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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1260579" data-attributes="member: 151">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. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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