Films – Page 4 – ERIC SAN JUAN

A Month of Kurosawa: Dodes’ka-Den (1970)

Eric San Juan November 24, 2018 0 Comments

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! Dodes’ka-Den (1970) By the late 1960s, Akira Kurosawa’s career had somewhat skidded off the rails. The situation is too complex with these quickie capsule reviews, but the bottom line is that Toshiro Mifune was out of the picture, Kurosawa was increasingly seen as behind the times, and the director struggled to get funding for his films. That’s the situation in which he made Dodes’ka-Den,…
Read more

Films

A Month of Kurosawa, Akira Kurosawa, classic films, classic movies, film, films, Japan, Japanese cinema, Japanese films, Japanese movies, movies, poverty

A Month of Kurosawa: Red Beard (1965)

Eric San Juan November 24, 2018 0 Comments

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! Red Beard (1965) There has perhaps never been a film partnership as fruitful as the one between Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. They made a string of classics together, helping launch one another into international stardom and into the annals of film history. But due to a personal falling out, Red Beard would be their last film together. Though not beloved by critics, I…
Read more

Films

A Month of Kurosawa, Akira Kurosawa, classic films, classic movies, classics, film, films, Japan, Japanese cinema, Japanese films, Japanese movies, movies, period piece, Toshiro Mifune

A Month of Kurosawa: High and Low (1963)

Eric San Juan November 24, 2018 1 Comment

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…
Read more

Films

A Month of Kurosawa, Akira Kurosawa, classic films, classic movies, classics, film, films, Japan, Japanese cinema, Japanese films, Japanese movies, movies, noir, Toshiro Mifune

A Month of Kurosawa: Sanjuro (1962)

Eric San Juan November 21, 2018 0 Comments

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,…
Read more

Films

A Month of Kurosawa, action movies, Akira Kurosawa, cinema, classic film, classic movies, Clint Eastwood, film, films, Japan, Japanese cinema, Japanese films, Japanese movies, movies, samurai, samurai movies, Toshiro Mifune, westerns

A Month of Kurosawa: Yojimbo (1961)

Eric San Juan November 20, 2018 0 Comments

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! Yojimbo (1961) In 1957, Miles Davis released the album Birth of the Cool (though it was actually recorded in 1949 and 1950). It was a landmark record that helped change the face of jazz to come. Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 samurai classic Yojimbo could also have been called Birth of the Cool, given that it spawned an entire genre of badasses in western flicks, led…
Read more

Films

A Month of Kurosawa, Akira Kurosawa, awesome, classic film, classic movies, Clint Eastwood, film, films, Japanese cinema, Japanese film, Japanese movies, movies, samurai, samurai movies, Sergio Leone, Toshiro Mifune, westerns, Yojimbo