Desperate peasants recruit samurai protectors in Akira Kurosawa’s classic historical epic back in UK cinemas Oct. 29
Oct 29, 2021 • Subscribe
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Seven Samurai (1954)
Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai remains engaging despite being 66 years old. The story follows seven ronin, masterless samurai, as they defend a farming village from a band of…
Eleven Samurai (十一人の侍, Eiichi Kudo, 1967)
Faced with dissolution, a wronged clan plots revenge against a selfish and entitled young lord in Eiichi Kudo’s nihilistic jidaigeki.
Samurai Kids (水の旅人－侍KIDS－, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1993)
A small boy grows closer to the natural world while guiding a tiny samurai on his journey to the sea in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s charming family adventure.
The Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人, Akira Kurosawa, 1958)
A fugitive princess offers a new hope for a peaceful and prosperous socitey in Akira Kurosawa’s Sengoku-era epic.
I Live in Fear (生きものの記録, Akira Kurosawa, 1955)
An elderly man’s nuclear paranoia threatens to tear his family apart in Kurosawa’s post-war social drama.
Seven Samurai
This was the first episode of our Akira Kurosawa series with Chris (@antoniuspius) on it, so I...
Seven Samurai
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Rhapsody in August (八月の狂詩曲, Akira Kurosawa, 1991)
Three generations reckon with the wartime past after receiving news from estranged relatives in Hawaii in Kurosawa’s humanist drama.
The Seven Great Detectives / 7人の名探偵
Yukito Ayatsuji ’s The Decagon House Murders was published in 1987, and is credited with kick-starting the shin-honkaku (new orthodox) mov...
Scandal (醜聞, Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
The battle for the soul of the post-war society is fought in the body of a conflicted lawyer in Akira Kurosawa’s seasonal morality tale.
Akira Kurosawa Retrospective at the BFI 2023
The good folks at the BFI have sent us details for an up coming Akira Kurosawa Retrospective. Set to run from Sunday 1st January 2023 until ...
Ikiru (生きる, Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
A lifelong bureaucrat is confronted by the emptiness of the salaryman dream when diagnosed with a terminal illness in Akira Kurosawa’s intensely moving melodrama.
Rashomon (羅生門, Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
A series of witnesses give conflicting accounts of a death in the forest in Akira Kurosawa’s exploration of the limits of objective truth.
Kagemusha (影武者, Akira Kurosawa, 1980)
A thief reborn as a lord finds himself caught between the contradictions of the feudal order and the borders of identity in Akira Kurosawa’s Sengoku-era tragedy.
BFI to Host Complete Akira Kurosawa Retrospective
At BFI Southbank January and February 2023.
Yojimbo (用心棒, Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
A cynical ronin plays warring factions off against each other to save a moribund silk town in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai western.
The Idiot (白痴, Akira Kurosawa, 1951)
A pure soul is destroyed by the selfishness and duplicity of the post-war society in Kurosawa’s snowbound adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novel.
Freelance Samurai (桃太郎侍, Kenji Misumi, 1957)
An abandoned son resolves to wander Japan killing the “demons” of Edo-era society in Kenji Misumi’s adaptation of the popular novel by Kiichiro Yamate.
Seven Days War (ぼくらの七日間戦争, Hiroshi Sugawara, 1988)
Oppressed teens rebel against the constraints of the Bubble-era society in Hiroshi Sugawara’s anarchic Kadokawa teen movie.
Seven Samurai and Hanebado
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Seven Samurai and Hanebado
The Chicago Bears are the champions of the NFC North! It has been a long journey toward relevancy for the Bears, but we’re finally here again. It’s been…
Watching Akira Kurosawa Movies for the First time!
Rashomon If you like movies and/or Japanese culture, it’s impossible to not hear the name Akira Kurosawa, the most culturally significant filmmaker in Japan’s existence. He made a…
Sanjuro (椿三十郎, Akira Kurosawa, 1962)
The cynical drifter finds himself offering fatherly advice to idealistic but hot-headed samurai youth in Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo followup.
Stray Dog (野良犬, Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
A rookie policeman chases an echo of himself through the backstreets of post-war Japan while looking for his missing gun in Akira Kurosawa’s sweltering noir.
Watanabe, Kurosawa, & Kumagai: 2004's Inadvertent Samurai Trilogy
While the ninja is arguably the most iconic thing to come from Japan when it comes to worldwide pop culture, I think it's more than fair to ...
The Mannequin House Murders / 人形館の殺人
I didn’t like this book at all. I don’t have much more to say about it.
