Akira Kurosawa
100th Anniversary Film Retrospective
May 14-27 2010

The Hidden Fortress

(Japan, NR, 1958, 139 minutes)

A general and a princess must dodge enemy clans while smuggling the royal treasure out of hostile territory with two bumbling, conniving peasants at their sides.  Fortress is a spirited adventure that only Kurosawa could create. Acknowledged as a primary influence for George Lucas' Star Wars, Fortress delivers Kurosawa's inimitably deft blend of wry humor, breathtaking action and humanist compassion on an epic scale.  Probably Kurosawa’s most dazzling exercise in pure filmmaking — his first use of Scope — and perhaps Mifune’s most purely swashbuckling vehicle.

“One of Kurosawa’s graphically strongest works, reveling in spectacular wasted landscapes as well as choreographed action.”
–J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

High and Low

(Japan, NR, 1963, 143 minutes)

Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist who has raised a large sum of money to execute his planned takeover of a successful shoe manufacturer.  Fate intervenes when he receives a phone call informing him that his son has been kidnapped…and the ransom demand is nearly equivalent to the amount raised for his corporate coup.  A philosophical dilemma emerges when it is revealed that his son is safe, and that it is actually his chauffeur's son who has been taken.  What follows is both a tense detective thriller and a compelling illustration of class division in Japan – the "high and low" of the title.  This adaptation of the Ed McBain novel, King's Ransom, provides the director with ample opportunity to develop a visual strategy that perfectly enhances the story's sociological themes.

“The masterpiece of Kurosawa's modern-day movies.”
–Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

I Live In Fear

(Japan, NR, 1955, 103 minutes)

When an elderly, wealthy man decides that nuclear holocaust is eminent in his country, he decides to move his family to Brazil at all costs – a place which, for some mysterious reason, he believes to be safe.  When they refuse to relocate, Nakajima becomes increasingly desperate and even burns down his foundry to force them to go to Brazil.  I Live in Fear is a strong indictment against the inherent evils of nuclear warfare; it is also the story of a man's love and dedication to his family in the face of his own fears and endangerment.  Every device at Kurosawa’s command is enlisted to enforce the mood of oppression and of unease.

“A masterwork that deserves to be better known.”
–Bright Lights Film Journal

Ran

(Japan, NR, 1985, 162 minutes)

Stunning new 35mm print

As critic Roger Ebert observed in his original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear.  It's a film for the ages – one of the few genuine screen masterpieces – and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great director's career.  In this version of the Shakespeare tragedy, the king is a 16th-century warlord who decides to retire and divide his kingdom evenly among his three sons.  As familial tensions rise and betrayal sends Lord Hidetora into the throes of escalating madness, Ran (the Japanese character for "chaos") reaches a fever pitch through epic battles and a fortress assault that is simply one of the most amazing sequences on film.

“A Masterpiece.  Almost a religious experience!”
–Vincent Canby, The New York Times

Seven Samurai

(Japan, NR, 1954, 208 minutes)

Hailed as the greatest film in the history of Japanese cinema, Seven Samurai is Kurosawa's undisputed masterpiece.  The story is set during the civil unrest of 16th-century Japan as the cowering residents of a small farming village are seeking protection against seasonal attacks by a band of marauding bandits.  Offering mere handfuls of rice as payment, they hire seven unemployed "ronin" (masterless samurai), including a boastful swordsman (Toshiro Mifune) who is actually a peasant farmer's son, desperately seeking glory, acceptance, and revenge against those who destroyed his family.  Led by the calmly strategic Kambei, the samurai form mutual bonds of honor and respect, but remain distant from the villagers, knowing that their assignment may prove to be fatal.

“Kurosawa’s masterpiece.  The greatest battle epic since Birth of a Nation.  Widely imitated, but no one has come near it.”
–Pauline Kael

Stray Dog

(Japan, NR, 1949, 122 minutes)

While a rubble-strewn Tokyo swelters through a torrid heat wave, awkward young white-suited detective Toshiro Mifune finds to his shame that his pistol has been stolen and used in a murder.  Thus begins his obsessive, guilt-ridden search, highlighted by a nearly ten-minute dialogue-less sequence shot by hidden camera in the toughest black market section of the city.  A confessed admirer of Georges Simenon, Kurosawa adapted his own unpublished novel for this, his first detective film (the second is High and Low) and the real beginning of the genre in Japan.

“Ranks with Kurosawa's greatest works! You can feel Kurosawa’s excitement at the prospect of reinventing the conventions of his national cinema.”
–Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

Throne of Blood

(Japan, NR, 1957, 109 minutes)

One of the most celebrated screen adaptations of Shakespeare into film, Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood re-imagines Macbeth in feudal Japan.  Starring Toshiro Mifune and the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife, the film tells of a valiant warrior's savage rise to power and his ignominious fall.  With Throne, Kurosawa fuses one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies with the formal elements of Japanese Noh theater to make a Macbeth that is all his own – a classic tale of ambition and duplicity set against a ghostly landscape of fog and inescapable doom.  A must-see for fans of Japanese cinema and devotees of samurai weapons and armor.

“May well be Kurosawa’s best film.  Replaces Shakespeare’s verse with a purely visual poetry of equal magnificence.”
–Time Out New York

Yojimbo

(Japan, NR, 1957, 109 minutes)

Toshiro Mifune plays a drifting samurai for hire who plays both ends against the middle with two warring factions, surviving on his wits and his ability to outrun his own bad luck.  Eventually the samurai seeks to eliminate both sides for his own gain and to define his own sense of honor.  Yojimbo is striking for its unorthodox treatment of violence and morality, reserving judgment on the actions of its main character and instead presenting an entertaining tale with humor and much visual excitement.  One of the inspirations for the "spaghetti Westerns" of director Sergio Leone, Yojimbo offers insight into a director who influenced American films even as he was influenced by them.

“The best samurai film ever made… a treasure trove of attitude.”
–J. Hoberman, The Village Voice