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Kurosawa's Ran
- Thread starter RangerWickett
- Start date
I just watched Seven Samurai and Yojimbo for the first time this past week. Turner Classic Movies had a bit of a marathon going on the day after Thanksgiving; my wife happened to notice it on the TV Guide channel and let me know (I've been wanting to see Seven Samurai for years), so I popped in a tape and recorded them. (We had family over, visiting from two states away, so I couldn't just ignore them to watch TV.) There were two others on after that (one was Throne of Blood, I don't recall what the other was), and had I had another VHS tape available (or more heads-up time to go get one) I'd have taped them as well.
I've seen Kagemusha before and enjoyed it as well. And I read the entire thousand-plus-page Musashi novel (English translation) in one week a couple of years ago. Another masterpiece.
I think Seven Samurai is my favorite of the samurai films so far. One of these days I'll have to sit through The Magnificent Seven just so I can compare them. (Westerns generally aren't my thing, but I think I'd make an exception to see this one.)
Johnathan
I've seen Kagemusha before and enjoyed it as well. And I read the entire thousand-plus-page Musashi novel (English translation) in one week a couple of years ago. Another masterpiece.
I think Seven Samurai is my favorite of the samurai films so far. One of these days I'll have to sit through The Magnificent Seven just so I can compare them. (Westerns generally aren't my thing, but I think I'd make an exception to see this one.)
Johnathan
Byrons_Ghost
First Post
Anyone looking to catch these movies should start checking cable listings. IFC has been doing "Samurai Saturdays" for a while now, I've seen Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Hidden Fortress and Throne of Blood on those days. TCM has also started showing some.
I think all of this is due to the Kill Bill/Last Samurai Hollywood hype, but you don't hear me complaining. Most of them are letterboxed, as well. It's definately the bee's knees.
I think all of this is due to the Kill Bill/Last Samurai Hollywood hype, but you don't hear me complaining. Most of them are letterboxed, as well. It's definately the bee's knees.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Can't believe no one has mentioned Kurosawa's two greatest movies yet: Rashomon and Ikiru.
Rashomon is set in the samurai times, but doesn't involve big battles. But it can still be useful for gamers. There is sequence in it during a trial in which a dead person's spirit is contacted and testifies. Good example for a Speak with Dead spell.
Rashomon is set in the samurai times, but doesn't involve big battles. But it can still be useful for gamers. There is sequence in it during a trial in which a dead person's spirit is contacted and testifies. Good example for a Speak with Dead spell.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Rashomon also has some of the most realistic swordfights ever filmed. Swordfights between people who are afraid and don't want to die.
Though my favourite Kurosawa fight is the spear fight between Mifune and Takashi Shimura in The Hidden Fortress.
And Ikiru is possibly the greatest film of all time.
Though my favourite Kurosawa fight is the spear fight between Mifune and Takashi Shimura in The Hidden Fortress.
And Ikiru is possibly the greatest film of all time.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
I would venture that Ikiru ("To Live") is Kurosawa's best little-known work (as compared to his more famous movies). It's a modern-day film, and has no sword-fighting or other real action sequences. Rather, it's a heartwarming but at the same time sad piece about a man who realizes he only has a little time left to live, and has to decide how to spend his remaining few months. It's really a masterpiece.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Hear, hear. Oscar? Who he?
shilsen
Adventurer
*Philistine wanders into thread, wearing foul-smelling skins and dragging a club*
..duh...Oog see little Kurosawa one time...Oog think (scratches head for a bit) it be Yo-jeem-bow...but Oog forget...movie put Oog to sleep...Oog think Kurosawa suck...(scratches head again)...maybe Oog just stupid...Oog go look for more Kurosawa and try stay awake...
*wanders off while picking and eating his own lice*
..duh...Oog see little Kurosawa one time...Oog think (scratches head for a bit) it be Yo-jeem-bow...but Oog forget...movie put Oog to sleep...Oog think Kurosawa suck...(scratches head again)...maybe Oog just stupid...Oog go look for more Kurosawa and try stay awake...
*wanders off while picking and eating his own lice*
WizarDru
Adventurer
I've never met a Kurosawa film I didn't like. I recently saw The Seven Samurai in a new, digitally restored print with new subtitles at one of the theaters here in town, and it was a joy. The theater was running a Kurosawa/Mifune retrospective, and had shown quite possibly my favorite Kurosawa film, Yojimbo, earlier in the day.
Kurosawa was such a massive influence on modern filmmaking, it's astounding. The Hidden Fortress isn't 'said to be' an inspiration for Star Wars by just anyone, it's said that by George Lucas. He and Speilberg are directly responsible for some of Kurosawa's films beings made in the 80's and 90's. It's hard to believe now, but there was a time when Kurosawa was more popular in the U.S. than Japan, and more popular for his work in the 50s than in the 60/70s. A flim like Dodeskaden, for example, went virtually ignored when it was released (and is still relatively obscure, comparatively speaking).
