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Jan 18, 2022 · Akira Kurosawa: Five Essential Films to Get You Started. To call Akira Kurosawa a legend would be a massive understatement. In a career spanning the better part of a century, the Japanese writer...
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- Seven Samurai (1954) Famously remade as The Magnificent Seven in 1960, the story of a 16th-century Japanese village marauded by violent bandits avenged by seven sword-swinging samurai is deeply ingrained in storytelling mythology.
- Rashomon (1950) Notorious for shifting character perspectives and retelling the same story events from multiple points of view, Rashomon is among Kurosawa's most inventive and oft-imitated masterworks.
- Yojimbo (1961) While Toshiro Mifune would reprise his now-iconic role of Sanjuro one year later, Yojimbo reigns supreme as one of the best Akira Kurosawa movies ever made.
- Ikiru (1952) Ikiru is arguably the most emotionally resonant of the best Akira Kurosawa movies. Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) is a career social worker who is suddenly diagnosed with late-stage cancer, which forces him to take stock of his life, find existential meaning, and press on in the face of unfathomable fear.
Seven Samurai is arguably his best movie, but should NOT be the first one you watch since, as others have already mentioned, it's a 3.5 hour movie. The best to start with would be Yojimbo, then any combination of Sanjuro, Hidden Fortress, Rashomon, and/or High & Low until you're ready for the 3.5 hour masterpiece.
May 14, 2020 · The best place to start – Rashomon. Just as Rashomon was the west’s introduction to Japanese cinema, so too is it a fitting introduction to Kurosawa: it includes a number of his key themes, and features the two actors most closely associated with his work – Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. Rashomon (1950)
- The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945) Denjiro Okochi steals the show in this highly entertaining period film. Okochi plays the leader of a group of samurai who disguise themselves as monks in order to sneak their lord through enemy lines.
- The Most Beautiful (1944) By 1944, it was apparent Japan would lose World War II. Despite facing imminent defeat, Japanese filmmakers were encouraged to make “spiritist” films: movies showing ordinary civilians dedicated to the national cause.
- Sanjuro (1962) A clever and amusing follow-up to Kurosawa’s previous film, Yojimbo (1961). In the original, Toshiro Mifune’s wisecracking samurai pitted two imbecilic gangs against one another to wipe them both out; here, he takes a side, trying to help besieged (rather, naive) people take a stand against their persecutors.
- Scandal (1950) Even lesser Kurosawa films tend to have fascinating components and scenes of tremendous power. Scandal, a critique of yellow journalism in postwar Japan, isn’t quite as searing as its director intended, yet it still has much to offer through its plethora of intriguing characters — most notably a weak-willed lawyer played by that wonderful actor Takashi Shimura.
Mar 22, 2021 · For his birthday week, we here at MovieJawn are celebrating the work of Akira Kurosawa! Check out all of the pieces here. Ian kicks us off with a starter pack! Welcome to How to Start Watching, in which our staff will recommend movies that will help you start watching a particular genre, director, film movement, etc.
Apr 26, 2024 · Pick practically any Kurosawa movie at random, and within you’ll see the blueprints of genres and styles that have become touchstones of world cinema, from Spaghetti western, to police...
