In the absence of salvation a comforting falsehood is the only means of survival in Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of the Gorky play.
Jan 19, 2023 • Subscribe
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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.
The Eleventh Hour (どたんば, Tomu Uchida, 1957)
The problematic working practices of a post-war coal mine are thrown into stark relief when five men are trapped underground during a collapse in Tomu Uchida’s tense rescue…
The Lower Depths and Tsurune
We broke some walls in this episode, one of them may have been the fourth. I’ll leave...
The Lower Depths and Tsurune
We broke some walls in this episode, one of them may have been the fourth. I’ll leave it in, to Chris’s chagrin. Speaking of Chris (@gokuffy), we’re still…
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.
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 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.
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 ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
BFI to Host Complete Akira Kurosawa Retrospective
At BFI Southbank January and February 2023.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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 depths of obsession
“I don’t want to do this. I *have* to do this.” These are the kinds of words spoken in obsession, a state that’s easy to see from the outside,…
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.
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.
The depths of a niche
The anime fandom is a pretty narrow interest group. The kind of present day late night TV anime that you and I tend to focus on, are an…
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.
Manga Kodomo Bunko (まんがこども文庫) OP - I Am Reading (よんでいる)
Sung by (歌): Mitsuko Horie (堀江美都子) Lyrics (作詞): Eriko Kishida (岸田衿子) Composition and Arrangement (作曲・編曲): Seiichirō Uno (宇野誠一郎) Very special thanks to PopKorn Kat for transferring and scanning this record!
Clockwork Aquario: Emerging From The Depths
Clockwork Aquario is finally out. It's been a long wait, and I'm not just talking about the 28 years since the game went through some awkwa...
Manga Kodomo Bunko (まんがこども文庫) August ED (8月の歌) - The Fountain (ふんすい)
Sung by (歌): Koorogi '73 (こおろぎ'73) Lyrics (作詞): Futabako Mitsui (西條ふたばこ) Composition (作曲): Takekuni Hirayoshi (平吉毅州) Arrangement (編曲): Nozomi Aoki (青木望) Very special thanks to PopKorn Kat for transferring and scanning this…
Manga Kodomo Bunko (まんがこども文庫) July ED (7月の歌) - Lullaby of the Zoo (どうぶつえんのこもりうた)
Sung by (歌): Kumiko Kaori (かおりくみこ) Lyrics (作詞): Tomoko Koike (小池知子) Composition and Arrangement (作曲・編曲): Nobuyoshi Koshibe (越部信義) Very special thanks to PopKorn Kat for transferring and scanning this record!
Ghost in the Well (1957) review
Toshikazu Kono hits all the right emotional notes to deliver a satisfying tragic love story.
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.
Manga Kodomo Bunko (まんがこども文庫) September ED (9月の歌) - Coral Reef (さんご礁)
Sung by (歌): Kumiko Ōsugi (大杉久美子) Lyrics (作詞): Tetsuzō Komura (古村徹三) Composition and Arrangement (作曲・編曲): Seiichirō Uno (宇野誠一郎) Very special thanks to PopKorn Kat for transferring and scanning this record!
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…
Episode 163, "Adventures On The Lower East Side"
On this episode of The One Piece Podcast, Greg returns for a Manga Recap of Chapter 621, “Otohime and Tiger,” we have an Anime Recap of Episode 494,…
Episode 163, "Adventures On The Lower East Side"
On this episode of The One Piece Podcast, Greg returns for a Manga Recap of Chapter 621, “Otohime and Tiger,” we have an Anime Recap of Episode 494,…
Tropical-Rouge! PreCure Episode 45: Depths of the Ocean
The end is nigh in the forty-fifth episode of Tropical-Rouge! PreCure – and even if the Cures can prevent that from happening, it doesn’t change the fact that…
Manga Kodomo Bunko (まんがこども文庫) May ED (5月の歌) - The Skylark (雲雀)
Sung by (歌): Suginami Junior Chorus (杉並児童合唱団) Lyrics (作詞): Rofū Miki (三木露風) Composition and Arrangement (作曲・編曲): Nobuyoshi Iinuma (飯沼信義) Very special thanks to PopKorn Kat for transferring and scanning this record!
Man Who Causes A Storm (1957)
Inoue’s rags-to-riches narrative might not escape the territory of predictability, but he puts enough thematical meat on the table so that the spectator, in full knowlegde of how…
Temptation (誘惑, Ko Nakahira, 1957)
The cynical practicality of the post-war generation is contrasted with the wistful romanticism of their forebears in Nakahira’s charmingly witty comedy
RWBY: Ice Queendom Episode 5: Weissland Depths
In case some didn’t realize I pronounce her mind world as “Weiss-luhnd”, not “Weiss Land”.
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,…
The Blue Danube (きまじめ楽隊のぼんやり戦争, Akira Ikeda, 2021)
An earnest soldier begins to question everything he’s been told thanks to musical intervention and a curious young man in Akira Ikeda’s absurdist anti-war drama
The Desperate (どろ犬, Takaharu Saeki, 1964)
A bruiser cop railing against the system is pulled towards the dark side in Takaharu Saeki’s icy noir.
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…
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…
Books: The Impact of Akira
By Andrew Osmond. If you were asked which singer comes to mind in connection with Akira, most readers would think of Kanye West cosplaying Tetsuo in his pants…
The Eagle and the Hawk (鷲と鷹, Umetsugu Inoue, 1957)
Strapping sailors meditate on revenge and forgiveness while trapped aboard a moribund cargo ship in Umetsugu Inoue’s otherwise charming musical youth drama.
Warm Current (暖流, Yasuzo Masumura, 1957)
A trio of youngsters tussle for the post-war future through the medium of a love triangle in Masumura’s ironic melodrama