Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

"...Directed by: Akira Kurosawa. Starring: Martin Scorsese, Chishu Ryu, Mieko Harada, Mitsuko..."

July 15, 1999 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Ran

Kurosawa uses Shakespeare's King Lear as a template, but in Ran Lear's three scheming daughters are sons, and the action is transposed to a mythic, dreamlike, feudal Japan. Like an adrenalized fever dream of ultimate power gone awry, Ran reveals Kurosawa's grasp of visual splendor at its most powerful.

"...Directed by: Akira Kurosawa. Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke..."

Dec. 1, 2000 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

(Re)learning Japanese

One was a hardworking Renaissance man, a student of literature. The other was a hard-living military veteran, a cameraman-in-training who stumbled into acting after his grizzled mug and gruff mien won a talent search. Together, Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune created some of the Japanese cinema's most enduring treasures.

"...mug and gruff mien won a talent search. Together, Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune created some of the Japanese..."

Feb. 7, 2003 Screens Feature by Marrit Ingman

Last Man Standing

"...Hill has instead drawn inspiration from Eastern lore, namely Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai classic Yojimbo, which has, of course,..."

Sept. 27, 1996 Movie Review by Joey O'Bryan

Vantage Point

Like Rashomon, this Dennis Quaid vehicle replays a single event – the assassination of the U.S. president – from multiple points of view.

"...glaring idiosyncrasies, of which there are many. Like the Akira Kurosawa classic, Vantage Point replays a single event –..."

Feb. 22, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Last Samurai

Tom Cruise turns Japanese.

"...those gloriously muscular films by the great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, cinematic masterpieces like Yojimbo and The Seven Samurai...."

Dec. 5, 2003 Movie Review by Steve Davis

The Silk Road

"...visual and emotional grandeur of a David Lean or Akira Kurosawa film. Only the battle scenes, depicted as bloodthirsty..."

Aug. 7, 1992 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Rhapsody in August

"...Directed by: Akira Kurosawa. Starring: Sachiko Murase and Richard Gere. Kurosawa's lovely..."

March 27, 1992 Movie Review by Kathleen Maher

Living

Bill Nighy explores the inner desperation of a very proper Englishman

"...for British novelist and scriptwriter Kazuo Ishiguro to adapt Akira Kurosawa's 1952 drama, Ikiru (itself based on Leo Tolstoy's..."

Jan. 27, 2023 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

DVD Extra: 'Throne of Blood'

Criterion drops Kurosawa's Japanized 'Macbeth' on Blu-ray

"...not speak its name aloud; however, once you watch Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, you may begin to think..."

Jan. 8, 2014 Screens Post by Marjorie Baumgarten

Madadayo

"...Directed by: Akira Kurosawa. Starring: Akira Terao, Masayuki Yui, George Tokoro, Hisashi..."

Dec. 7, 2000 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Drunken Angel

"...Directed by: Akira Kurosawa. Starring: Michiyo Kogure, Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura...."

July 12, 2000 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Postwar Kurosawa

Five underappreciated films from the Japanese master

"...Postwar Kurosawa: Eclipse Series 7Criterion Collection, $69.95..."

Feb. 8, 2008 Screens Review by Raoul Hernandez

Pulse

The ghost is literally in the machine in this prototypical Japanese horror film that works primarily with dread and inexplicable phenomena rather than blood and guts.

"...Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Starring: Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Aso, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka, Masatoshi..."

Jan. 6, 2006 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Yojimbo & Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa

A double re-release from one of cinema's greatest director-actor duos

"...Yojimbo & Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa..."

Feb. 2, 2007 Screens Review

Kagemusha

All of the director's classic themes and techniques are here, but 'Kagemusha' also ushered in a new period in Kurosawa's style, one influenced by the countless hours, months, and years he spent painting imagined scenes from the movie as he waited dejectedly for funding to come in

"...out of the despair and depression that were writer/director Akira Kurosawa's lot after several commercial failures in the Sixties..."

April 8, 2005 Screens Review by Josh Rosenblatt

Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa and longtime lead Toshiro Mifune together interpreted Macbeth to legendary effect.

"...Hoaglund, who was raised in Japan, and her seven Kurosawa interpretations for Criterion over the years speak (or rather,..."

July 4, 2003 Screens Review by Raoul Hernandez

Drunken Angel

In his 1948 debut for the immortal Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa, Toshirô Mifune unleashes a naked rage that anticipates James Dean by a half-dozen years

"...one thing, and he gives me back 100," poker-faces Akira Kurosawa in one of two featurettes for Drunken Angel...."

Dec. 7, 2007 Screens Review by Raoul Hernandez

The Bad Sleep Well

Sandwiched between career peaks, Kurosawa serves corporate sacrifice – suicide by seventh-story window, truck, and volcano – rather than feudal slicing and dicing

"...Criterion, $29.95 Akira Kurosawa's hallowed samurai epics camouflage the Japanese sensei's facility..."

Jan. 20, 2006 Screens Review by Raoul Hernandez

Godzilla Minus One

The king of the monsters returns in a mighty period drama

"...see him smash through a newly rebuilt Tokyo to Akira Ifukube's classic theme, filmed in a way that might..."

Dec. 1, 2023 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

13 Assassins

The prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike takes a turn toward the truly epic with this classically styled samurai picture.

"...13 Assassins is Miike's bid for a jewel on Akira Kurosawa's crown, and as such, it's an audacious attempt..."

April 29, 2011 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Lady and the Duke

"...a bold move for a man of his age (Akira Kurosawa was another director making waves this late in..."

June 28, 2002 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Kurosawa's 'Stray Dog' and 'Ikiru'

"...did joy of being reunited with my family," confessed Akira Kurosawa in 1982's Something Like an Autobiography, excerpted in..."

July 2, 2004 Screens Review by Raoul Hernandez

Extra Special

Gift guide

"...a singular masterpiece, relative more to its visionary director Akira Kurosawa, perhaps, than the neophyte cinephile. A Shakespearean tragedy..."

Dec. 9, 2005 Screens Feature by Raoul Hernandez

Kenjutsu: The Art of the Sword

The Hideout improvises tales of samurai battle and broken honor

"...of the Sword is to the samurai-based oeuvre of Akira Kurosawa...."

March 28, 2014 Arts Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

The Magnificent Seven

Revisionist remake stars a diverse rainbow coalition

"...John Sturges’ 1960 Western (itself an oater remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1956 film The Seven Samurai) is not terribly..."

Sept. 23, 2016 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Uzumasa Limelight

The hero of this beguiling Japanese film is a kirare-yaku or “sliced actor” – a certain kind of Japanese actor/stuntman who always dies by sword in the shadows.

"...sword-fighting films were better off rewatching any one of Akira Kurosawa’s many Edo-period epics, or digging deeper with Hideo..."

Dec. 5, 2014 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Warrior's Way

An Asian assassin seeks refuge in a small town in the American Badlands where ninjas and cowboys duke it out.

"...It goes back further than that, of course: Without Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Seven Samurai, there would be no..."

Dec. 10, 2010 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Owning Mahowny

"...the cinema, like John Ford and John Wayne or Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. Indeed, all the performances here..."

June 20, 2003 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Princess Mononoke

Japanese animated feature is packed with an environmentally aware storyline, breathtaking animation, and clever dialogue penned for this American release by Brit fantasist Neil Gaiman and delivered in English by a slew of American actors.

"...Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki. “Akira Kurosawa meets Walt Disney on the deck of the..."

Nov. 26, 1999 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

1   2   3     NEXT ›    3 »