So, I've finally finished Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, which (give me credit) is a 207 minute long movie! That's a long time to watch a movie that has subtitle (my eyes were killing me when I got to intermission). It was a great epic, samurai movie that I had a wonderful underlining theme throughout the movie, but you can't expect anything else from Kurosawa.
For those who don't know much about Akira Kurosawa he was a Japanese director who was often criticized in his own country for his movie being too "Western" but he was very influential through the world for his films (I believe he made over 50 films), especially for Seven Samurai and Yojimbo.
How influential you ask? Ever watch the movie a Western movie called A Fistful of Dollars directed by Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood? Not many know that A Fistful of Dollars was a Western movie copy of Yojimbo(it's considered to be an unofficial remake of Yojimbo), even my good friend Lee who is a crazy Clint Eastwood fan (sporting a "Man with No Name" poster on his bedroom wall). I dare you to check these two movies out and tell me that they are not exactly the same. In fact, check for yourself with these clips of the trailers:
Also, the Seven Samurai was the bases and huge influence for another Western movie called The Magnificent Seven. And one of Kurosawa's most acclaimed films was responsible for dubbing the phrase, "It's a Rashomon" or "The Rashomon Effect"
Either way, I'm in love with Kurosawa's films and would recommend them for anyone to watch, especially since he's remade some Shakespeare plays into samurai (what could be better than Samurai Shakespeare?). Rashomon is definitely a must see film before you die, as well as Ikiru and all the other Kurosawa films I've mentioned. Oh, and A Fistful of Dollars isn't a bad flick either--we are talking about Clint Eastwood, after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment