Kurosawa, 100

March 23, 2010 8:16 PM

On March 23, 1910, Akira Kurosawa was born. Questionable as lists may be, some great trailers and snippets are here. At least in the UK, he even got a Google doodle.
posted by ambient2 (25 comments total)

Nice Kurosawa is one of my favorite directors.
posted by Dick Laurent is Dead at 8:18 PM on March 23, 2010

None, Nice Kurosawa, are you blind?
posted by Dumsnill at 8:27 PM on March 23, 2010

would explain all of his great films being on Turner Classic Movies tonight.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:29 PM on March 23, 2010

My favorite Kurosawa, which the Guardian left off their list: High and Low*

IMDB page.

*all 3 of these trailers are a good watch
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:37 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

There are conflicting reports about the circumstances of his birth.
posted by The Whelk at 8:38 PM on March 23, 2010

> Akira.

TETSUO!!!
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:46 PM on March 23, 2010 [3 favorites]

TCM is running a bunch of his movies every tuesday this month, including several new favorites of mine like his adaptation of "The Idiot"
posted by victors at 8:47 PM on March 23, 2010

There are conflicting reports about the circumstances of his birth.

Nevertheless, the smart money's on his not being the son of God.
posted by kenko at 8:50 PM on March 23, 2010

There are conflicting reports about the circumstances of his birth.

Nevertheless, the smart money's on his not being the son of God.

It's on his being God himself.
posted by sallybrown at 8:55 PM on March 23, 2010

I love Ikiru to a degree that is unreasonable. That is all I have to say on this subject.
posted by davejay at 9:09 PM on March 23, 2010

Think this has been mentioned before - great stuff, nevertheless.
posted by deacon_blues at 9:14 PM on March 23, 2010

I'm watching one of his movies on TCM right now.

Overrated. This is clearly a direct ripoff of The Magnificent Seven.
posted by Bonzai at 9:23 PM on March 23, 2010 [7 favorites]

I love High and Low to a degree that is entirely reasonable. Because it's frikkin' brilliant.

Also, I was just watching Sanjuro tonight, unaware of the anniversary. I love the part where Toshiro Mifune says he'll be shichijuro by the time they get their heads out of their asses. And who could resist the charms of the blood explosion?
posted by clockzero at 9:40 PM on March 23, 2010

Plus Yojimbo totally ripped off A Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing.

Seriously though, it's hard to find a movie that he filmed that wasn't at least good, if not great.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:02 PM on March 23, 2010

Ran helped brake me of my hatred for Shakespeare.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 10:04 PM on March 23, 2010

The Stanford Theater in Palo Alto is having a Kurosawa festival.
posted by neuron at 10:05 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

FWIW, Yojimbo rips off Dashiell Hammet's Red Harvest, though as the article points out, Kurosawa admitted to being influenced more by Hammet's The Glass Key, which shares many similarities with Red Harvest.

In any case, if you ever get a chance, check out Dodes'ka-den. It was critical and financial flop, but the more I watch it, the more I feel like it's the movie closest to Kurosawa the man.
posted by KingEdRa at 10:51 PM on March 23, 2010

Dude. Seriously. Seven Samurai isn't a ripoff of Magnificent Seven. It's a ripoff of a Bugs Life.
posted by filmgeek at 5:12 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

"It's not a silk festival. It's a corpse festival."
posted by jquinby at 6:32 AM on March 24, 2010

In any case, if you ever get a chance, check out Dodes'ka-den. It was critical and financial flop, but the more I watch it, the more I feel like it's the movie closest to Kurosawa the man.
posted by KingEdRa at 1:51 AM on March 24 [+] [!]

and was, apparently (along with the loss of directorship on Tora Tora Tora), one contributor to his 1971 suicide attempts. after that episode, Kurosawa spent the next four years working on Dersu Urzala, and then returned to large scale historical epics with Kagemusha and Ran.

Dan Harper notes that Dodeskaden had failed so completely that Kurosawa was unable to secure financing in Japan, so that Dersu Urzala had to be financed and filmed in Russia, and Kagemusha was financed with help by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:35 AM on March 24, 2010

If I'd known this a bit sooner I would have fallen asleep last night watching Seven Samurai, or maybe Dreams. Kurosawa would be my favorite director even if there weren't so much amazing interplay between his movies and so many others.
posted by doteatop at 7:58 AM on March 24, 2010

Ran is great, but Throne of Blood is sublime.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:46 AM on March 24, 2010

would explain all of his great films being on Turner Classic Movies tonight.

Actually, many of his films have been showing on TCM all month long. There's a longer stretch of them tonight, but the embarrassment of riches is such that it's almost overwhelming. I've DVRed "Ikiru," but have missed most of the others.

お誕生日おめでとう
posted by blucevalo at 10:16 AM on March 24, 2010

I've been on a huge Kurosawa kick for the past few months. I've seen 18 so far. The only one I didn't love more than any other movie ever was Kagamusha.
posted by hopeless romantique at 12:03 PM on March 24, 2010

All the trailers are really good watch
posted by Taylor1976 at 8:06 AM on April 17, 2010