For our Weekly Animation Spotlight: I’ve been watching Kurosawa, and I want to talk about the films I’ve seen so far. A kind of cheat, since this isn’t animation at all. But Kurosawa’s so awesome that I think it’s forgivable.
Kurosawa’s Wikipedia article is a pretty full summary of his life, and provides a lot of details to someone who really came into his own post-World War II. He made 30 films over his career of nearly 60 years, and it’s cool to see the variety of topics that he addressed in his films. Recently, I found out nearly all of those films are in our university library, and I realized it was high time I learned from a master.
Here’s two video essays from Every Frame a Painting about how Kurosawa did different things in his films: composing shots with movement, and another on the geometry and staging of a scene. Both essays are very instructive and insightful. Every frame of a film needs to be created and composed, and there are ample ways to present a story effectively.Â
I had already seen two of his films - they were the ones I started with here:
An interesting psychological film where a samurai’s murder in the woods is presented through multiple different accounts. But none of the accounts make sense together; who is telling the truth? What is the truth here?
I watched this for the first time maybe three years ago, and I noticed the choice to stage the murder and its resulting stories in the forest. The light from the sun is obscured by the trees above, so that all of the truth in the story is obscured by the witnesses’ bias. Contrast that with the court where the trial proceeds, where everything is open and clean and clear (or should be). Also, interesting that in the court the characters are speaking to a judge off screen, much higher than the witnesses - and we are on the same level, just as unsure who is telling the truth.
Here’s an interesting article by Norman Holland analyzing the film much deeper than my own thoughts here.
Hands down my favorite Kurosawa movie of the six I have watched so far, and one of my favorite films ever. I’ve seen this at least four times, and it’s still viscerally powerful and engrossing. Each of the seven samurai are memorable, and the battles are thrilling.
If you’ve never heard of this movie, you’d probably recognize the basic plot: a group of warriors are hired to protect a village from bandits who steal their food (A Bug’s Life, anyone?). I’ve read articles that describe this as the proto-action movie, or a movie that defined a number of the conventions of the action genre.
This film is three-and-a-half hours long, but every time I watch this, I lose track of the time. Much of the film is spent building up the characters, showing their relationship to the villagers and each other. It’s a slow burn, until the bandits arrive once more and the fight commences, and lives are lost.
The Seven Samurai was remade in America as The Magnificent Seven, a western set in Mexico. While a good and fun movie (with a ton of Hollywood stars as the seven cowboys), I think I care for The Seven Samurai as characters and as a film altogether.
You might have noticed the same guy popping up in a number of these films, like the man in the image of Rashomon and the samurai second to the left in The Seven Samurai. This guy’s name is Toshiro Mifune, a prolific Japanese actor who was in 16 of Kurosawa’s own films. He is once again the star for this film.
Yojimbo is the story of a ronin (leaderless samurai) who wanders into a town infested by two rival gangs trying to rule the town. The samurai slowly dispatches the gangs by turning them against each other.
Just as The Seven Samurai has elements of action movie in it, Yojimbo has the feeling of a Western. The above shot shows a clear example of this - just that everyone is wearing kimonos instead of shirts and pants and boots. (In fact, this film was remade into a spaghetti Western - A Fistful of Dollars).
The ronin from Yojimbo is (kind of) back in this pseudo-sequel. A similar kind of plot: the ronin finds samurai in need of help, and he must use his wits to right wrongs in town.
This film is much lighter compared to Yojimbo - with the ronin clucking and tsking all of the impulsive samurai trying to do the right thing, I didn’t feel nearly as concerned for his ultimate outcome as I did in the first film. Yet it is a fun film in its own right, and once I accepted its differences, it was quite enjoyable. Although the best and most intense part of the film, at the end (where this screenshot is from) is my favorite scene. Whew.
Finally leaving the feudal period behind, we watched Ikiru next. Ikiru is the story of a mid-level bureaucrat who is diagnosed with stomach cancer and is faced with a crisis about what he should with his life.
Kurosawa made a number of films that are concerned with social impact - I could see it in the first four films that we watched, but it was even more evident here.
I felt the first half of the movie was stronger than the second - I was surprised by the direction the plot took in the middle, and I had a hard time staying engaged. But the ending, where the man swings and accepts his life for what it is - beautiful movie magic.
Another one of Kurosawa’s social films. An engaged couple spend one Sunday together in post-war Japan.Â
A lot of people compare this to Frank Capra’s films, namely It’s a Wonderful Life, where the film focuses on the common person, with their own triumphs and successes on a much smaller scale. Some would criticize it as sentimental, and I can see where they are coming from.
I think the most interesting part of this film is its portrayal of life in postwar Japan. This movie was made in 1947, while America still occupied the country, and although there are no Americans in the movie, these people have many of the same hopes and dreams and challenges that so many others face all over the world. Cultures might be different, but the basic needs are the same.
This is Kurosawa as a younger filmmaker starting to come into his own. I noticed his trademark staging in many places, just not as tight well-composed as it eventually grew into. It’s not my favorite of his films - but it is sweet, and I appreciate it for that.
Considering that I’ve still only watched 1/5 of his films, I am excited to see what else lies ahead! Plenty left to discover and enjoy!
