Most people who visit here know I enjoy me some good Asian movies. I started out with Crouching Tiger, I think, then moved onto House of Flying Daggers and Hero and all of Zhang Yimou‘s movies, and ventured into Takeshi Kaneshiro‘s films, good or not, and then wove my way around Tony Leung and Andy Lau.
But, to my eternal dismay, I had never seen an Akira Kurosawa movie. You know Kurosawa, right? The guy who, to quote Wikipedia, “is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential of all filmmaker(s).” Yeah. That guy.
The husband has always wanted to see Seven Samurai, upon which The Magnificent Seven is based. We haven’t gotten there yet, but a few weeks ago we saw Throne Of Blood, which is a retelling of Macbeth. Then, over the weekend, we saw Rashomon and Yojimbo, two totally different films, both starring Toshiro Mifune.
Geez. Where the hell have I been all my life?
It’s hard, watching Rashomon, to think that this incredible, groundbreaking, mind-fucking, gorgeous movie was made sixty years ago. 60. Like, made in 1950. If you like the work of Borges and Escher and Charles Willeford and any artist who takes reality–or what you think is reality–and turns it on its head, you will like Rashomon.
Yojimbo is much more straightforward, based (uncredited) on Dashiell Hammett‘s The Red Harvest, and was the basis for Sergio Leone‘s A Fistful of Dollars. You cannot take your eyes away from Mifune in this one (actually, in all the films I’ve seen he has such a presence), and it is as dark and noir as anything I like, which is saying something.
Not sure what is next; hopefully Seven Samurai soon, but meanwhile, I just had to gush.
Back to regular whining and programming later in the week.
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Here are some Kurosowa films I ve seen.
Hidden Fortress, b/w with Toshiro Mafune, a period advanture story said to have inspired the first Star Wars movie. No droids or spaceships, but does have kimonos and swords.
High and Low, b/w sixties noirish kidnapping story, with Toshiro Mafune. I saw a real beat up print of it, with beat up sound, at a college movie event. I was not excited by it, but maybe a DVD on HDTV would improve my enjoyment of it.
Kagemusha, feast of color from 1980 or so, long. Beautiful scenes and dress, military battles. It touches a bit on the Rashomon theme of what is reality. I think Megan might enjoy this one.