All month Turner Classic Movies is showing a boatload of Kurasawa movies. A total of 26 films including pretty much all the ones you'd expect plus a few you wouldn't.
Sure, they're showing Seven Samuri and Yojimbo, which I've seen dozens of times, but any chance to watch Ikiru and Throne of Blood and Ran is welcomed around my house. And after driving me away with, "31 Days of Oscar," which amounted to 31 days of crap that I've already seen and really don't want to watch again, this is very welcome. Maybe we could get a Seijun Suzuki film retrospective some day.
9 comments:
Great news! I get TCM and haven't yet watched a couple of these.
The SO is too uptight to watch new stuff, but classic Japanese cinema might be worth a shot...
You really can't go wrong with Kurasawa. It's all really watchable stuff. The only complaint I've ever heard from anybody I've pushed Kurasawa on was they didn't like reading subtitles. I have to admit, there really aren't a lot of his movies that have been dubbed in to English. In fact, I can't think of any.
So, what does the SO watch if it ain't new? Kinda narrows it down.
Ikiru is tomorrow night -- a bit heavy, but it's really a great film, so I'll use it to try to wean her off of the notion that Japanese film is all panty shots and extreme blood and violence ; )
Subtitles can be a deal-breaker for some, especially those folks who don't do a lot of reading!
What does she watch? Certain comedies, certain chick-flicks, and a shit-ton of Disney. In fact, we saw 'The Princess and The Frog" at the cheap seats last night and she wasn't all that impressed -- I don't know whether it was do to the fact that it's too modern, the weird, Voodoo subtext, the CGI use (very well-done I thought), or the length. Personally I liked it from a cel-animated cartoon vs. CGI animated standpoint.
She claims that I've seen more movies than anyone she's ever met -- of course, I'm a fair bit older than her, and she needs to branch out a little at age 26, but I think she'll find there's a lot of high-quality entertainment value in films from the past!
Ikiru is possibly my favorite Kurasawa movie. The final reel always gets me, not a dry eye in the house.
I see Throne of Blood and The Hidden Fortress are on tomorrow night, too. Both of 'em are high on my list. I'm kind of surprised they're not showing Hidden Fortress in the earlier time slot. It's a bit more mainstream then Lady Macbeth. Plus it's Star Wars before Lucas filed the serial numbers off.
Yeah, I'm setting the VCR up to record tomorrow night...
I'd suggest High and Low next Tuesday and Rashon on the 23rd, but I wouldn't push it. If she doesn't want to watch, her loss.
I was renting and watching some Bollywood movies from the 60s and one of them was a remake of High and Low. They even lifted lines straight from the movie. I can't remember the name of it, but it was actually pretty good. There were 5 or 6 musical numbers and the soundtrack was wah wah guitars straight outta Shaft. Very enjoyable but in a different way then the original Kurasawa...
High and Low is gritty, but nothing compared to today's standards; it's practically G-rated next to Watchmen!
- DVC
Trolling the beergeeks...
The Bollywood version of High and Low sounds like a trip. I'll have to hunt around for it.
FWIW, Criterion has AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa.
http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/678-ak-100-25-films-by-akira-kurosawa
Over three bills, but a lot of good stuff there.
Post a Comment