Ikiru ("To Live") and Rashomon, are considered masterpieces on the same list as Citizen Kane...a landmark movie that many consider one of the best ever filmed. Directors like Scorcese, Lucas, Spielberg, Coppolla and others directly cite it and other Kurosawa works as references. High and Low and Stray Dog show more modern works (for which Kurosawa is less well known in the US and elsewhere) that give gripping intensity and biting social commentary.
Many of his films have been remade, to varying degrees of success. Clint Eastwood's "man with no name" westerns are a direct take on the Yojimbo character, with For a Few Dollars More being the Yojimbo remake itself (although that's not meant to say that Eastwood and Leone didn't bring their own talent to bear...compare and contrast with Walter Hill's Last Man Standing, another Yojimbo grab). The Magnificent Seven is the remake of the Seven Samurai, The Outrage is the remake of Rashomon and The Hidden Fortress lends inspiration to a good chunk of Star Wars.
Rashomon is often cited as a reason that the Best Foreign Film Oscar was created. A tale told four times, but each time from a different perspective. A woman is raped by a bandit in the forest, there is a fight and a murder. Or....is that how it actually happens? The same story told from a different character's perspective, Rashomon was wildly different when it hit the screen in 1950, questioning the nature of truth and perception.
I freely admit that Ran put me to sleep the first time I watched it on VHS on a tiny TV in my dorm room, many years ago (...and hey, I was tired). But thanks to the wonders of wide-screen TV and DVDs, I would later be able to appreciate it...the use of color and spectacle, the visual subtext. The Seven Samurai is long, too, but as someone mentions above, Kurosawa takes a battle between seven swordsmen and a few dozen peasants against a few dozen bandits, and makes it a battle of epic scope. Few films present war as a such a dirty, but necessary, business. And where Ran interpets Shakespeare in glorious color, Throne of Blood shows the genius and power of Black and White for the old bard (and is a film I actually prefer to Ran, in the spooky, otherworldly feel it presents).
So, yeah, I like Kurosawa.
Kurosawa was such a massive influence on modern filmmaking, it's astounding. The Hidden Fortress isn't 'said to be' an inspiration for Star Wars by just anyone, it's said that by George Lucas. He and Speilberg are directly responsible for some of Kurosawa's films beings made in the 80's and 90's. It's hard to believe now, but there was a time when Kurosawa was more popular in the U.S. than Japan, and more popular for his work in the 50s than in the 60/70s. A flim like Dodeskaden, for example, went virtually ignored when it was released (and is still relatively obscure, comparatively speaking).
Ikiru ("To Live") and Rashomon, are considered masterpieces on the same list as Citizen Kane...a landmark movie that many consider one of the best ever filmed. Directors like Scorcese, Lucas, Spielberg, Coppolla and others directly cite it and other Kurosawa works as references. High and Low and Stray Dog show more modern works (for which Kurosawa is less well known in the US and elsewhere) that give gripping intensity and biting social commentary.
Many of his films have been remade, to varying degrees of success. Clint Eastwood's "man with no name" westerns are a direct take on the Yojimbo character, with For a Few Dollars More being the Yojimbo remake itself (although that's not meant to say that Eastwood and Leone didn't bring their own talent to bear...compare and contrast with Walter Hill's Last Man Standing, another Yojimbo grab). The Magnificent Seven is the remake of the Seven Samurai, The Outrage is the remake of Rashomon and The Hidden Fortress lends inspiration to a good chunk of Star Wars.
Rashomon is often cited as a reason that the Best Foreign Film Oscar was created. A tale told four times, but each time from a different perspective. A woman is raped by a bandit in the forest, there is a fight and a murder. Or....is that how it actually happens? The same story told from a different character's perspective, Rashomon was wildly different when it hit the screen in 1950, questioning the nature of truth and perception.
I freely admit that Ran put me to sleep the first time I watched it on VHS on a tiny TV in my dorm room, many years ago (...and hey, I was tired). But thanks to the wonders of wide-screen TV and DVDs, I would later be able to appreciate it...the use of color and spectacle, the visual subtext. The Seven Samurai is long, too, but as someone mentions above, Kurosawa takes a battle between seven swordsmen and a few dozen peasants against a few dozen bandits, and makes it a battle of epic scope. Few films present war as a such a dirty, but necessary, business. And where Ran interpets Shakespeare in glorious color, Throne of Blood shows the genius and power of Black and White for the old bard (and is a film I actually prefer to Ran, in the spooky, otherworldly feel it presents).
So, yeah, I like Kurosawa.
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