A note on Kurosawa

Director Akira Kurosawa on the set with actor Toshiro Mifune.

To date on the Scarry Film Club, it looks like the single director named most often (and by the greatest number of contributors) is Akira Kurosawa.

So far we have . . .

JTS3: Ikiru (To Live)

WCS: Ran

JTS: Rashomon

I've also recently written posts on my Scarry Thoughts blog about two other Kurosawa films:

Film for the Age of COVID: "Red Beard" by Kurosawa

FILM ABOUT HIROSHIMA: Kurosawa's "I Live in Fear" (Nuclear Danger: Three Ways of Talking About the Unmentionable)

This year is the centenary of the birth of the great actor in so many of Kurosawa's films, Toshiro Mifune. The best place to watch many Kurosawa/Mifune collaborations in one place is on the Criterion Channel.

The Castle of Cagliostro

Hayao Miyazaki, 1979.

In this masterpiece from Hayao Miyazaki, arch-criminal Lupin III (the ostensible grandson of Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin, and anti-hero of a manga and television franchise since 1967) arrives in Cagliostro, a bucolic European micro-nation with a shadowy past, just as the preparations for the marriage of Count Cagliostro to his distant cousin Clarice seem poised to reunite the rival branches of the Cagliostro family. Will this give the Count absolute control over the legendary treasure of the Cagliostro family? Why is Lupin interfering? Will Interpol’s Inspector Zenagata, hot on Lupin’s trail, finally be able to catch him? A thrilling and visually beautiful adventure story in the venerable tradition of Dumas and Stevenson. (For those interested in the world of anime, all of Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films are excellent: My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are all classics in their own right, and have the added advantage of being fun for all ages.)

On Wikipedia: The Castle of Cagliostro

(JTS, 3/24/2020)

Ran

Akira Kurosawa, 1985.

Ran would be the unsurpassable film adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear had Kurosawa not surpassed King Lear itself to create a classic in its own right. Dark and joyful, ethereal and starkly realistic, a mesmerizingly beautiful portrayal of the ugliness of betrayal and despair.











On Wikipedia: Ran

(JTS, 3/24/2020)


Fun fact: Kurosawa was a talented graphic artist, and made his own storyboards for his films - you can see storyboards for Ran and other films here.  (JTS3, 4/9/2020)

Rashomon

Akira Kurosawa, 1950.

On Wikipedia: Rashomon

On Kanopy: Rashomon

(JTS, 3/24/2020)

Kiki's Delivery Service

Hayao Miyazaki, 1989.

On Wikipedia: Kiki's Delivery Service

(RLB, 3/2/2020)

Ikiru (To Live)

Akira Kurosawa, 1952.

On Wikipedia: Ikiru

On Kanopy: Ikiru

A bureaucrat living a life of drudgery decides to make a change when he gets bad news at the doctor's office.

I was tickled to realize there was this whole other side to Kurosawa, who I thought of as the Master of the Samurai Film. It opened a whole new world to me.

I love the scene of the old man rocking slowly by himself on a swing in a snowy playground, humming a song from his childhood.

(JTS3, 2/27/2020)