Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
RANKED:
16. Kagemusha (1980)
In the 1980s, Akira Kurosawa got one last boost in creative output from his illustrious and dense career. To help with the financials, Kurosawa fanboys George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola convinced 20th Century Fox to finance the remainder of the budget on 1980's "Kagemusha" in return for international distribution. The result is what I would consider to be visual practice for his even more masterful "Ran," only five years later. However, "Kagemusha" remains an interesting feat in the visual prowess of a timeless filmmaker like Akira Kurosawa.
15. The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
The first film Akira Kurosawa made with his new production company, Kurosawa Productions, was his 1960 film "The Bad Sleep Well." Taking inspiration from real-life corporate cases as well as William Shakespeare's "Hamlet," the film tells the story of a man who takes an important role at a corrupt corporation in order to exact revenge on the men responsible for his father's death. However, in typical 'noir,' fashion, things get pretty difficult. Although not at the top of Kurosawa's filmography, "The Bad Sleep Well" is still an engrossing hard-boiled noir flick.
14. Dreams (1990)
In one of the last films he would ever make, Akira Kurosawa decided to upload his subconscious onto the film screen with "Dreams." The film depicts eight vignettes of Kurosawa's frequently recurring dreams. In it, we not only see the artist's coconscious on display, but we see a tapestry of images that muse upon the human experience - all it's anxieties, horrors, grace, and hope. Through a journey into Kurosawa's subconscious, we also dive deep into the subconscious of the human experience.
13. Dersu Uzala (1975)
In the early 1970s, Akira Kurosawa finally got his opportunity to go to Russia and make a Russian adaptation of one of his favorite pieces of Russian literature, V.K. Arseniev's "Dersu Uzala." It is a story of a topographical surveyor who forms an unlikely but unbreakable bond with a nomadic Goldi hunter as he surveys the Serbian region of Russia. It's a film that navigates nature, survival, friendship, and even tragedy.
12. Drunken Angel (1948)
Akira Kurosawa's first major work of his career was 1948's "Drunken Angel." The film tells the story of an alcoholic doctor helping a stubborn yakuza member dealing with a dying lung. Many consider the film to be in the category of 'noir,' due to the protagonist's journey of discovery that the people he's placed his life and faith into ultimately are using and driving his life and health into the ground. This ultimately becomes analogous to post-war Japanese sentiments, as many were in a state of depression and melancholy after realizing the ultimate cost of putting their faith in a government who not only misused their faith, but actively diminished their capacity of life.
11. Throne of Blood (1957)
In adapting William Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Macbeth" to the film screen with 1957's "Throne of Blood," Akira Kurosawa created perhaps the best visual representation of the Scottish play outside of Orson Welles' 1948 adaptation. The only thing missing from Kurosawa's vision is Shakespeare's poetic dialogue. Despite this, Kurosawa is able to translate the rise and fall of his warlord visually. Even if you have seen the play many times, either on stage or on film, Kurosawa's biblical vision of humanity's bloodthirsty need for power is by far one of the more visually stimulating.
10. Stray Dog (1949)
With 1949's "Stray Dog," Akira Kurosawa took the opportunity to up his technical skills as a director. This noir film is full of engaging imagery and visuals, used to draw the viewer in. Kurosawa uses action and blocking to demonstrate relationships between characters, and thereby relationships between ideas. "Stray Dog" examines post-war Japanese culture and the ways in which we are forced into morally compromised situations. Along the way, the concept of the 'buddy cop' drama sprouts as well, creating an interesting crime film which represents the final act of Kurosawa being considered an 'amateur.'
9. Red Beard (1965)
Had Kurosawa not continued his impressive comeback in the 80s, 1965's "Red Beard" would have been the perfect culmination and ending to his body of work. Much slower and contemplative than his more typical kineticism found in his films, "Red Beard" empathizes with the suffering of life. As a young doctor comes to work for the aging master, Red Beard, he slowly begins to dissolve his ego and inhabit the lives of the poor souls of the clinic. Over the course of the three hour film, both our protagonist and the viewer begin to see humanity and life itself from a new perspective. Typically, a Kurosawa film asks "what do we do with all this chaos and suffering?" Well, "Red Beard"s response to that would be: do what we can to help people and ease suffering. I'd say that is about as simple of a theme as you can get to end Kurosawa's phenominal run from 1950 to 1965.
8. Sanjuro (1962)
A loose sequel to his 1961 masterpiece, "Yojimbo," "Sanjuro" finds our nameless samurai venturing into another situation that requires his expertise. Although not as iconic or on the same level thematically or visually as "Yojimbo," "Sanjuro" still offers up some of the best action and adventure intrigue for audiences. Regardless of what kind of film he is making, Kurosawa has a unique way of hooking his audience into his the story. Although not the monolith his other films are, this one still packs a punch.
