BellaOnline Forums TV and Movies Classic Films Akira Kurosawa

Did anyone catch the two wonderful documentaries about Akira Kurosawa that were shown on BBC2 last weekend and the weekend before? My father and I "collect" Kurosawa films - he has Rashomon and Stray Dog and goodness knows what else, I have the Seven Samurai, Sanjuro, Red Beard and Rashomon (I don't live with the parents now) and all are marvellous - I was watching Sanjuro this evening.

Just wanted to say, if you haven't seen Rashomon you certainly must because it's one of the greatest films ever made - it won the Venetian Golden Lion award when it was premiered in the early 1950s. Might be a little old fashioned in black and white, but there's still nothing to beat them.

I am a huge fan of Akira and am re-collecting all my favorites on DVD. I have I think Ran, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. I love Yojimbo, it's one of my favorites <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I haven't seen Ran or Yojimbo yet but want to!!! British TV doesn't show good films like that very often and usually they're on the digital or satellite channels. I can't afford videos all the time and don't have a DVD player like my fortunate brother so I'll have to wait! Hope Dad finds his copy of Yojimbo!

The documentary showed clips from both and they were marvellous. And when I was watching Sanjuro what amazed me was the way Toshiro Mifune used his whole body to express things without words. i'm glad I'm not the only Kurosawa fan!

Really? Ran and Yojimbo are two of my favorite movies! Does your computer have a DVD player in it? You can rent them cheaply from NetFlix and I thought actually that Blockbuster had both of them in stock, if there's a Blockbuster near you. I highly recommend both!

I had forgotten that it does! Thanks for reminding me!! I have speakers too so there would be no problem.

Although I don't recall seeing a Blockbuster store near me it's because Dad said when we got the first video machine that because of the number of house burglaries due to people buying video players and then renting videoos we were not allowed to rent them as children and it's stuck. Good idea though. I'll keep my eyes open - and there is a video renting store near to my flat (British for Apartment).

At this point, many stores don't stock VHS at all - they stock DVD only - so I doubt thieves would be too interested in someone renting VHS tapes <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I bet you're safe!!

One of my favorite films strictly from a cinemtography perspective is Dersu Uzalla. Also very different from most of Kurosawa's other films.