director: kurosawa films

"hes a great doctor. no, hes a great man." that quote from this film really wraps it up. this movie is flawless, perfect in every way. easily kurosawas best directing job, and mifunes acting performance is one of the greatest in film history. every line of diologue, every camera shot, everything was perfect. one of the 10 greatest films i have ever seen, absolutely brilliant in every way. the young doctor, the little boy towards the end, all of the acting was great and this story is stunning and beautiful. dont believe that kurosawa can only make samurai films, this one is even better than seven samurai.

Tashiro Mifune playing his best character. a film about a wondering ronin samurai who seems rough and distant but is really searching to screw over as many scoundrels as possible. this kurosawa film is often imitated and never matched. Great samurai film.

i just watched this movie for the second time and it was worth reviewing again. masterpiece. considered one of the 20 greatest movies of all time by most critics, and considered the greatest samurai film ever, this movie lives up to all of its hype. this film just furthers the lengends of kurosawa who did an amazing job making this film, as well as mifune and shimura for their brilliant acting performances. the whole film all i kept thinking was "wow this movie is amazing, perfect in every way." there are actually 2 other kurosawa films i like more, but that doesnt take away from this film, it just proves that kurosawa was a genius. what a fantastic film.

Tashiro Mifune with a semi-sequal to yojimbo, almost as good as yojimbo, this film integrates humor into the role of the wondering ronin. even though yojimbo was slightly better, you can see a progression in kurosawa's skills as a director. this is a great movie.

kurosawa does it again. this movie is incredible. i wasnt expecting alot from this because its one of kurosawa's lesser known films, and its one of the best movies ive ever seen. a detective story about a man whos son is kidnapped, this film takes you through every step of what a detective goes through when trying to solve a case. this film had a very intricate plot line and the details of the case were woven together perfectly. usually films this complex have holes, but this one was perfect. kurosawa got some great shots as usual and the acting was brilliant. the end was a little abrupt, but not enough to be an issue. great story, another great film from kurosawa.

profound. everything about this film is moving. it inspires the viewer to not waste his life. kurosawas shots are perfect as always and the side characters are just as compelling as the lead character. this is considered one of kurosawas 2 masterpieces along with seven samurai, there are 5 or 6 kurosawa films i like better but thats only because everything he does is so good. this movie is near flawless and i highly reccommend it to anyone. it will tug at your heart and make you doubt whether anything you do is worth your time.

incredible. kurosawa never ceases to amaze me. this is considered one of kurosawas least appreciated films but its so perfect. tashiro mifune offers up another brilliant performance. kurosawa is known for his period films but this one takes place around 1960 when the film was made. this is just as good as kurosawas other more well known films. just incredible. this film tackles corporate corruption and revenge and it has some cool plot twists. must watch for any movie fan.

what a fantastic movie. this film is great, very similar in a lot of ways to kagemusha but much better. i thought about giving this film 5 stars but there is a loose end that wasnt tied up when the movie was over, and 5 star movies tie up their loose ends. but regardless, this is an epic film. tatsuya nakadai does an absolute wonderful job and each scene was shot beautifully. i cant believe that in akira kurosawa we had one man that could make so many incredible films. this is one of the best films i have ever seen and i can name 5 of his i liked better. there are plenty of characters in this film to root for and plenty of villians as well, great war film from fuedal japan.

lucas' major inspiration for star wars, this is a great film. a must watch, one of kurosawa's best

a beautifully crafted love story, and one of my favorite kurosawa films. there are three scenes that catapult this film into greatness, the baseball scene with the little kids, the scene where the two main characters dream about their future coffee shop, and the climactic closing scene that is one of my favorite scenes in film history where the two characters imagine taking part in a symphony in an empty ampitheatre. the weather plays a character, helping to change the disposition of the male lead, and the short speech the female lead gives to the empty ampitheatre (more specifically to us at home) sums up the purpose of the film beautifully. a wonderful sunday indeed, creating a wonderfully delightful film.

i liked this film a lot. this is considered one of kurosawas 5 greatest films, and i wouldnt even put it in my top 8 of his, but it was still very good. i think most respect this film so much because it was the film that catapulted kurosawa to stardom, and i can see how. mifune and shimura were great as always and the story was very compelling. ultimately, its a story about liars and thieves and the reality that most people in this world are not to be trusted. the scene with the psychic was a little wierd and the last fight scene was weak, but most of this film was great. more brilliance from akira kurosawa.

