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1.Rashomon starring: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki directed by: Akira Kurosawa August 14, 2001
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $3.15
Akira Kurosawa had been a filmmaker for almost a decade, since his 1943 debut film Sugata Sanshiro, and had some renown in his native Japan, when, in 1950, his film Rashomon rocketed him to international acclaim, including the Academy Award For Best Foreign Film, after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival brought the film and its director, and Japanese cinema, a Western audience. He deserved every plaudit he received for it, as well as every ticket sold, because it is an excellent film. Yes, there are some flaws- minor, such as the all too sunny (literally) ending, and some of the over the top hammy acting of Toshiro Mifune as the bandit Tajomaru, but given what was coming out of Hollywood at the time- mind-numbing musicals and grade B comedies- Kurosawa brought filmmaking style ... Read More

2.Seven Samurai starring: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki directed by: Akira Kurosawa June 16, 2000
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $2.64
For discriminating film fans, I strongly recommend seeking out older, more nimble translations of Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai," to compare against this latest version by Criterion Collection. Unfortunately, Linda Hoagland's English translation in this version does a grave disservice to viewers and to the filmmakers who created this cinematic masterwork. Throughout the film, Hoagland's translation manages to be at near complete odds with the tone, nuance, subtle yet bracing eloquence, even humor, of Kurosawa's epic drama. (Incredibly, she even makes English sound horrible. She has no sense of cadence, absolutely NO EAR FOR ANY LANGUAGE.) She also demonstrates a woeful inability to grasp and therefore convey the essence of the film's characters. Simply horrible. As a result, the translated ... Read More

3.Throne of Blood starring: Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Akira Kubo directed by: Akira Kurosawa June 16, 2000
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $4.50
Akira Kurosawa's black and white 1957 film Throne of Blood (Kumonosu Jô- literally Spider-Web's Castle) is a very good film, but not quite up there with the best of his films, like Seven Samurai, Ikiru, nor The Bad Sleep Well, despite its vaunted adaptation from Shakespeare's Macbeth. That said, the hour and forty nine minute long film, written by Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Ryuzo Kikushima, features one of the best performances by its star, longtime Kurosawa leading man Toshirô Mifune as Taketori Washizu, the warrior who has the Macbeth role. Yet, in watching this film, I have come to the conclusion that while there is a minor influence from Macbeth, it is in no way merely a Japanized version of the Bard's play. There are just too many significant differences, as well as the clear power and influence of the Noh Theater on this ... Read More

4.The Hidden Fortress starring: Toshirô Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Takashi Shimura directed by: Akira Kurosawa June 06, 2000
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $1.18
Those film viewers who equate foreign films with pretense need to sit down for a couple of hours and watch director Akira Kurosawa's first widescreen (Tohoscope) film, the black and white The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-Toride No San-Akunin- literally The Three Villains Of The Hidden Fortress), from 1958. While it is a very good film, it is a great movie- in the feel good sense of the term. Filmmaker George Lucas claims this film was the inspiration for his third rate Star Wars films. Yes, there are a handful of similarities, but `influence' is usually used when a great work of art is influenced by an equal or lesser work of art, not when bad art rips off greater art. In short, influence occurs in evolution, not devolution, and Lucas's claims bear the stench of a lesser artist trying to parasitically sponge off a greater artist's reputation. The ... Read More

5.Face of Another English Subtitles starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Machiko Kyô, Mikijiro Hira, Kyôko Kishida, Eiji Okada directed by: Hiroshi Teshigahara October 25, 1989
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $9.95
Those film viewers who equate foreign films with pretense need to sit down for a couple of hours and watch director Akira Kurosawa's first widescreen (Tohoscope) film, the black and white The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-Toride No San-Akunin- literally The Three Villains Of The Hidden Fortress), from 1958. While it is a very good film, it is a great movie- in the feel good sense of the term. Filmmaker George Lucas claims this film was the inspiration for his third rate Star Wars films. Yes, there are a handful of similarities, but `influence' is usually used when a great work of art is influenced by an equal or lesser work of art, not when bad art rips off greater art. In short, influence occurs in evolution, not devolution, and Lucas's claims bear the stench of a lesser artist trying to parasitically sponge off a greater artist's reputation. The ... Read More

6.Godzilla Raids Again starring: Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura, Masao Shimizu directed by: Motoyoshi Oda April 15, 1989
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $1.54
This is a good little movie that is a good follow up to the first Godzilla movie. There is a lot of focus on the human actors, but they are very charming in an old-fashioned kind of way. Godzilla vs Anguirus is a bit of a mismatch, and you don't see much of Godzilla firing his flame breath, but it's worth watching. Godzilla looks a little more realistic in black and white than in color, I think. The explanation of how Godzilla and Anguirus came to be is kinda funny - the lines in that part of the movie are memorable. On this particular edition of the movies (this current set) the special features are nifty, too.

7.Stray Dog starring: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji, Eiko Miyoshi, Noriko Sengoku directed by: Akira Kurosawa June 16, 2000
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $3.28
Stray Dog is Akira Kurosawa's first fully mature, individual work of art. The very next year, Kurosawa would change cinematic history with Rashomon, the first Asian movie to achieve Western distribution, Kurosawa's first masterpiece and one of the greatest movies ever made. Stray Dog is not a great movie but a near great & is unmistakably indicative of the masterpieces to come. On the surface, Stray Dog is a straightforward police procedural modeled after Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret series. There is a lot more going on here, of course. Stray Dog was filmed and set in postwar Tokyo less than five years after the surrender and the Tokyo firebombing that killed an estimated 100 thousand and burned large parts of the city to the ground. As Dectective Murakami, Toshiro Mifune canvases hot, filthy Tokyo's worst slums tracking the thief of ... Read More

8.Ikiru starring: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shinichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka, Minoru Chiaki directed by: Akira Kurosawa June 06, 2000
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $6.91
This is probably the greatest film about life and what it means to live. Watanabe is suffering from stomach cancer. With imminent death in his future, Watanabe resolves to figuring out how to spend his last days. The film is expertly plotted: During the first half we see Watanabe before his death, coping with his illness, his relationship to his son and daughter-in-law, his fascination with one of his young subordinates and his struggle to find his purpose in life. The final half of the picture takes place during Watanabe's wake, where his fellow bureaucrats and co-workers muse about Watanabe's final act of generosity. Subtle and poignant, this is one of the most beautiful movies ever made. Highly recommended!

9.Samurai III - Duel at Ganryu Island starring: Toshirô Mifune, Mariko Okada, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru Yachigusa, Michiko Saga directed by: Hiroshi Inagaki September 03, 1996
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $29.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $28.45 You Save: $1.50 ( 5%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $0.56
this movie is very good. i have seen movies of samurai when i was young but this one is great.

10.The Idiot starring: Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori, Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Chieko Higashiyama directed by: Akira Kurosawa November 11, 1998
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In 1951 the Shochiku film studio released Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" in a much-cut and rather mangled form. It flopped, and when Shockiku insisted the film be cut it again...Kurosawa said, "Next time cut it down the middle...lengthwise!" In other words, cutting would destroy the film. Anyway, the original Kurosawa-cut version was lost, and what remains is this much-pared-down version.... And, somehow, like a damaged soul, it is unbelievably affecting. It is a film that shows great nobility of spirit, contrasted against the tragic consequences of one's choices and actions based on fear, loathing, avarice, hate, and yes, love. What a strange film! Kurosawa chose Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's islands, and the most European-like. The houses look like European houses, and the weather! Snow covers the windowsills and blows ... Read More

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