Necro post.
It'll be his birthday soon though.
This is the only Kurosawa thread on the forum, which is surprising since he's credited with the inspiration for some of today's pop culture favourites.
A few days ago I had the urge to start delving into his samurai movies after thinking about Ahsoka in
The Mandalorian.
The Kurosawa playlist I settled on:
Seven Samurai (1954)
Throne of Blood (1957)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Yojimbo (1961)
Sanjuro (1962)
Kagemusha (1980)
Ran (1985)
As I usually do, I'm working chronologically.
Until now I've only ever seen bits and pieces of
Seven Samurai, and yesterday finished the 3 hr 27 min version.
Ever since I've heard of Kurosawa I've known this film to be regarded as a masterpiece. However, while watching it I was confused at what
exactly gave it that reputation.
From the start I found it overly slow, yet also impenetrable in places. So much time is given to some scenes where little is actually happening, yet some things happen off screen as though scenes were removed. Two instances happen early on: the samurai who violently rejects the plea to come to the aid of the village, and then the cowardly samurai who suddenly appears sleeping in the quarters with the farmers.
Maybe that was his style, to force the viewers to listen to the dialogue to fill in the gaps?
Later on the story becomes more standard.
The next obstacle is the acting, or over-acting, which applies to other Japanese films. There's parts that play like the overly expressive or overly flamboyant style of the silent era. One great exception is the subtlety in acting of Takashi Shumura playing the leader of the samurai, Kambei Shimada. His calm and considered character is almost understated by comparison.
Toshiro Mifune is fun to watch, but the comedy is very slapstick. So on the one hand you have the terrible suffering of the farmers, and on the other the clown who was born of farmers.
Then there's the fight choreography. The era requiring bloodless violence, as with the bullets that don't make holes in the shirts of victims in Hollywood westerns, doesn't help. Killing the bandits is often depicted by a lot of flailing arms and people falling over.
Finally the story itself made little sense. Why did the bandits persist in attacking such a well defended target, long after it was clear they couldn't win, when there must surely be undefended villages to rob instead?
By the time I got to the end I didn't feel as though I'd witnessed the film I've heard about and imagined for so long. It may be my inability to tune into the peculiar style of direction and acting? It's certainly not simply because it was slow and ponderous, because I count films such as
Stalker and
Blade Runner 2049 among my favourites.
Next up is
Throne of Blood, Kurosawa's Macbeth. This one intrigued me from reviews and clips due to the gloomy atmosphere.
I'm only ten minutes in, but already feel more drawn in than I was with
Seven Samurai. Now I think that maybe
Seven Samurai left me cold because while it had its moments, it was too experimental, and not yet the fully formed Kurosawa experience?