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A Samurai in Time (侍タイムスリッパー, Junichi Yasuda, 2024) [Fantasia 2024]
A lone samurai struggles to adjust after being unceremoniously transported to our times in Junichi Yasuda’s time slip dramedy.
The Lower Depths (どん底, Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
In the absence of salvation a comforting falsehood is the only means of survival in Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of the Gorky play.
Seven Years Itch (七年之癢, Johnnie To, 1987)
The shifting social codes of late ‘80s Hong Kong come under the microscope in Johnnie To’s Cinema City sex farce.
Punk Samurai (パンク侍、斬られて候, Gakuryu Ishii, 2018)
The arrival of a chaotic ronin spreading tales of a weird cult results in a battle between “monkeys and idiots” in Gakuryu Ishii’s irreverent jidaigeki comedy.
Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城, Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
An ambitious retainer falls victim to the false promises of a forest spirit in Akira Kurosawa’s haunting adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Sound of the Mountain (山の音, Mikio Naruse, 1954)
A failed patriarch resolves to set his unhappily married daughter-in-free in Mikio Naruse’s post-war marital drama
High and Low (天国と地獄, Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
A self-made millionaire faces a moral dilemma when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped in place of his own in Kurosawa’s post-war crime film.
Dodes’ka-den (どですかでん, Akira Kurosawa, 1970)
The denizens of a small slum on the outskirts of the modern city live largely on wilful self-delusion in Kurosawa’s first experimentation with colour.
Drunken Angel (酔いどれ天使, Akira Kurosawa, 1948)
A gruff yet well intentioned doctor does his best to cure the ills of post-war Japan in a rundown slum on the edge of a fetid swamp in…
The Most Beautiful (一番美しく, Akira Kurosawa, 1944)
Kurosawa’s second feature explores the intense dedication of a collection of factory girls crafting precision lenses in a late National Policy Film.
The Man Who Died Seven Times / 七回死んだ男
After Evelyn Hardcastle died seven and a half times, dying seven times just doesn’t seem that impressive… The protagonist of The Man Who Di...
How the Film Influenced Anime: The Seven Samurai vs. Samurai 7
Seven Samurai is one of the most influential movies ever made, yet its anime adaptation continues to languish in relative obscurity. We take a look back at both…
Asakusa no yoru / 浅草の夜 (‘Asakusa at Night’, 1954)
Obscure Japanese Film #156 Ayako Wakao and Machiko Kyo Setsuko (Machiko Kyo) is a dancer at a theatre in Asakusa, where she’s been havin...
The Woman in the Rumour (噂の女, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
A mother and daughter find themselves deceived by the same man, each hemmed in by realities which cannot be altered in Kenji Mizoguchi’s touching melodrama.
Death Within the Evil Eye / 魔眼の匣の殺人
It’s difficult to succeed genius. Chrono Cross isn’t as good as Chrono Trigger , Bioshock 2 isn’t as good as Bioshock , and National Treas...
Wife of a Spy (スパイの妻, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2020)
An upperclass housewife finds herself pulled into a deadly game of espionage in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s dark exploration of the consequences of love
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by Marc Saint-Cyr March 23rd is a particularly noteworthy date for admirers of Japanese cinema, as it marks the birth of one of its most b...
The Silent Duel (静かなる決闘, Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
A doctor who contracted syphilis from a patient wrestles with desire and responsibility in Kurosawa’s post-war drama.
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Otona no Yuricon 2020 (大人のユリコン2020)
After a prolonged trip across the ocean, a long-awaited doujinshi has finally arrived at my home. And, like clockwork, the Melonbooks website is down for maintenance, so I…
Seven Samurai (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD) Unboxing
The classic film by Akira Kurosawa recently received a 4K Ultra HD release by BFI in the UK. The limited edition sold out but I managed to secure…
Seven Days in Heaven (父後七日, Essay Liu & Wang Yu-Lin, 2010)
A young woman embarks “the most ridiculous journey” of her life after returning home for a series of involved burial rites in Essay Liu and Wang Yu-Lin ’s…
Five Sisters / 女の暦 / Onna no koyomi (‘A Woman’s Calendar/Almanac’, 1954)
Obscure Japanese Film #177 Kyoko Kagawa Yoko Sugi Their parents now deceased, two adult sisters now live together in their old family ...
Tokyo Sweetheart (東京の恋人, Yasuki Chiba, 1952)
A fake ring causes untold chaos in a small corner of Ginza in Yasuki Chiba’s charming ensemble rom-com.