Post by Erik Rupp on Sept 18, 2009 8:06:40 GMT -5
For those familiar with Akira Kurosawa, these films are among the elite in the history of cinema.
For those not familiar, these films are all as foreign as the language spoken by the actors.
But the bottom line is that Kurosawa is one of the greatest directors of all time, and possibly the greatest. He usually co-wrote his films, and he was just as good of a writer as he was a director. His strength in telling a story was coming up with a very simple premise, and then expanding on it with character development and plot details. Most of his films' plots can be summarized fairly accurately in a sentence or two, but much more happens in each film than what is summarized. The details all support the basic one or two sentence premise of the story.
Seven Samurai, for example - the movie is about a group of farmers who are raided every year just after harvest by a group of thugs. In the movie they have had enough and their desperation leads them to hire a group of samurai to defend them. Simple premise. But the movie is over 3 hours long, and not a minute of that is bloat. Seven Samurai just flies by. It feels like a two hour move.
Kurosawa's strengths as a director were his attention to detail, his way of getting phenomenal performances out of his casts, and his ability to make visually stunning films. This is above and beyond his abilities as a storyteller (which is more of his writing skills).
Recommended Kurosawa films
Stray Dog (police drama)
Rashomon
Ikiru (a remarkable personal drama)
Seven Samurai
The Hidden Fortress
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
The Bad Sleep Well (film noir)
High and Low (detective story)
Ran
Kurosawa was greatly influenced by the films and literature of the west, and his films had a genuine east meets west style that wasn't universally embraced in Japan. He was a groundbreaking, revolutionary filmmaker.
For those not familiar, these films are all as foreign as the language spoken by the actors.
But the bottom line is that Kurosawa is one of the greatest directors of all time, and possibly the greatest. He usually co-wrote his films, and he was just as good of a writer as he was a director. His strength in telling a story was coming up with a very simple premise, and then expanding on it with character development and plot details. Most of his films' plots can be summarized fairly accurately in a sentence or two, but much more happens in each film than what is summarized. The details all support the basic one or two sentence premise of the story.
Seven Samurai, for example - the movie is about a group of farmers who are raided every year just after harvest by a group of thugs. In the movie they have had enough and their desperation leads them to hire a group of samurai to defend them. Simple premise. But the movie is over 3 hours long, and not a minute of that is bloat. Seven Samurai just flies by. It feels like a two hour move.
Kurosawa's strengths as a director were his attention to detail, his way of getting phenomenal performances out of his casts, and his ability to make visually stunning films. This is above and beyond his abilities as a storyteller (which is more of his writing skills).
Recommended Kurosawa films
Stray Dog (police drama)
Rashomon
Ikiru (a remarkable personal drama)
Seven Samurai
The Hidden Fortress
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
The Bad Sleep Well (film noir)
High and Low (detective story)
Ran
Kurosawa was greatly influenced by the films and literature of the west, and his films had a genuine east meets west style that wasn't universally embraced in Japan. He was a groundbreaking, revolutionary filmmaker.