Akira Kurosawa movies...

The Core RPGC Main Forum
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…on every Tuesday this month on TCM. Today they’re showing Ikiru (8 PM EST/5 PM PST), Throne of Blood (10:30 EST/7:30 PST), The Hidden Fortress (12:30 AM EST/9:30 PM PST), and Hakuchi (3 AM EST/12 AM PST).

Next week they’ll be showing The Bad Sleep Well, High and Low, and Red Beard. On the 23rd they’ll be showing Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro. And on the 30th they’ll be showing Dersa Uzala, Kagemusha, and Ran. They didn’t have this the first weekend this month.

Now, why am I listing off all these movies? I’m not advertising for TCM or anything. I just thought it would be cool if we discussed some of these movies after we watched them. I really hope that you guys will be able to check it out! I’m excited.

EDIT: Apparently there are some really early morning ones I’m missing as well. The Lower Depths will be on tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM/3 AM PST). They’ll be showing I Live in Fear and Scandal around the same time next week, and Dodes 'Ka-Den the week after.

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Tuesdays are just about the worst night for me, but I am interested in this.

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Holy shit. The 23rd has way more movies than I thought. Here’s the ones I missed (starting at 6:00 AM):

Sanshiro Sugata
The Most Beautiful
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail
Sanshiro Sugata Part 2
No Regrets for our Youth
One Wonderful Sunday
Drunken Angel
Stray Dog

EDIT:

I’ll post the time tonight’s movies are on, a synopsis, and a trailer of each. The synopses are from TCM’s website or IMDB.

Ikiru - 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

“Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing of significance. After discovering he is suffering from a terminal illness, Kanji becomes intensely self-absorbed until he finds a mission to build a playground for the children in an urban ghetto as a way of coming to peace with his life.”

Throne of Blood - 10:30 PM EST/7:30 PM PST

“Spurred by his wife and a witch’s prediction, a samurai murders his lord to steal the throne.”

The Hidden Fortress - 12:30 AM EST/9:30 PM PST

“A beautiful heiress tries to escape her lord during the Japanese feudal wars with the help of a hired samurai.”

http://www.nipponcinema.com/trailers/the_hidden_fortress_trailer/

Hakuchi (The Idiot) - 3:00 AM EST/12:00 AM PST

“Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved in turn by Akama. When Akama realizes that he will never have Taeko, his thoughts turn to murder, and great tragedy ensues.” (Based on Dostoyevski’s work “The Idiot”)

The Lower Depths - 6:00 AM EST/3:00 AM PST

“In a slum flophouse, a collection of beggars and thieves bewail their lot in life, and Osugi, the landlady, fights with her sister, Okayo, over the man they both desire, the thief Sutekichi.”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a trailer for this one.

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I’ll take the case!

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so is this like some anime or something, I saw an anime called “The Neon Genesis Evangelion” it was pretty weird but the girl had pretty big titties so that was cool. Anyway, I guess what I’m asking is, will I see some jap titty in this

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Damn your east coast times!

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Fuck, Dodes 'Ka-Den at 3 in the morning? Way to go, time zones! Also Tuesdays are horrible for me as I have to be up at 7:30am on Wednesdays. Regardless I’m watching it now as surprisingly I have the channel. Thanks for bringing this up.

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You’re welcome.

Also, I wanted to say that Ikiru has to be one of the most moving films I have seen. Since Throne of Blood is coming on, I’ll just leave it at that for now.

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This sure isn’t going to help me finish my Calculus homework… but damn, costume design is pretty cool in Throne of Blood. Especially the helmet with the giant crescent. Woo!

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Unfortunately for me, the cable went out near the beginning of The Hidden Fortress. I’m sure I’ll be able to watch it soon anyway, because it’s a very popular and available film. I just hope that my err… recorder thingy (it’s not a DVR) ends up recording the next two movies like I asked it to. I’ll talk about Ikiru and Throne of Blood tomorrow. If someone wants to talk about ANY of the movies, then just do it, or I’ll eat you.

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Man, no cable means no getting to watch any of his films on TCM. I think I should inform my parents that this is going on though. I’m sure they’d enjoy it.

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No TCM here, but his films are good (and some of them a bit on the long side). <<<understatement

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I no longer have cable either, otherwise I would’'ve watched them too, especially Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress, to see if they really inspired The Magnificent Seven and Star Wars (respectively.)

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I’ve seen Seven Samurai and Sanjuro and both were great.

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Unfortunately, I didn’t get either of the movies recorded when I was sleeping. Something’s wrong with the damned recording device. Grrr… ah, well. At least I got to see two awesome movies!

Ikiru, as I said, was possibly one of the most moving films I have seen in my life. Watanbe is a man who has wasted his life performing a meaningless job. He has no friends, and has a very tense relationship with his son. That changes when he finds out that he’s been diagnosed with stomach Cancer (this isn’t a spoiler, it’s the whole premise of the movie). The way he deals with his illness is very realistic, and heartbreaking. Though I thought it was a pretty depressing movie at first, it had plenty of funny moments and had an uplifting end for me. The whole point of the film seemed to me that the only thing preventing you from making a difference is you, not the bureaucracies that strangle us.

Throne of Blood is the best adaptation of Macbeth I have ever seen. They kept all the stuff that made Macbeth a great play, but also took out a great deal of the melodramatic nonsense. I’m particularly glad that Kurosawa didn’t have a porter as “comedy” (oh el oh el piss and shit and drunkenness so funny), and that they took out the whole man not born of woman thing. Toshiro Mifune is excellent as always, playing Taketoki Washizu (Macbeth). He seems intimidating and strong, and yet he’s actually cowardly and very easy to manipulate. I also have to give Isuzu Yamada , who plays Asaji (Lady Macbeth) a lot of credit. I don’t think she blinks ONCE in her performance, and her mad scene where she’s washing the blood off her hands is magnificent. There is a lot of kabuki style music in this film, which makes for an interesting melding of traditional Eastern and Western theater presented in a film.

That’s all I can think of for now. So… people that DID watch these movies, let’s discuss them. :slight_smile:

If you liked Sanjuro, you should check out Yojimbo. Sanjuro is Yojimbo’s sequel, at least in spirit.

Don’t let that stop you! I first saw Seven Samurai from my local library. It’s a long movie, but it’s easily one of the best I’ve ever seen. As for The Hidden Fortress… well… my cable went out in the middle of watching it last night. :expressionless:

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Thanks for telling us!

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Man. Why wasn’t this thread made sooner. I was wondering if there was going to be anything on last night, but I was too lazy to look. :frowning:

That said, the only film I’ve seen thus far was Yojimbo which is always a good movie even if the plot is regurgitated in almost EVERY OTHER ANIME EVER MADE!!!

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And in A Fistfull of Dollars.

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The plot of Yojimbo is, itself, inspired by a Dashiell Hammett story.

I haven’t seen Ikiru in years, but I remember loving it.

Throne of Blood is certainly an interesting take on Macbeth, and of course Kurosawa makes it work. Mifune’s crushing insecurity is brilliantly contrasted with a violent, dogged will that draws its power from his fears, especially in the final scenes.

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I missed the first halves of Ikiru and Throne of Blood, but everything else is recorded. I’ll start watching now…