Great film director who is not crap at all (at being a film director).

Kagemusha and Ran are my favourites...

My favorites:

Dreams

Stray Dog

Ikiru

I really can't think of any of his films that I didn't enjoy...

The reason that Kurosawa and Mifune fell out after Red Beard is a big mystery, but must have been serious, as apparently even in his autobiography Kurosawa doesn’t talk about anything after its occurrence.

Takashi Shimura, the main actor in Ikiru and the leader of the samurai in seven samurai, is a far better actor than Mifune. Mifune has amazing energy, which no doubt accounts for his falling into acting by accident when turning up for a technical job at a film studio and misreading the signs, but Shimura has amazing range and depth. Compare above two films for a start off. And he’s in Godzilla!

My personal favourite is dreams, because of what it is – seven dreams from throughout a mans life – and because it’s beautiful. Even the horrible bits are beautiful.

Rhapsody in August is a good one. Quiet and understated; his Ozu? Still incredible ending.

But Seven Samouri is incredible.

And don’t forget that it was his tip of the hat to John Ford; Magnificent Seven was a returned compliment by Hollywood.

Kurosawa said some pretty profound things to his post-war country through these films. They are great in so many ways just in themselves, but without knowing some of the context, you don’t get the full story.

Kurosawa is king of cinema.

Angus Jung wrote:

Eksvplot wrote:i see your point, but it can be really tricky making such concessions, creating different categories of greatness, etc.

If you are familiar with the concept of apples and oranges, and the pointlessness of comparing them, it isn't really that tricky.

In the Eternal Sunshine thread, you said it wasn't as good as Obscure Object.

In the Kurosawa thread, you say he's not as good as Bresson.

When you see your dad put his shoes on, do you think, "Fuck, Kenneth Cole is way better at that than Pops?"

What is gained by setting up these ridiculous comparisons?

Kurosawa is not the least bit overrated. And Bresson was a great filmmaker.

To cut the guy a bit of slack, he was making a point in his first post about something other than simply who's best: why certain "foreign" directors are canonised into America's cinematic culture and others aren't. I think this is a worthwhile thing to talk about. Bresson isn't a great comparison - stylistically or thematically - with Kurosawa, but they do work in the same medium, and could both be called masters of it. I think it's perfectly valid to wonder why one of them is much more widely known and namechecked than the other (a poll I did some time ago on Au Hasard, Balthazar got one reply; this AK one is already on its second page after a day...).

Anyway, why not compare apples and oranges? It's fun. I don't like apples and oranges equally, so I must think one is better than the other. They are both fruit. I don't see why discussions about what is better or worse should always be limited to a very narrow set of criteria; that would get pretty boring.

Having said that, it can get tiresome if someone is just constantly throwing out seemingly random comparisons with barely related examples. In this case though, I'll say any time Bresson gets mentioned is fine with me, if it increases the chance of someone becoming aware of him who previously wasn't.

anyone here check out the recent japanese film Nobody Knows by Hirokazu Kore-Eda? it's gotta be one of the greatest movies of our time. fucking brilliant on so many levels. i'd trade that movie alone for a whole shelf full of Kurosawa. it's deeply moving.

I loved this movie...so beautiful...not sure if i'd hold it up to Seven Samurai et al...not really in the same park. They have dramatically different styles. I will be on the look out for more Hirokazu Kore-Eda films tho....he's definitely talented.

I really like Seven Samurai. Ikiru is also a great story, but it is very different from the samurai tales. It is worth seeing as well.

He made a lot of movies and some are obviously better than others, but their are a lot of good ones, especially where Toshiro Mifune starred.

His movies got me interested in Japanese cinema and I've since enjoyed movies by Ozu, Imamura,Itami and Kitano. There is a lot of worthwhile stuff here.[/code]

is there a particular overall "feel" you get from watching japanese film?
what exactly is it, other than the fact that it is foreign, that is appealing to you? just really curious.

If you liked Rashomon, do yourself a favor and read In A Grove and Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (sp?). These two stories were combined for the screenplay.

is there a particular overall "feel" you get from watching japanese film?
what exactly is it, other than the fact that it is foreign, that is appealing to you? just really curious.

Japanese films don't have any one particular "feel," but I think it can make sense to say one's a fan of Japanese cinema in general. You can get a sense of different aspects of different cultures from films certainly, and I think the more Japanese flicks you watch (and the more you interface with any particular culture through stuff like literature, travel, art, etc.) the more rewarding the films of that culture become. So there is a point at which you can become kind of hooked, I think, w/ Japanese movies.

And, yes, Nobody Knows is absolutely heartbreaking. A really beautiful movie.