foreign films Ive seen

"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.

the great underdog story. a man who should struggle between the path of glory and being a good father, he really doesnt struggle at all. fatherhood comes first for the main character much to the suprise of the other samurai. a story about a man who seems lost to all around him but really only cares for what he loves.

absolutely incredible. this is only the second movie af all time to make me cry, and i cried twice. absolutely one of the sadest things i have ever seen. this film won best picture at the japanese academy awards in 2003 and absolutely deserves it. the story was marvelous and the acting was incredible. there were 2 major things in this movie that infuriated me, those 2 things made me so angry that i wanted nothing more than to HATE this movie. but i cant hate it. its nearly perfect. the main character does have a major contradiction within his character which seems like a possible flaw in the script, but other than this point this film is brilliant. the 2 things that made me want to hate this movie werent flaws or script issues, they were just things in the story that didnt go my way. this film does not have your typical happy ending. but like i said, despite my tears and sadness for the characters at the end, i cant find anything about this film thats not beautiful. i havent stopped thinking about it since i watched it, one of my favorites of all time.

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.

this is a beautiful film. the close of yoji yamada's loose samurai trilogy, this film catches a seemingly cliche theme of a man looking for sight through blind eyes and makes something extrordinary and anything but cliche. the diologue is poetic and tragic and the story is passionate and heart felt. the acting, music, and direction were amazing and the cinematography was as good as it gets. yamada should never stop making period pieces, all three from the trilogy of films with similar themes were mind blowing. this will be one of my most rewatched films in years to come.

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.

an incredible finale to a great trilogy, the duel at the end is a classic scene built with anticipation and excitment. mifune was great as always and this film makes the trilogy feel less like a simple love story and more like an epic of human development. wonderful film.

a great middle step to one of the best trilogies ever.

considered the gone with the wind of Japanese cinema, a good blend of drama and samurai action.

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.

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.

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.

fantastic film. winner of 12 japanese academy awards, this one has a great ending. not as good as the film yomada made right before this one, but a great flick with a deeper story than many samurai films.

interesting and powerful, gong li is beautiful in this film

beautiful. best of its genre

great romance, french film but i would recommend to anyone

one of the greatest martial arts films i have ever seen. really brilliant. the fighting is excellent and the story was told very well.

very good story. the fighting is great and the lead character does a great job. the diologue is great and the story moves quickly leaving you interested through the entire film. a movie where the end leaves you satisfied.

the end was a little upsetting, but the rebel in me was excited for this one. overall a great flick, and even the disappointing end has a redeeming moment.

what a wonderful film. this film definitely deserved the oscar that it recieved last year for best foreign film, it was even better than pans laberynth. the plot was amazing and creative, the actors were incredible and it was a great portrayal of berlin before the wall came down. the story was also complete, something rare in cinema these days. i felt satisfied at the end that i knew the entire story. i HIGHLY recommend this film to anyone who can sit through a foreign film. wonderful.

mezmorizing, creative and fun. i loved this flick, it really makes you think.

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.

very inventive. the story was creative and deep. the only flaw in fact is that the story was too deep, so deep that parts were very confusing. alot of characters whose story intermingle in complex ways. the fighting was great and i loved the concept of samurai spies, sort of like early incarnations of ninjas.

this was an excellent samurai flick. a story about two brothers battleing over the right to be shogun, the story is well told with great plot twists and a fast paced feel. conspiracies abound and you never know which side to root for from one moment to the next. by the end you realize that the only character worth rooting for was only semi-significant until the close of the war causes him to be the carrier of justice. highly recommended.

this samurai epic is one of the many examples of the greatness of samurai films and japanese film in general. inagaki does a bang up directing job and mifune puts in another of his countless stellar performances. the story is great, the camera work and locations used were top notch, and the film possesed a beauty to it that has to be seen to be understood. a legthy film that justifies its 2 hr and 45 minute length. great film.

zatoichi breaks into the world of color film in a great way. this third instalment of the zatoichi series is great, with more thoughtful diologue and an even more intriguing storyline than the first two which were already very good. zatoichi meets his mentor in a great duel and stands up for justice at the same time. excellent samurai film.

this film is 3 and a half hours. it basically breaks into 2 halves, before the intermission is story and character development, after the intermission is the unfolding of the mission. based on a true story and one of the most famous instances in japanese history, this film tells the story of the 47 samurai who defied the shogunate to avenge the death of their master. character development is usually my favorite part of a movie, but in this film they over did it. there was too much development even for my taste. having said that, by the end of this film you cant say that they didnt tell you the whole story. there is zero action until the very end when the film climaxes in a huge fight scene, but it was worth the wait. the fight scene was brilliantly coreographed and the action was unmissable. getting through the over the top story telling was well worth it with the huge pay off at the end of one of the better fight scenes ive seen in a samurai film. when the film is over, the extensive story telling didnt bother me, although it was a bit much, it served me better having known so much about the characters. i felt invested. this was a great film that is worth the lengthy time it took to watch it. tashiro mifune was also good in this film but i was suprised at how small his role was. at the time this film was made mifune was already a big star and he had very little screen time, but he was good as usual. a great samurai film.

holocaust films are always so interesting and powerful to me, while also being by far the most depressing to me as well. this is a great film and very deserving of its oscar for best foreign language film, but it is incredibly sad all the same. to see that real people suffered such a fate is always disturbing. wonderful film covering an angle of WW2 that many havent heard about.

really fascinating, based on the realities of life for many in austrailia not so long ago, independant but well done

incredible, the end was lacking but the director found some beautiful shots

this is a great war film and one of the best french films i have ever seen. i would have rated it an entire star higher were it not for the gratuitous smut given me on three different occasions in the film, but aside from this dissapointing element the film was brilliant. the story was flawless and well executed, the cinematography was solid, and the actors were great. a solid tale of the french resistence to nazi rule, i was gripped the entire way through. you see the characters evolve and develop so well that i cared about each of them. wonderful movie.

great flick. tatsuya nakadai is becoming one of my favorite actors, and he is good in this one. the story is a little confusing at parts but becomes more clear at the end. mostly about betrayal but the action is good and it gives an even perspective to the ups and downs of being a samurai.

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.

this is a simple yet very engaging samurai classic. katsu plays this role well and the story was well told with a great climax ending. i cant wait to make my way through the entire zatoichi series.

we pick up a year after the last zatoichi ends, and i have to say that i was excited to see zatoichi again. if i feel this way after 2 films, im sure by film #10 he will feel like an old friend. just as good as the first, this film continues some of the first films story lines in interesting and entertaining ways. a really solid samurai classic.

this was a great samurai film. the shinsengumi are a well documented group of loyalists to the shogun in japans history and this is a great film about them. mifune was brilliant as he always was. you get to a point in this film where one moment you are rooting for mifune and his followers, and the next minute you are rooting against them. you sort of go back and forth throughout the film. in the end, i was saddened by the outcome but i was ok with it. really a great film.

one of mifune's portrayals of the character yojimbo. certainly not as good as the versions directed by kurosawa, but mifune obviously knows this character. this is a solid film with a great and unexpected twist.

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.