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Thu 28 Aug, 2003 05:45 pm
I'm on a Kurosawa movie marathon (interspersed with other films) thanks to NetFlix, the online rental service. Last night I saw what is probably the crown jewel of Japanese cinema, "Seven Samurai." I was again propelled into the complexity of that world -- the story is simple in itself (used again by Hollywood with "The Magnificent Seven.") A group of farmers has been ransacked by nomadic bandits once too often and at the beginning of the film, the bandits elect to pass by the village and leave it unscathed because they'd too recently pillaged it. The villagers decide to take action and to try and convince some Samurai to defend the village, even though they can only pay in the food they raise. Their first efforts are pathetic failures until they come across one seasoned Samurai who wants to do it more on principal and he is able to convince six others. That's enough of the plot -- the characterizations are what is complex. The young villager who aspires to be a Samurai but is mocked and overlooked. The zany (almost insane) Samurai played by Tishoro Mifune to the hilt. The young daughter whose father cuts her hair in an effort to disguise her as a boy so the bandits will not take her. Every character is memorable. The action scenes are seemlessly worked into the quieter drama, the poignant exchanges between each of the characters. There's a psychological and philisophical message that fits naturally into the plot and doesn't hinder the storytelling because it's an integral part of it.
A link to IMDB:
THE SEVEN SAMURAI
Great flick...I am a big Kurosawa fan. 'Ran' I have commented on in the Lear thread, as being a breathtaking interperetation of Shakespeare's play. I didn't even know, until my brother (who lived in Japan) told me that Kurosawa's script for 'Ran' was actually written in a medieval-style Japanese, for continuity. He is fluent in modern Japanese, but needed the subtitles to follow.
He's easily one of the best directors of all time.
Yep, my favorite, one of the best - a genius! I keep meaning to rent several of them and have a marathon, but I don't really have a way to watch them. Maybe the online rental thingie-bopper.
"The Seven Samurai" has something that everybody likes it. LW mentioned the complex characters, the plot, both deep and simple...
The action scenes are great. The persistant rain during the battle plays an important aethetic part. It gives tempo, a sense of doom and also a sense of cleansing.
Great movie.
What did people think of 'Dreams'?
Mmmm, something for everyone to like. I LOVE Mifune in his gruff roles.
Perhaps some believe "Dreams" was pressing bit too hard on the pretentious button but I like it for the imagery. It's storytelling is not his best. and the blocking of the scenes was "RAN" all over again. They did look like paintings -- it's rather like Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" in that way except with Japanese woodblock art as an inspiration insted of Romantic painting. I will include it on my odyssey through his films. I am going to see a few less talked about Kurosawa films that I've never seen, that is if they are on DVD and NetFlix has them.
littlek -- I assume you do have a TV and DVD players are remarkably low priced now if you don't need all the bells and whistles. The progressive scan, for instance, is only noticable as an improvement on a big screen TV. I saw a interegrated TV/DVD player at Sam's Club for under $200.00! Just stay away from the Apex players -- their cheap TV's are good but the mechanical part of the DVD players is giving a lot of people problems (See the Epinions.com site).
Mifune's portrayal was a performance laced with comedy of the madcap variety. Although, there was more than one comedian in the village! I understand Kurosawa let him improvise and create the character around his own feelings with little direction other than the blocking in of the scene.
IMO, "Dreams" is a good, but irregular movie. Some of the dreams are extraordinary, I think: the woman of the snow and the tunnel of war. Others are nice to see, but little else, like the dance of wolf or the sunflowers. Others, yet, seemed to me either pretentious, like the worst Godard (the dream about the end of the world) or shallow and patronizing (the utopian village).
Well, the dude was old....I concur. Some of the imagery I thought was amazing, but again, much like Ran, which was a far better movie. Yojimbo is also a favorite of mine, again with Mifune.
Wizard, I haven't been able to eat most of the last 2 weeks. Inexpensive is a relative concept.
I haven't seen the more modern of Kurosawa's movies. Mojimbo is the detective flick?
Yojimbo...a tough ronin, two warring cities, Mifune saves them both by pitting themselves against each other! Huzzah! Erm...Hai!
What about Kagemusha (the shadow warrior, or something like that)? I loved the way the double became more like the real Daimyo than the Daimyo had been, and how he is redemed by his courage in the end.
cav - Hai! Seen it! Was that the one with the fluttering wind blocks on the hill that were made of bright silks?
Hmmmm, I really need to see them ALL again.
"Kagemusha" and "Ran" are both great movies. The end of "Ran" is one of the most dramatic moments on cinema. Hopelessness at its innermost. "Kagemusha", even in a world doomed by fate was much more optimistic: somehow the identification of the people and a leader and the (very oriental) fact that peoples are heroic, more than individuals.
"Kagemusha" is next on my list as it is a Kurosawa I either missed or don't remember from the college days of visiting the art house cinemas -- when I moved to Laguna Beach, there was no local theater showing these films. The closest as far as I can remember was the Balboa Theater on the Balboa Peninsula. I guess getting so involved with the local art scene changed my priorities for some years. "Yojimbo" is one I've seen on cable about six years ago but since it was the first time I'd seen it, I will really enjoy revisiting that film.
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