7. The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Akira Kurosawa, with his 1958 adventure film "The Hidden Fortress," does what he does best: tows the line between entertainment and thematic art. Like his other films, "The Hidden Fortress" seems to contemplate what to do with the horrible state of chaos with humanity. As the film progresses, the desperate greed of our two beggar protagonists gets contrasted to the noble and honorable work of Toshiro Mifune's knight and the princess' reconnection with her humanity. In the end, the best antidote to greed and chaos is self-sacrificing yourself for the greater good. However, if you don't wish to study the artistic laurels of the film, it does provide you with one of the greatest adventure stories in the history of cinema. Either way you slice it, "The Hidden Fortress" is a must-see.
6. Ikiru (1952)
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"Ikiru," or "To Live" revolves around a bureaucrat who discovers that he has terminal stomach cancer. What would you do if you found out you were dying? Reconnect with your family? Go out and party one last time? Find some internal peace within yourself? Our bureaucrat discovers the answer through what he is able to give through his life. He's spent the last 30 years toiling away for the state, never actually helping anyone or doing anything. His last act as a human being was to cut bureaucratic corners in order for a park to be built for his community. Perhaps life shouldn't be so Western/individualist-centric? Perhaps the meaning in life doesn't have to do with our own sense of internal peace. Rather, perhaps our life is about what we are able to give to our fellow being and what we are able to do for others, despite not taking any credit or receiving any appreciation for it.
5. High and Low (1963)
1963's "High and Low" is perhaps Akira Kurosawa's greatest 'contemporary'-setting films he's ever made. The film has 3 acts: the beginning 'high,' in which a powerful and wealthy industrialist make a crucial moral decision between his livelihood and a child's life, the middle 'and' in which we follow a police investigation to find the perpetrator of the original crime, and a final 'low' in which we go into the pits of hell in the lowest economic areas of Japan to bring the perpetrator to justice. The only problem is that, once we reach the final scene, we become empathetic will all parties involved. It is not any individual person with whom to lay fault with. Rather, it is the cold and uncaring economic system separating the 'high' society from the 'low' society that is causing the problem. Kurosawa's visual mastery allows "High and Low" to be one of the most engaging thrillers of his career and of the 1960s.
4. Yojimbo (1961)
Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai film "Yojimbo" has been endlessly imitated in global cinema. From 1960s American Westerns to modern blockbusters, "Yojimbo" is an endless well of inspiration. Like many of Kurosawa's films, the story is relatively simple. When a nameless samurai comes to a town ravaged by violence, he pits two rival gangs against each other to achieve peace. To deal with the question of chaos and violence, Kurosawa uses the film medium to build a nameless hero whom he uses to combat it. Rather than muse about practical ways to deal with building a new society and perspective, as he does with "Seven Samurai," Kurosawa removes practicality in favor of a romantic fantasy with his nameless samurai. Kurosawa films this story masterfully, and his direction of the climactic final showdown is forever engrained in film history.
3. Rashomon (1950)
Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" might be most notably remembered for its plot structure, which has been used time and time again in film and television since its inception. Often called the "Rashomon Effect," this plot device takes a single event and gives contradictory interpretations by the individuals involved. The same happens in the original "Rashomon," in which the murder of a samurai is recounted in contradictory accounts. The only perplexing thing about this is the each individual giving their account admits to being the murderer. Because each story could all equally be both true and untrue, as well as each individual equally choosing to be the murderer, Kurosawa points to the utter senselessness of our world. In a post-war Japan, this despair felt by this senselessness was palpable and Kurosawa was imploring Japanese audiences not to allow this senseless to break their spirits. In the end of the film, our unnamed protagonist chooses to retain his faith in humanity despite the horrors he's witnessed. "Rashomon" allows us to see that our own interpretations of this senselessness is not inherent to truth but that, despite this, we should not choose despair and suffering as our truth.
2. Ran (1985)
Perhaps often overlooked in Akira Kurosawa's vast filmography, 1985's "Ran" is a culmination of Kurosawa's visual artistic vision. While many would gleefully point to "Rashomon," "Yojimbo," or "Ikiru" as being a pinnacle of Kurosawa's work, I would harken to say that it may just be his best ever. The most expensive Japanese film made at the time, "Ran" knows no limit when it comes to grandeur. Taking the story of Shakespeare's "King Lear" and turning into a warring-period Japan, Kurosawa creates something one of a kind with his use of color, scope, scale, mise-en-scene, you name it. The film was made at a time of nuclear anxiety during the Cold War 80s. This anxiety reaches and all-time maximum limit with "Ran," as the film deals with apocalyptic fallout and the absent face of God.
Often considered one of the most remade, reworked, and referenced film in cinema history, "Seven Samurai" is an unyielding action masterpiece. A story about seven samurai coming together to help a small farming village defend themselves against bandits, the film deals with the need to shed individualism in favor of collectivism. Kurosawa took the physical manifestations of these unique bodies and, as the film progresses, wove them together into a single, collective mass. As the characters begin to work together, strategize together, and get on the same page, they begin to stop being so selfish and start to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. This ideal was an important one for post-war Japan, as Kurosawa's film demonstrated the need to unite as a nation to tackle its post-war problems. Because of its monumental impact on global cinema, "Seven Samurai" became a blueprint for the modern action epic and was an overflowing source to mimic story structure, character development, and a singular, monumental vision.
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