Akira Kurosawa

[gidrah]

Is anybody else here familiar with this director? I got a boxed set of "Four Samurai Classics" recently and have enjoyed every frickin' movie. I suggested this to the wife as a possible b-day gift and she went with it. It's all black & white and subtitled, but a "good movie" is exactly that and needs no special effects or 10.2 super mega digital mix. This guy is resposnsible for the "spaghetti western".

The box includes:
Seven Samurai - Later remade into "The Magnificent Seven". The remake was good, but if Akira Ifukube had done the soundtrack, the original would win on all counts.
Hidden Fortress
Yojimbo - Later remade into "A Fistful of Dollars", the into "Last Man Standing"
Sanjuro

I've also seen one of his movies (the title escapes me) that was his version of Hamlet. This movie should be companion with anybody that has Hamlet as required reading. Or anybody that just wants to read this book. You can really understand the whole story a little better.

Go rent Seven Samurai. It's probably at the local Blockbuster right now. Get out your reading glasses and set aside 203 minutes and get ready for one of the greatest movies of all time.

[Tour2ma]

I have seen and enjoyed both "Seven Samurai" and "Yojimbo".

I've also seen "Ran" is an adaptation of King Lear.

Have enjoyed all, but "7 Sam" is tops owing to Magnificant 7 images that run in parallel in the multiplex of my mind...

[gatemplin]

I have seen 7 Samurai and Magnificent 7 and agree that Akira's original is better. I should check out the others.

[Billm57]

Rashomon is another good one

[tonyv1]

Other Kurosawa flims:
Kagemusha
Throne of Blood (Japanese Macbeth)
Drunken Angel (first movie with Toshiro Mifune, who played Lord Toranaga in Shogun)
Red Beard
High and Low

The Hidden Fortress - Acknowledged as a primary influence on George Lucas' Star Wars

Check out samurai films that Toshiro Mifune did:
The Samurai Trilogy - great story about Musashi Miyamoto

If you want Samurai with a James Bond twist checkout "The Lone Wolf and Cub" series.

[gidrah]

I've seen some of the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series. Great stuff.

Lucas modeled the 'droids after the main characters in Hidden Fortress. Great stuff.