Tag Archive: cinema

A Month of Kurosawa: Sanjuro (1962)

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Sanjuro (1962) It’s interesting that a film best known for its bloody final duel (a scene that proved highly influential to directors like Quentin Tarantino) and a sequel to the often violent Yojimbo is in reality a meditation on non-violence. Yojimbo was such a huge success that Kurosawa got right to work on a sequel. Sanjuro follows the titular character on another western-like adventure,…
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A Month of Kurosawa: Seven Samurai (1954)

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Seven Samurai (1954) I have a weakness for epics. When I see that a movie has an absurdly long run time, I find myself instantly intrigued. I’m not sure why. It’s not as if run time is a sign of quality. For every Lawrence of Arabia or Once Upon a Time in America, there are two dozen bloated “epics” that would have been far…
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A Month of Kurosawa: Rashomon (1950)

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Rashomon (1950) Reams upon reams have been written about Rashomon. It’s likely to be among the two or three Kurosawa films even casual film viewers have seen, or at least heard of, so for this capsule review series I won’t talk about it at length. I do in the book — it’s among the longest chapters — but when it comes to giving a…
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A Month of Kurosawa: No Regrets For Our Youth (1946)

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! No Regrets For Our Youth (1946) No Regrets For Our Youth was a post-war drama by Akira Kurosawa that mixes equal parts political protest, love triangle, and family drama. Kurosawa’s pictures are virtually always political in some way — he had a tremendous focus on social consciousness — but they were rarely overtly political. Rather, you often had to read between the lines to…
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A Month of Kurosawa: The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945) Released in 1945, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail is a slightly comedic retelling of a traditional Kabuki play (which is itself based on a Noh play). It’s also an overlooked little delight. At just an hour long, it’s a short, tight-drama about a group of warriors trying to flee a dangerous situation. It…
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