A Rediscovery of Akira Kurosawa, Japanese Filmmaker
‘Dreams’ was the film that introduced me to the Japanese Director Akira Kurosawa. Saw it, liked it and then left it in my mind’s pending file. Beautiful movie, strange but interesting.
So it was a surprise to me, two or three years later (now) that our professor in Video Production 1 class popped in a Criterion Collection copy of Rashomon (1950). I was wowed.
“Wow!” I said, “That bandit guy’s great!”
The movie is in a 1.33 ratio (similar if not the same as a TV screen) but the compositions inside it, the placement of the characters! the movement! was poetic. So, what I did was to reconsider watching other of his films…I read about them countless times on movie books and magazines. I got hold of a copy of Yojimbo (1961). I was amazed.
“I’m amazed!” I said, “The samurai guy’s great!”
And so I opened my album of bought DVDs, a lot of them has never yet seen the light of a DVD player and popped Seven Samurai (1954). I started in the wee hours of 3 am on a Tuesday and finished the 200 minute epic nearly 5 in the morning. It was the day CSB announced cancellation of classes. I ejected the DVD. I looked at the disc cover. I was stunned.
“How stunning!” I said, “The Samurai/Farmer was great!” then paused, “No Classes! Waw! Dios ko!”
And it the idea came to me. It was Toshiro Mifune. The bandit, the Samurai, the kid-like character was this Toshiro Mifune. So I read and read and found out his filmography with Kurosawa was a long list. From movies with names like Drunken Angel, Scandal, Stray Dog to more Samurai themed ones like Red Beard, Throne of Blood, Ran, High and Low…I can’t help recall Jean Pierre Leaud and Francois Truffaut or Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. It was this collaboration that really made Kurosawa’s films such nice movies to watch, to see then to ponder.
Mifune in ‘The Quiet Duel’, ‘Throne of Blood’ & ‘Stray Dog’- all by Kurosawa
I’ll focus now in Mifune, who in his acting, makes your believe, makes you aspire, makes the screen burst with wonderful movements of the body, like a dancer. I read he was an athlete so I am jealous on that department. I recall having this feeling related to only one other actor, James Dean.
They’re the go to guys for these bright eyed wonders of the screen. Waw.
So in conclusion, watch Kurosawa films, watch Toshiro Mifune be his incredible self and by tangent, watch Dean’s films as well.
PS: Pwedeng pahiram (o pahingi) ng kopya ng Stray Dog, Scandal, The Bad Who Sleep Well at Ikiru? Pretty Please? PLEASE!!!!!
PPS: I salute the guys who are behind the Criterion Collection. You produce the best packaging designs. Keep it UP!
