Akira Kurosawa 100th Anniversary

**chaouki** · 03-23-2010, 17:53

Originally Posted by Asai Nagamasa

Hello chaouki and welcome,
Throne of Blood is one of my favourite Akira Kurosawa films. It is actually an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth (as Ran is an adapation of King Lear) and pulls it off brilliantly. If you liked Throne of Blood you should definitely see Ran also.

yo thx everyone for the warm welcome :)

back in school some years ago we watched roman polanski's adaption of "macbeth" after reading the play, but i like kurosawas much more

and now as you mention it...i have seen "ran" couple of years ago, back then i bought it after watching "last samurai" because i thought it would be another samurai film with nice fighting scenes. when watching it i grew a bit frustrated because it was such different than expected, much more theatre play than movie play, but still liked it. i didn't know at all of kurosawa (actually not until i stumbled across the kurosawa-film-thread here which is why i went to borrow "throne of blood" in library).
hm i'll have to search in my dvd-collection for "ran" and get rid of my girlfriend for tonight to be able to watch it once again :D

one of the films i'm desperatly waiting for to watch is "seven samurai", always wondered what it was since seeing it up there in imdb's top 250

washizu's wife is just creepy

**caravel** · 03-23-2010, 18:09

Originally Posted by chaouki

and now as you mention it...i have seen "ran" couple of years ago, back then i bought it after watching "last samurai" because i thought it would be another samurai film with nice fighting scenes. when watching it i grew a bit frustrated because it was such different than expected, much more theatre play than movie play, but still liked it.

Kurosawa's films have never been about swordplay and fights etc, but I see your point.

Originally Posted by chaouki

one of the films i'm desperatly waiting for to watch is "seven samurai", always wondered what it was since seeing it up there in imdb's top 250

A true Kurosawa epic, try to get the full unabridged version.

Also have a look at Yojimbo, Sanjuro and The Hidden Fortress.

Watch out for the dodgy pirate versions of Kurosawa movies sold on ebay (usually from China). Many of them have poorly translated subtitles, bad sound/picture quality and are not worth the money no matter how tempting they may seem.

I have several of the BFI (British Film Institute) editions and they are very good all round (If you can get them in your country).

**gollum** · 03-23-2010, 18:09

RAN is indeed very theatrical. So much so, that i have heard it as a criticism many times. I think it was consciously shot as such. A lot of the feeling is provided by the performance of tatsuya nakadai (the protagonist) himself, although most certainly that's how AK wanted him to act it out. Yet other actors in teh film are less theatrical with the exception of the "fool" and the blind tsurumaru. My favorite performance though is of the vengeful kaede - especially in the scene that she blackmails jiro by making him admit at knifepoint that he killed his brother. Very powerful performance.

The battle action however at the end of the film is amazing, and as i said before, it must have given great inspiration for the development of STW. The tide of the battle is dynamic, almost wave like and i think STW makes an absolutely great job at reproducing that. Those scenes were shot in Kyushu, unlike the rest of the film that was shot in the slopes and the vicinity of Mount Fuji (including the dramatic landscapes of teh opening). There is in the spot now a small museum that is dedicated to the film and to AK himself.

**A Nerd** · 03-23-2010, 20:06

His movies are indeed brilliant. My favorite samurai epic is probably '7 Samurai'. 'Dreams' is also very entertaining, though I think it lacks Samurai. I love the part where the officer meets his lost platoon in the dark tunnel sequence the best!

**Togakure** · 03-23-2010, 20:22

I noticed a channel on cable playing a lot of Kurosawa movies recently; this must be why. Cheers to one of the greats. I have most of his stuff on DVD and enjoy them often.

**gollum** · 03-24-2010, 02:33

"Dreams" is indeed really good as is "Rapsody in August". AK made a number of other films that were not period dramas. Most of these are indeed excellent.

These include "Drunken Angel", "The bad sleep well" and "i live in fear", "Dersu Urzala" as well as his final piece "madadayo".

His greatest flop "dodeskaden" is regarded as the one of his films not really worth it, although the very fact makes me really curious to see it. It estranged him from japanese studios and also took a toll on him personally as it resulted in a suicide attempt and several years of depression and inactivity.

**Togakure** · 03-24-2010, 21:55

They played Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Dodeskaden last night on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in tribute to AK. Dodeskaden was weird; couldn't really get into it.