A (Quick) Guide to Akira Kurosawa

When summer comes and my schedule frees up, I'll discuss the works of my all-time favourite director in more detail. In the meantime, I'll just do a little introduction for anyone who may not be all that familiar with the man's magnificent filmography: how his different films suit different tastes, their various levels of accessibility, and in what order I'd recommend checking them out.

His most 'accessible' films - Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962)

Yojimbo (1961)

Moving at an incredibly brisk pace, both films focus on perhaps the greatest hero in cinematic history, Toshiro Mifune's nameless ronin who uses his master swordsmanship to deal with various lowlife criminals and aid some poor villagers. Yojimbo is one of the greatest films of all-time; with the most basic of concepts and 'good v.s. evil', it creates a fantastic and tense atmosphere with Kurosawa's direction, with equal parts humour and intense action, courtesy of the one-of-a-kind screen presence of Mifune. I could watch his ronin trolling dumb criminals, perform swordplay, and subtly pull the strings around the manipulative Unosuke (a marvellous Tatsuya Nakadai) all day long. It's fun but also deeply involving, and is just one of the most purely entertaining films ever made. Sanjuro is not as amazing a film, but it's still a terrific sequel, more lighthearted (till an unexpected conclusion), and once again has Mr Mifune in tip-top form.

His 'masterpieces' - Rashomon (1950) and Seven Samurai (1954)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Rashomon is interesting in that it was the first Kurosawa film I saw, and it left me a bit cold the first time I watched it. I've since grown to appreciate it a lot more; I still don't think it's his best film, or even in his top 5 of all-time, but it's a taut, meticulously crafted piece of 'mystery' cinema that also packs quite the emotional punch with its conclusion. Seven Samurai is my preferred film of the two; it's a wonderful 'men on a mission' film that set the standard for everything from The Magnificent Seven to Rogue One. It features some of the most dynamic setpieces and cinematography of any Japanese film and its storytelling and characterizations are truly one-of-a-kind. These two are perhaps his most universally acclaimed films, and I must say they deserve that wholly even if they aren't quite my all-time favourites.

His epic, Shakespearean character studies - Throne of Blood (1957), Ran (1985)

Kurosawa loosely adapted Macbeth and King Lear for these two films, respectively, and it's pretty amazing what he does with the source material. The influence is there, but it all feels so fresh and with such unique, Kurosawa-esque spins on the material, for example in his immaculate handling of the final act of the deranged king's downfall in the former, and the terrific touches he places with the characters of Gloucester and Edgar in the latter. They're great companion pieces to the original plays but also so much more, and Ran in particular features all-time great costumes and cinematography - an assault on a castle makes for one of the most harrowing sequences in cinematic history.

His intimate character studies - The Quiet Duel (1949), Ikiru (1952), Kagemusha (1980)

Ikiru (1952)

I'll admit that The Quiet Duel is a step below the other two films. It's a solid and well-made film but lacking in originality and a bit too melodramatic at points. It's got Toshiro Mifune on top form though. The other two films present two other Kurosawa favourites as the leads. Kagemusha has Tatsuya Nakadai in a fascinating dual role of sorts as a powerful feudal lord and his secret double who is instated into power when the former dies. It's such an intriguing companion piece to Ran in that they both depict Japan in the Sengoku period of social and political upheaval, but with such different scopes and perspectives. And Ikiru is just a masterpiece, a masterclass in everything, direction, screenplay, and of course its toweringly meek lead performance by Takashi Shimura. It's one of the most unbearably tragic films of all-time, an unparalleled examination of dying and awaiting death, that becomes one of the most inspirational films of all-time as Shimura's Watanabe gradually finds the will to make the most of his remaining life.

His underrated gems - Drunken Angel (1948), Stray Dog (1949), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Red Beard (1965)

Stray Dog (1949)

These are all films rarely discussed when discussing Kurosawa's greatness, but they really should be. Drunken Angel is a brilliant sorta-crime film about a hardened gangster (Mifune) and his relationship with a drunkard doctor (Shimura). It's the first collaboration between Mifune and Kurosawa, and it's an effective low-key film which moralizes without forcing the message, and makes for a thrilling and heartbreaking fable. Stray Dog is a terrific crime thriller, a sort of Se7en before Se7en with its use of the wise mentor-eager rookie cop dynamic in a simple but unbearably tense cat-and-mouse game between the two policeman and a rogue guman through the streets of post-war Tokyo. Each scene builds up to something greater, and I particularly love it when the criminal/killer gets caught up to as it makes for some truly nerve-wracking scenes. The Hidden Fortress is just a good old-fashioned and enjoyable adventure/samurai tale that partially inspired Star Wars, it's slight but tremendously fun, and Red Beard is a tough watch, but a very rewarding one if you give it some time, but definitely one to watch only after Kurosawa's grown on you.

His true masterpiece - High and Low (1963)

See future blog posts for more info, but for the timebeing, watch it, now. One half a terrific acting showcase for a uniformly terrific ensemble, one half an amazing showcase for a director ramping up tension and the genre of the police procedural to its greatest heights, and throughout a tightly plotted, and intensely moving study of a good man doing the right thing against the odds, and a bad man doing the wrong thing with the odds thrust against him, and somehow managing to make both 'high' and 'low' equally sympathetic.

A mixed bag - One Wonderful Sunday (1947), Scandal (1950), I Live In Fear (1955), The Bad Sleep Well (1960)

The Bad Sleep Well (1960)

For someone I consider my favourite director of all-time, there's still a lot of his films I need to see. This lot is all a solid lot, but don't quite reach the heights of Kurosawa's best works. Scandal starts off strongly as a stire but ends up in a very tonally imbalanced state, in terms of tone and its performances, till its conclusion, which does admittedly work quite well. One Wonderful Sunday is a nice little film but never really stands out like the best of his work in any way. I Live in Fear is a very well-acted film but the central concept never really worked all that well for me, it kind of felt like Take Shelter but not nearly as memorable. The Bad Sleep Well is perhaps the strongest of this lot, a very well-made film and an effective pseudo-adaptation of Hamelt, but unlike the other two Shakespearean adaptations I never felt it went beyond that.

Kurosawa ranking:

1. High and Low (1963)
2. Yojimbo (1961)
3. Ikiru (1952)
4. Seven Samurai (1954)
5. Stray Dog (1949)
6. Ran (1985)
7. Drunken Angel (1948)
8. Throne of Blood (1957)
9. Rashomon (1950)
10. Red Beard (1965)
11. Sanjuro (1962)
12. Kagemusha (1980)
13. The Hidden Fortress (1958)
14. The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
15. One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
16. The Quiet Duel (1949)
17. I Live in Fear (1955)
18. Scandal (1950)