A fugitive princess offers a new hope for a peaceful and prosperous socitey in Akira Kurosawa’s Sengoku-era epic.
Jan 20, 2023 • Subscribe
More like this
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
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.
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.
Three Women of the North (北の三人, Kiyoshi Saeki, 1945)
Three female radio operators become the backbone of a moribund war effort in the last propaganda film produced before the war’s end.
The Hidden Fortress and Cinderella Nine
The White Sox just got swept by the A’s, and the Royals traded Homer Bailey for another potentially major league player. Ivan Nova has an 82 ERA+. We’re…
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.
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 ...
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.
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.
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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Most Terrible Time in My Life (我が人生最悪の時, Kaizo Hayashi, 1994)
PI/projectionist Maiku Hama becomes embroiled in a burgeoning turf war while trying to help a friend in the first instalment in Kaizo Hayashi’s noir trilogy.
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.
Crimson Wings (紅の翼, Ko Nakahira, 1958)
An earnest pilot’s mission to deliver the tetanus vaccine to a little boy is disrupted by a fugitive yakuza hitman in Ko Nakahira’s lighthearted thriller.
Wolves of the Night (夜の狼, Yoichi Ushihara, 1958)
A heartless yakuza becomes conflicted on being confronted with the consequences of his actions in Yoichi Ushihara’s slice of Nikkatsu Noir.
Volunteering for Villainy (悪人志願, Tsutomu Tamura, 1960)
A petty would-be dictator rides roughshod over a moribund quarry town in Tsutomu Tamura’s primal masculinity drama.
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 6 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 6 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) manga covers a pivotal moment. Yes, Claire and Rae are on vacation and yes, Claire is finally getting a…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 3 ( 私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
In Volume 1, Oohashi Rei, found herself waking in the world of her favorite otome game and free to pursue the villainess of the game, the highborn noble,…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akujyaku Reijou., Volume 2 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
Watashi no Oshi ha Akujyaku Reijou., Volume 2 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) gets into the first of my two favorite arcs in the first WataOshi novel – Rei and Claire are…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Volume 7 ( 私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
In Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 7 ( 私の推しは悪役令嬢。) a new characters is introduced that will (arguably, has) changed the course of the narrative. Cardinal Lily…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 8 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 8 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) is the climax of Yu’s arc and, as a result it is poignant and touching in about 4 different…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 5 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
Before we start today’s review, I want to let you know that until May my reviews are going to be less regular. I have a relentless schedule for…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Volume 4 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 4 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) is a wild ride of a novel that has more twists and turns than the newest roller coaster at…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Volume 3 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
I don’t really know how to review this book. ^_^; There’s so much to tell you and so little I can say! In Volume 1, we met former…
Double-Headed Devil / 双頭の悪魔
They say two heads are better than one, but I suppose it depends on whose heads we’re talking about… Maria Arima, having witnessed the bruta...
Forever, My Love / 佳人 / Kajin (‘Beautiful Woman’/ ‘Good Person’, 1958)
Obscure Japanese Film #252Ryoji Hayama 1943. Shigeru (Ryoji Hayama) is a student returning from Tokyo to his hometown of Toyooka in Hyogo Prefecture on western Honshu (then part of the San’in…
Episode #50 – Lesson of the Evil (悪の教典)
Returning guest Jenn comes back for a chat about Takashi Miike’s 2012 thriller, Lesson of the Evil. Despite an interesting use of Die Moritat von Mackie Messer, it’s…
Japanese Animation, 1937-1958: or, more notes on Akira Daikuhara
The origin and core of this piece is my personal interest in Daikuhara, but it will not be another biographical piece like my previous one. I will rather…
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...
The Naked Sun / 裸の太陽 / Hadaka no taiyo (1958)
Obscure Japanese Film #254Shinjiro Ebara Kimura (Shinjiro Ebara) is a young stoker on the railway saving up to marry Yukiko (Satomi Oka), His best friend, Maeda (Tatsuya Nakadai), also works for…
The Real Thing (本気のしるし, Koji Fukada, 2020)
A bored salaryman begins to chase the real thing after saving a distressed woman from an oncoming train in Fukada’s beautifully elliptical drama
Goukaku Tame no! Yasashi Sankaku Kakei Nyuumon ( 合格のための！ やさしい三角関係入門)
Mayuki is determined to get into the school of her choice to be close to the girl she likes, her old sempai on the basketball team, Akira. But…
Throwback Thursday: 三月のライオン (Sangetsu no Lion)
As we close out 2020, and complete our 10th year anniversary celebration, we’ve been posting a final series of Throwback Thursday posts from writers, past and present, revisiting…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Manga, Volume 4 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
Grab a hankie, it’s time to read, Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 4 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) In this pivotal issue, the Commoner Movement arc develops quickly and comes…
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 9 (Manga) (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 9 (Manga) / 私の推しは悪役令嬢。picks up in the middle of Cardinal Lily’s delusion that she has a chance to be something romantic…
Endless Desire (果しなき欲望, Shohei Imamura, 1958)
A gang returning to dig up the stolen morphine they buried at the end of the war is slowly torn apart by their greed in Shomei Imamura’s darkly…
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.
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.
The Real Thing 本気のしるし Dir: Koji Fukada (2020)
The Real Thing 本気のしるし Dir: Koji Fukada (2020) is an absorbing and addictive thriller about ascertaining the authentic aspect of a relationship and persona.
Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou -Revolution-, Volume 3 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。-Revolution-)
This week inori.-sensei announced a brand new fantasy series and it seemed like a fitting place to squeeze in one more review of the series that was her…