The Kurosawa Project

Official tumblr of The Kurosawa Project. Sharing film awesomeness, focusing on Japanese film of the 40's, 50's, and 60's. thekurosawaproject.org

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Hey Tumblr, long time no see. We’re slowly making a come back here. In the meantime, here are some photos of Toshiro Mifune visiting the Dersu Uzala production in the Soviet Union. 

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So the Riatlo reissue of “Ran” made the box office top 50 this weekend. That’s kinda cool! We at the Kurosawa Project missed it in theaters this time, but were lucky enough to have seen it on the big screen in 2014 with a Tatsuya Nakadai Q&A afterward. 

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A very rare color photo from what appears to be the “Yojimbo” set. Looks like lunch time. AK at center in the brown coat. 

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A bit of a strange photo here. What seems to be a press conference - note the micrcophone - with the cast of “Dersu Uzala”, sat to Kurosawa’s right, and Mifune, who had nothing to do with that movie, on Kurosawa’s left. 

“Dersu Uzala” was shot in the Soviet Union over the course of a year, to get the full spectrum of weather in Sibera. According to accounts from the set, Kurosawa drank a bottle of vodka a day during filming. Maybe to keep himself warm?

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Some greatt photos from the set of Kurosawa’s first post-war release, “No Regrets for Our Youth” (1946). 

“The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail” (1945) was started before the end of the war, finished after Japan surrendered, and not released until the early 50′s because SCAP banned portrayals of feudal Japan, fearing they would arouse feelings of allegiance to the Emperor and nostalgia for old ways in the Japanese public. 

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Cineclub LuzSilente, a cinema club in Mexico City, made this awesome poster for “Throne of Blood” (1957). 

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Terrible Infant up to their shenanigans again with this video of the final duel in Sanjuro set to Big Sean. 

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Posted this on FB the other day and forgot to migrate it over here, so we’re probably late to the Tumblr party, but...

It looks like Criterion is gonna put out Dreams! They posted this on Instagram today, and the screen in the background and paintings in the foreground are all clearly from the soldier/tunnel dream. 

Which is your favorite dream sequence? 

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Takashi Shimura + Rick Ross = Boss

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We pulled this eight minute clip from Samaritan Zatoichi, the 19th film in the Zaotichi series, to make a point about the elastic tone of these movies, which is similar to that of the Connery Bond films in its combination of absurd humor and serious violence. 

You can read a full post addressing problems with contemporary franchise films when compared to Zatoichi and classic Bond, as written by Kurosawa Project’s founder, here, via Terrible Infant. 

Buy the Zatoichi box set via Criterion. Seriously. It’s worth it. 

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Yesterday we shared the opening credits of “The 400 Blows” as set to the opening music of “Throne of Blood.” Here’s the companion piece, the (slightly edited) opening of “Throne of Blood” set to the opening theme from “The 400 Blows.” You can check out a blog post about it here. 

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So we swapped the opening audio tracks for “Throne of Blood” (1957) and “The 400 Blows” (1959). Here’s “The 400 Blows” opening - you can see both on this blog. 

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Kurosawa before the burning castle, bull horn in hand, directing “Ran” (1985). I wrote a blog post for Terrible Infant on “Ran”, exploring the role of Buddhism in the film and arguing with Stephen Prince’s interpretation from his book “The Warrior’s Camera.” Check it out!

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The founder of The Kurosawa Project is now involved in Terrible Infant, a film collective. He’s blogging on the Terrible Infant site about everything from Truffaut and Cuaron to the auteur theory and anti-establishment samurai films. Check out the Terrible Infant Facebook page for all the updates. 

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Toshiro Mifune, pictured here on set for “The Bad Sleep Well” (1959), will receive a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood in 2016.

 I’m sure we all know this, but Mifune starred in 16 Kurosawa films, including “Seven Samurai” (1954), “Rashomon” (1950), “Throne of Blood” (1957), “Yojimbo” (1960), and “High & Low” (1963). Kurosawa discovered him during an open audition and had to fight the studio committee to accept Mifune into its acting program. 

Mifune’s first starring role was in “Snow Trail” (1947), a thriller written by none other than Kurosawa, who wrote far more scripts than he had time to direct, despite how prolific he was. 

Tarantino will also get his star in 2016, which feels appropriate, given his love of Japanese film. Read more about it.

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Behind the scenes of “Red Beard” (1965). The film was shot over an entire calendar year (plus some) to take advantage of all natural weather conditions possible.  

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A rare production still from from “The Idiot”, Kurosawa’s Dostoyevsky adaptation. In his book “The Warrior’s Camera”, and on his Criterion DVD commentary tracks, Stephen Prince talks at length about Dostoyevsky’s influence on Kurosawa. 

Kurosawa’s original cut of “The Idiot” has been seen by very few people - only those who attended the film’s Japanese premier - and will never been seen again. Running longer than four hours, it was cut down several times, the final edit being done by the film’s producer w/o Kursoawa’s consent or participation. All the footage cut from the original edit was destroyed in a fire.

Kurosawa was so distraught by the experience of working on “The Idiot” he nearly quit making films. The success of “Rashomon” at the Venice Film Festival - which came on the heels of the disaster of “The Idiot”; AK didn’t even know “Rashomon” played at Venice - changed his mind.