Kurosawa's Ran

[Particle_Man]

K's "The Hidden Fortress" is also worth a look. It is said to be an inspiration for Star Wars.

But I have never seen a K film that I did not like. Check out all of them, if you can. "The Bad Sleep Well", "High and Low", and other "modern" ones are great too.

 

[Celtavian]

re

If at all possible, try and catch it on the big screen.

And then check out Yojimbo. Its a much smaller scale film, but Toshio Mifune plays just about the coolest tough-guy samurai ever.

So far I've seen Yojimbo, Kagemusha, Sanjuro, and The Seven Samurai. All very cool films.

I always like to look for Kurosawa films in the foreign section of the video store everytime I go.

 

[trilobite]

Kagemusha would be a great idea for a D&D adventure. Have one of the PC's look just like the local lord who has just died. The advisers to the lord don't want the word of his death public until a vital negoiations are over. So they hire the PC to impersonate the Lord.

 

[Mallus]

So far I've seen Yojimbo, Kagemusha, Sanjuro, and The Seven Samurai.

How's Sanjuro? Its a direct sequel to Yojimbo, isn't it?

 

[Benben]

Great pic trilobite.

If you didn't know already, Mifune's experession there is so good because Kurosawa was having real arrows fired at him. According to an old film professon of mine, Kurosawa didn't like the special effect tricks of having the arrows appear so close to Mifune, so he hired a bunch of master archers to fire at his actor.

 

[trilobite]

How's Sanjuro? Its a direct sequel to Yojimbo, isn't it?

I don't know if you could call it a direct sequel. Yojimbo and Sanjuro have the same main character but other than that there is no direct connection. Same character different situation and story.

Personally, I really like Sanjuro. It's tone is alittle lighter than Yojimbo but it is still a great samurai flick.

 

[Macbeth]

Seven Samurai is THE film to see. Somehow he manages to make a relatively small scale conflict into an epic story. just plain awesom.

 

[Particle_Man]

Is it just me or does one of the bad guys in Yojimbo/Sanjuro (the really really CRAZY brother in Yojimbo) look like an evil Elvis?

 

[jdavis]

I never miss a chance to see one of his movies, of course being that I live in small town USA there are not all that many chances to see his movies.

 

[barsoomcore]

Kurosawa is no question, THE great film director. Nobody else maintained that kind of level of quality over that many movies.

That said, Ran for me was a bit of a disappointment last time I watched it. I saw it in the theatre when it first came out and felt like a 2x4 had just clopped me over the head. I was utterly devastated by the film. But seeing it recently, I felt that it pretty much fell apart after the big battle at the castle. The final third of the film just didn't have much tension to move it along.

On a semi-related note:

The guy who taught me swordsmanship is the guy who taught Toshiro Mifune. Sugino Yoshio -- his name appears in the credits to Seven Samura as swordfight choreographer. He died a few years ago, but I surely do consider myself blessed to have had such a teacher.

And yes, Mifune was having real arrows fired at him. Apparently he hated it, so Kurosawa did it to him in every movie. By the time I saw studying at the dojo, Mifune had grown too senile to make public appearances but apparently he'd continued coming to the dojo long after he'd stopped playing samurai. And apparently he was just as cool in real life.