Tag Archive: noir

A Month of Kurosawa: High and Low (1963)

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! High and Low (1963) From the very start of his career, Akira Kurosawa was concerned with exploring the class divide, delving into the things that separates the wealthy from the poor. He had perhaps never explored this idea so nakedly as he did in High and Low, called Heaven and Hell in Japan, a film split in two just as the society it depicts…
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A Month of Kurosawa: The Bad Sleep Well (1960)

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 Bad Sleep Well (1960) Following a string of period pieces, Akira Kurosawa jumped back to contemporary Japan for his look at corporate corruption, The Bad Sleep Well. It’s been called by some a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, though to be frank, I think that’s a stretch. Regardless, it’s a slow burning look at the way in which corruption can ruin lives. More…
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A Month of Kurosawa: Stray Dog (1949)

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! Stray Dog (1949) “Masterpiece” is probably a word that gets thrown around a little too easily, especially when discussing movies, but it’s hard not to use the word when discussing 1949’s Stray Dog, a gritty crime noir by Akira Kurosawa that peels back the curtain on postwar Japan’s underground crime scene and presents some stark moral questions in the process. Stray Dog once again…
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Upcoming Films That True Crime Fans Will Love

Contributed Post Crime is a fascinating movie genre, and it’s even better when the movies are based on true event. True crime lovers can rejoice knowing that there are some fantastic films on the way in the next year, featuring all sorts of shady characters – some well-known and others not so well-known. Image: Pxhere Want to know what’s in store for the true crime genre? Take a look at the following and put some dates in your diary. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile While it doesn’t have an anticipated release date as yet, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile has already gathered a lot of hype. Based on the true story of charming serial killer Ted Bundy, it shows the events from the…
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