really good flick. one of kurosawas earlier films and it is considered to be his coming of age film. it really does show the growing brilliance of kurosawa. mifune and shimura are both great in this movie about a cop hunting down a thief who stole his gun. you see the progress that the cops make in finding the criminal one step at a time until the climatic ending, which was the best part of the movie. it was very slow at times and was light on dialogue, but kurosawa made this slow story interesting. as with most kurosawa films the weather was as much a character in the film as the people were. another great one by kurosawa.

really intersting film. a movie by kurosawa about poverty and the people who live in it. there are some very profound things in this film and i think it really helps one to understand an impoverished mind set. to see people living like this is troubling, and kurosawa did a great job with the diologue as usual. very similar to reniors version of the same story made 21 years earlier.

this is a very profound film. mifune nails his portrayal of an old man losing his grip, and you see that he doesnt genuinely go crazy because of the reasons his family thinks he's crazy, he goes crazy because of his family themselves. shimura's character was great and even underused, and he is the character with the real moral dilema that the audience can relate to. very good and different film.

great flick. mifune and shimura are great as usual and the story was very interesting. this is one of those films that has you asking, "what would i do if that was me?" kurosawa wrote a great script as usual and the direction was great. ive read where people have compared this to red beard and they shouldnt, they are two very different films. the only similarities are that they are about a doctor who helps people in need, the rest is entirely different. this film is no red beard but not many films ever made can compare to that one, but this is a great flick.

even though this is one of kurosawa's more criticized films, i really liked it quite a bit. the acting and incoherence of the plot are the things most often criticized, and while i agree the love story lost its focus a few times, i actually found the acting to be very engaging. as with most kurosawa films, the script was the strongest point, with diologue that was complete and poetic at times. i do feel that they could have cut another 20 minutes off the film, but this final product is an already much trimmed down version, from the original 4 1/2 hour film kurosawa intended to this 2hr and 46 minute final product. overall, another beautiful film by the master of directors.

akira kurosawa's version of shakespears macbeth. this was a solid film in most ways. part ghost story, part betrayal story, mifune plays a rare role as a villian and does a magnificent job as always. there were some chilling shots in the film and the story was told well. this was definitely a less involved movie than most of kurosawas work, but still compelling. a story about a woman with a poisonous tongue confusing her loyal husband into betrayal and treason against his lord in fuedal japan. the wife plays a character riddled with evil.i have to say that i did expect more from this film because there was less struggle than i expected, but still a solid film.

a great morality tale, mifune and shimura put in their usual top notch performances in this kurosawa film about a tough gang leader that is softened by the combination of a deadly disease and a no nonsense doctor. the film was a little redundant in the beginning and it started a little less engaging than most kurosawa pictures, but the themes of human struggle and optimism were strong and the overall feel of the film was wonderful. another good kurosawa effort.

a solid film with great acting and diologue, even if the plot was a little silly. there is a sense where the plot is very good as it points out the abuses and hypocracy of the media, but at the same time the film didnt really carry any significance in the bigger picture of humanity which is rare for a kurosawa film. still, this story had some profound elements, especially the internal moral struggle of shimura's character and the impact that his dying daughter had on him. written and shot well and entertaining to watch.

scattered and unclear, but a great representation of japanese regime culture. battle scene at end is terrible, but the characters are represented well.

pretty fulfilling movie. this is actually a series of 8 short films that average around 15 minutes each. they are short films about the actual dreams of kurosawa. george lucas and martin scorcese helped make this film and a variety of actors starred in the various short films. ultimately 4 of these films were fantastic, 2 were just ok, and 2 werent very good, but overall it is worth a watch for any die hard kurosawa fan so that we can get inside of his head a little. blizzard and watermill village were the most profound of these. if you arent into kurosawa, you might not like this film much at all.

pretty decent film. a late film for kurosawa made toward the end of his life, its one of my least favorite of his but still a great watch. this is a film about 4 kids spending the summer with their grandma in nagasaki reliving the events of the atomic bomb in 1945. richard gere appears in this film and was a little miscast. gere being in this film is maybe the only decision kurosawa has ever made that i would question, but this was still a solid film. a problem that i had as an american was that the japanese characters were a little condemning about the US dropping the a-bomb, which they have a right to be, but they never mention the fact that we dropped the bomb because they attacked us first. they make it sound like we dropped the a-bomb because we had nothing better to do that day. but it was still great to see the japanese perspective on a horific event in human history.

one of kurosawa's earliest films, this one has his characteristic great diologue and thoughtful presentation. this is one of my least favorite kurosawa films, it starts well and sort of loses something along the way and the film drags you through things unnecessary to the story. but it was still very good in most respects. when one of kurosawa's worst films could be this good, its just more evidence that he was a master filmmaker.