ran were his two big "color" epics. They were made during the 80's (I believe).

There is also... Hidden Fortress... and... the one about one tale, told from 3 different perspectives, and then a final, "true" perspective....

He has a lot of non-samurai movies. Not sure if you are interested in those.

I know I have forgotten some, but those are some of the best. (especially Ran)

-Zen Blade

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Zen Blade Asai
Red Devil
Last of the RSG
Clan Tenki Council-Unity

[ShaiHulud]

War Writer... Ever see Bruce Willis in 'Last Man Standing'? It's the same thing, a Yojimbo copy.

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Wind fells blossoms, rain
fells steel,yet bamboo bends and drinks

[War Writer]

Did any of you ever see 'The Jackel' starring Bruce Willis; which was a re-make of the 60's version of 'Day of the Jackel', it was so bad. Sorry; can't understand why I brought that up; I mean the topic on day of the Jackel. Sorry; on with the topic.

[HattoriKun]

Kurosawa's last film Ame Agaru (Rain Ends or After the Rain) was great. It was released in many European countries but for some reason, not in the U.S. I saw it on a JAL flight to Japan last year.

[hecose]

Zen_Blade, You are probably referring to Roshomon (spelling?), the movie which talks about one tale from 3 different perspectives, and then finally the true perspective. It's about how a bandit killed a man in order to get his beautiful wife, right?

[The Daimyo]

Here's the list of ihs films. Each worthy of a watching:

1. Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
2. The Most Beautiful (1944)
3. Sanshiro Sugata--Part Two
4. They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail (1945)
5. Those Who Make Tomorrow (1946)
6. No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
7. One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
8. Drunken Angel (1948)
9. The Quiet Duel (1949)
10. Stray Dog (1949)
11. Scandal (1950)
12. Rashomon (1950)
13. The Idiot (1951)
14. Ikiru (1952)
15. Seven Samurai (1953)
16. Record of a Living Being (1955)
17. The Throne of Blood (1957)
18. The Lower Depths (1957)
19. The Hidden Fortress (1958)
20. The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
21. Yojimbo ( 1961)
22. Sanjuro (1962)
23. High and Low (1963)
24. Red Beard (1965)
25. Dodesukaden (1970)
26. Dersu Uzala (1975)
27. Kagemusha (1980)
28. Ran (1985)
29. Dreams (1990)
30. Rhapsody in August (1991)
31. Madadayo (1993)

And there might be a few others...
I'll see if I can dig them up, but I doubt you'll find them anywhere..

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The Daimyo
Miaowara "Kakizaki" Tomokato
@ http://www.planettotalwar.com

[Takeda Shingen]

I enjoy Ran and Kagemusha myself but Seven Samurai is great.When i first saw Seven Samurai i was emotionaly drained i had a great time watching it.Also even though it's not a Kurosawa film was Heaven and Earth i liked it because it had Takeda Shingen in it.

Michael

[War Writer]

I'll check some of these out; thanks people!

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[This message has been edited by War Writer (edited 04-17-2001).]

[Minagawa Daimon]

yep ran and kagemusha are 2 thumbs up, but for non kurosawa films, heaven and earth is great too

[War Writer]

I was checking the films posted and I'm mostly looking for Samurai Films, many in which starred one of my favourite actors 'Toshiro Mifune'; Are there any other good Samurai films out; please don't say 'Ghost Dog' or 'American Samurai'.

[Ii Naomasa]

Not a Kurosawa picture and barely a Mifune picture (although he, as usual, does own the few scenes he's in) Chushingura, a retelling of the Tale of the 47 Ronin is a pretty good, if somewhat long and drawn out, color samurai film. It's not an overly intense action samurai film by any stretch, but it's interesting for that fact alone. You see a bit of the political maneuvering that samurai did during the Tokugawa Shogunate and see some of the more 'normal' activities. It also has a well done seppuku scene, tastefully shifting away just as the deed was about to be done. It just recently came out on DVD, so it's been readily available at most stores here in America.

In addition to the afforementioned Kurosawa films (Seven Samurai, Ran, Kagemusha, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro being my favorite ones), the Samurai Trilogy, based around Yoshikawa's Musashi series, is a good series (not Kurosawa quality, but good) staring Mifune as Miyamoto Musashi. It's a duel/learning series, not a war series, but is definitely a samurai series. These are also fairly easy to get your hands on.

Hopefully that starts you down a path of good, easy to obtain samurai films.
Mifune's in a lot of decent to good samurai films...unfortunately, they're not the easiest to come across. The Hidden Fortress comes out in a Criterion Collection DVD around the end of May, though, so hopefully we're see more Mifune/Kurosawa film (both together and separately) more readily available soon.

[War Writer]

I enjoyed The Hidden Fortress; it was on Film Four over here a few months back; especially at the beginning of the film you could notice how George Lucas got his ideas for the Star Wars trilogy; especially C-3Pon and R2-D2. It's worth watching if now one hasn't seen it yet!

I'll checkout the others, see if I can get them over here!

[This message has been edited by War Writer (edited 04-17-2001).]

[The Daimyo]

Half of those pics I listed are Samurai related flicks. I advise you go to a website like Buy.com,, Blockbuster.com, Movieline.com, etc. and search for the movies you want. You can usually find all the info you need in about 10 minutes if you're any good at searching.
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The Daimyo
Miaowara "Kakizaki" Tomokato
@ http://www.planettotalwar.com

[War Writer]

I checked all of them on the internet movie database; some were business type of things really! But I check out Ran!

[The Daimyo]

Here, find these and you'll be happy:

9. The Quiet Duel (1949)
17. The Throne of Blood (1957)
19. The Hidden Fortress (1958)
21. Yojimbo ( 1961)
22. Sanjuro (1962)
24. Red Beard (1965)
27. Kagemusha (1980)
28. Ran (1985)
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The Daimyo
Miaowara "Kakizaki" Tomokato
@ http://www.planettotalwar.com

[The Daimyo]

Here's another great Japanese movie director who made many great Samurai flicks, given is the link to a great database full of information on everything you'd like to see:
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Inagaki,+Hiroshi

There's a boatload of great movies credited to him there.
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The Daimyo
Miaowara "Kakizaki" Tomokato
@ http://www.planettotalwar.com

[War Writer]

Interesting! I'll check some of them out!

[Ii Naomasa]

Aye. Hiroshi Inagaki is the man behind the three Miyamoto Musashi movies starring Toshiro Mifune (the 'Samurai' series, as its known in the West) and Chushingura, the 47 Ronin Story. His work doesn't have the unique cinematography of Kurosawa (in fact, it almost has more of a theatrical feel), but it usually is filled with colorful imagery.

[Idaho]

Saw a really good one the other day on Channel 4 called... er.. Oni Baba. That translates as 'Demon Bitch/Hag'. although C4 translated it a bit softer. It was B&W and made in the 50s. Top film.

[Hyu Ryuzoji]

Hmm..then who made the animation movie 'AKIRA'? :P

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Hyu Ryuzoji
Daimyo of Musha
ironhound@hotmail.com

[Ii Naomasa]

Akira was directed by Katsuhiro Ôtomo, who also helped Izou Hashimoto write it.

I would heartily recommend the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) for trying to find what movies are done by what directors and narrowing down which ones are about what you want to see. As The Daimyo has shown, IMDB is the most extensive cross-reference source for movie related information. If you liked the actor who played the leader of the Seven Samurai, for example, you can look up the Seven Samurai, then click on Takashi Shimura's name for a filmography. It's well worth a look if you've never been there.