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.
Jan 10, 2023 • Subscribe
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Episode #65 (S9E3) – Kagemusha [影武者] (1980)
In this episode, Perry is joined by Derick McDuff of the Underrated podcast network to discuss Akira Kurosawa’s 1980 film, Kagemusha. It received a lot of support from…
The Third Shadow Warrior (第三の影武者, Umetsugu Inoue, 1963)
A peasant dreaming of samurai glory finds himself sacrificing his identity in service of a false lord in Umetsugu Inoue’s dark existential drama
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.
BFI to Host Complete Akira Kurosawa Retrospective
At BFI Southbank January and February 2023.
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.
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.
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 ...
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.
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.
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.
Seven Samurai (七人の侍, Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Desperate peasants recruit samurai protectors in Akira Kurosawa’s classic historical epic back in UK cinemas Oct. 29
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Online Tributes to Akira Kurosawa for the 102nd Anniversary of his Birth
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.
Wuhan Wuhan (武汉武汉, Chang Yung, 2021)
Chang Yung’s exploration of the later stages of Wuhan lockdown provides a more hopeful counterpart to the fear and confusion of 76 Days
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.
One Wonderful Sunday (素晴らしき日曜日, Akira Kurosawa, 1947)
A young couple attempt to have a nice day out in Tokyo for only 35 yen but eventually discover something much more valuable in Akira Kurosawa’s surprisingly upbeat…
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.
Toward the Terra (1980)
Toward the Terra (1980) I tend to really enjoy stories that feature big concepts – especially imaginings of the future, and Toward the Terra features both of those…
No Regrets for Our Youth (わが青春に悔なし, Akira Kurosawa, 1946)
A young woman is torn between a future with a passionate rebel or spineless conformist in Kurosawa’s meditation on the militarist folly.
Akira
Akira is an Action Science Fiction Adventure anime film by legendary Japanese animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha. Even if many people consider something a masterpiece, that does not…
Crazy Thunder Road (1980) review
“A nihilistic and wild exploration of the self-destructive nature of a relentless search for a dose of pleasure.”
Kaiju Transmissions podcast: Virus (1980)
While there hasn’t been a new Maser Patrol episode in a hot minute, Kevin (along with author John LeMay) had a chance to drop by the Kaiju Transmissions…
Astro Boy (1980) 40th Anniversary
It’s the 40th Anniversary of Astro’s colour version this year! A fact which makes me realise that this particular show and I are getting on a bit (I’m…
Manga Musings: Onani Master Kurosawa
Myriad manga are set in the school environment and granted, a lot that I've come into contact with focus on cute high school girls. Onani Master Kurosawa however,…
1980 Lookback with Writer Hideki Oka
From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium Fan Club magazine, Vol. 15 (October 2022): 2202 and 2205 scriptwriter Hideki Oka looks back at the progressive year 1980 and recounts his…
Crazy Thunder Road (1980) [Film Review]
Crazy Thunder Road; or, Falling Down I founded the Maboroshi group eight years ago. Now I'm one of its seniors. You should know I'm on ...
AKIRA Pamphlet
Hi there! It’s been awhile. Apologies for the delay! Uni has been my top priority these days, but I still love sharing resources on this blog. Hopefully I’ll…
Vertical Akira
Lately it seems like every day people come up with ingenious new ways to use the latest generation of AI algorithms. A few weeks ago, this video by…
Shadows (殘影空間, Glenn Chan, 2020)
A traumatised psychiatrist finds herself in an ideological battle of wits with a duplicitous rival in Glenn Chan’s eerie psycho-noir
Tokyo Sonata (トウキョウソナタ, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2008)
Orphaned salarymen are the soulless ghosts haunting an increasingly empty city in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s eerie tale of urban anxiety
Sweet Home (スウィートホーム, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1989)
A documentary film crew encounter a vengeful ghost while investigating a creepy mansion in an early gothic horror adventure from Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Firechick's Anime Reviews: Astro Boy (1980 Remake)
Rating : 70/100 On April 3rd, 1952, Osamu Tezuka started up a new manga that would later become not only one of his most iconic works, but become…
Takeshi Maenami【前並武志】Sakuga MAD
Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A0ICz6rVvU I've been wanting to make a Maenami MAD for a very long time at this point, but given that his work has such unique timing and the…
Akira football stickers
On the streets of Göttingen, Germany, supporters of the local football (soccer) club have pasted stickers with characters from Ōtomo’s manga. This first one with Kaneda’s face I…
Akira Storyboard Collection
page 1 of the storyboard collection I was recently able to find the complete storyboard collection that was included in the Blu-Ray release of Akira. Here is the…
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In this episode, Shaun celebrates Halloween with the dark cyberpunk 80's icon: Akira. Meanwhile, Remington overlooks the dramatic cultural impacts and is more focused on the blue kids…
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I was originally planning to post my Emerald City Comic-Con post today, but I think we all know that Akira Toriyama is more important then one day I…
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The “Then” Newer Astro Boy Created by Osamu Tezuka in the 1960’s in manga form and anime soon after, it’s hard to think of a time period where…