Akira Kurosawa, a name that inspires many filmmakers. He is one of the most admired directors of all time in the film history. The late Japanese director have influenced countless directors, from Tarantino, George Lucas to Tarkovsky and many more, with his groundbreaking work. His films tackle themes including morality, crime and family. All his themes acted as a readily available template for many Hollywood directors to use. He has
made films period based dramas (jedai-geki) and contemporary dramas in
which angle of the themes are maintained in. He is widely known for his symmetry in his films, where, only his pupils can understand its beauty. There is nothing subpar within his large and varied body of work, but these 5 picks do stand out in his incredible six-decade film-making career. These films are not ranked in any order, but just numbered.
The story of an undistinguished, time-serving civil servant who, upon
learning he has stomach cancer, channels his energies into one final
positive act, building a children’s playground in a disease-ridden slum
quarter, is truly heart-rending stuff. Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura
is wonderful as the man who only finds meaning in his life as death
rears its ugly head, while his in-laws wrangle over his pension pot. His acting is impeccable when he comes to know about his cancer. His fight with the dead bureaucracy to win the children's playground wins the applause, but his efforts go vein. His
absent presence in the final sections provides a more down-to-earth
mirror inverse to Frank Capra’s "It’s a Wonderful Life" (1946). Kurasawa's take on the bureaucrats in the final scenes of the film is praiseworthy. The way an employee gets subdued by a giant organization is excellently portrayed. Hence, it's a must watch!
4. THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (1958)
The Hidden Fortress features an undisguised element of social commentary. Echoing the age-old theme of "The Prince and the Pauper," the story forces a princess to come face-to-face with the daily travails suffered by members of the lower castes when circumstances demand that she pretends to be a mute peasant. The Hidden Fortress takes place in a war-torn feudal Japan. Two peasants, Tahei (Minoru Chiaki) and Matakishi (Kamatari Fujiwara), have escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp and are heading home when they encounter General Rokurota Makabe (Toshiro Mifune). The General, appealing to the men's greed by indicating he knows the whereabouts of a large amount of gold, persuades Tahei and Mataskishi to join him in transporting Princess Yuki (Misa Uehara) to safety. So, with Yuki disguised as a mute farming girl (she cannot speak because her imperious manner of speech would give her away) and the gold hidden in hollowed-out faggots, the small group traverses the countryside, mostly avoiding enemy soldiers except during those occasions when the situation forces General Makabe to swing into action. The Hidden Fortress represents a nearly perfect blend of absurd comedy and rousing adventure. The actions and interaction of Tahei and Matakisihi are a consistent source of amusement, as these two untrustworthy rogues bicker, whine, and exhibit stunning lapses of intelligence. The Hidden Fortress represented Kurosawa's first venture into widescreen cinematography. (The CinemaScope process is referred to as "Toho-scope.") He uses every millimeter of the frame, creating gorgeous compositions that stretch from one side of the screen to the other. Not only is it an injustice to watch The Hidden Fortress in any non-widescreen format, but it's an impossibility. This drama film has influenced director George Lucas to make "Star Wars", if you have seen any of the Star Wars films watch this and you will understand the hype.
3. YOJIMBO (1961)
As effortlessly engaging as it is widely influential, 'Yojimbo' represents Kurosawa at the peak of his powers and lays the groundwork for the modern American western. Toshiro Mifune portrays a Samurai who finds himself in the middle of a
feud-torn Japanese village. Neither side is particularly honorable, but
Mifune is hungry and impoverished, so he agrees to work as bodyguard (or
Yojimbo) for a silk merchant (Kamatari Fujiwara) against a sake
merchant (Takashi Shimura). He then pretends to go to work for the
other, the better to let the enemies tear each other apart. Imprisoned
for his "treachery," he escapes just in time to watch the two warring
sides wipe each other out. This was his plan all along, and now that
peace has been restored, he leaves the village for further exploits.
Yes, Yojimbo was the prototype for the Clint Eastwood "Man with No Name"
picture A Fistful of Dollars (1964). The difference is that Fistful
relies on Eastwood for its success, whereas Yojimbo scores on every
creative level, from director Akira Kurosawa to cinematographer Kazuo
Miyagawa to Mifune's classic lead performance.
2. SEVEN SAMURAI (1956)
Akira Kurosawa's epic tale concerns honor and duty during a time when
the old traditional order is breaking down. The film opens with master
samurai Kambei (Takashi Shimura) posing as a monk to save a kidnapped
farmer's child. Impressed by his selflessness and bravery, a group of
farmers begs him to defend their terrorized village from bandits. Kambei
agrees, although there is no material gain or honor to be had in the
endeavor. Soon he attracts a pair of followers: a young samurai named
Katsushiro (Isao Kimura), who quickly becomes Kambei's disciple, and
boisterous Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), who poses as a samurai but is
later revealed to be the son of a farmer. Kambei assembles four other
samurais, including Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi), a master swordsman, to
round out the group. Together they consolidate the village's defenses
and shape the villagers into a militia, while the bandits loom
menacingly nearby. Soon raids and counter-raids build to a final bloody
heart-wrenching battle. Arguably Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, The Seven
Samurai is an epic adventure classic with an engrossing story,
memorable characters, and stunning action sequences that make it one of
the most influential films ever made. A worth watching 3 hour masterpiece.
1. RASHOMON (1961)
Akira Kurosawa's most acclaimed film, Rashomon features an innovative
narrative structure, brilliant acting, and a thoughtful exploration of
reality versus perception. This landmark Japanese masterpiece is Akira Kurosawa's cinematic
examination of the subjective nature of truth. In feudal Japan, three
men sheltering from a storm discuss an incident where a bandit raped a
woman whose husband then somehow died. The film's innovative narrative
structure recounts that incident from four differing viewpoints. Combining two short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa,
its script also broke the mould of conventional cinema plotting,
introducing the concept of the unreliable narrator in its contradictory
accounts of the rape of a samurai’s wife as relayed by the key suspects
and witnesses to the crime, including one testimony delivered from the
murdered samurai himself by a medium. The masterful atmospheric
cinematography of Kazuo Miyagawa, and the late-10th-century Heian period setting adds to the haunting, purgatorial ambience. Directorial brilliance is evident in every scene in the movie. This film launched Kurosawa’s name outside his homeland and won Golden Lion Award at Venice in 1951, awakened a postwar
generation of international festival and arthouse audiences to the
manifold pleasures of Japanese cinema. JUST WATCH IT!
CINEMATIC - MASTERPIECE
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