One of Japan's most lauded and prominent directors. Kurosawa is best know for his samurai films, personally I prefer his crime and drama work. I'm not really a big fan of the man, but he's such a big name there's simply no way past his oeuvre.
Movies
Okay film by Akira Kurosawa. I clearly prefer his drama over his genre work, I like his shorter films better than his longer ones and I'll take Shimura over Mifune every time. Hence, this film was pretty easy to get through. Sadly it didn't do a lot more for me. The drama is still a bit overdone and never really gripped me like a drama is supposed to.
It has been ages since I last watched this film, and honestly, it seems I conflated quite a lot of it with Sanjuro. I guess a revisit was in order then, though I didn't get much more out of it the second time around. Classic Kurosawa simply isn't for me, and this was another good reminder. The soundtrack is misguided, the comedy is offputting and 110 minutes is way too long for the simple premise. The performances aren't great either, it's only the decent cinematography and the proper finale that redeem the film ever so slightly. Jidaigeki fans will no doubt love it, I didn't really care for it.Read all
Not one of Kurosawa's worst, but the film takes way too long to reach its finale. It's one of those films that could've been handled in 90 minutes and would've come out a better film, but somehow Kurosawa managed to stretch it to 150 minutes. It's a shame, because some of these here are pretty decent. Some of the sets are interesting and the intrigue is there, but individual scenes take way too long and the pacing was just off. The performances are a little iffy and the cinematography not too consistent, but I do think it's a step up from Kurosawa's more infamous chanbara films. Not his worst, but the potential was there to do better.Read all
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
One of Kurosawa's earliest films, shot right after the war. The film is based on a Noh play and it kind of shows. The setting and plot are very limited, so it's good the runtime was kept short too. Even so, Kurosawa struggles to keep things interesting, and the addition of some almost slapstick-like comedy wasn't the solution. Enomoto's part is way over the top, the songs don't add much and even though the simple setup could've been fun, Kurosawa doesn't really do all that much with it. There are a few decent moments and it's a blessing the film doesn't cross the 60-minute mark, but it's mostly just for Kurosawa enthusiasts and completists.Read all
I'm almost halfway through Kurosawa's oeuvre, but his timeless appeal keeps escaping me. Kagemusha is a 3-hour epic, where the first two hours are almost entirely spent on slow-moving conversations. The final hour brings the action, but neither aspect of the film really did it for me. The first two hours are incredibly uneventful, dull, and utterly uncinematic. The film makes a big u-turn in the final hour, but Kurosawa's action work never really impressed me either. The cinematography is a bit better, which is at least something, but 3 hours of this was quite the ordeal.Read all
One of the last "big" Kurosawa classics still on my list. Not surprisingly, one of his longer films too. It may be smaller in scope (no big battle scenes here), but the film is still epic in every imaginable way. I didn't think it very fitting for what is basically just a long, spun-out melodrama. The performances are overly theatrical, the soundtrack was distracting, and the plot stretched far beyond its breaking point. I did like the framing somewhat, but that was hardly enough to get me through three hours of extreme melodrama. A pretty bad Kurosawa flick and another one unworthy of his reputation.Read all
