The Academy had its John Hughes tribute on Sunday. Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is paying tribute to someone who may not be a household name in the United States, but who merits recognition as well. The guy, after all, made quite a few films that won awards here and there even though they were mostly in black and white, and didn't star Rob Lowe, Macaulay Culkin, or Demi Moore. Does Rashomon ring a bell? Seven Samurai? Yojimbo? Ran? Kagemusha? Dersu Uzala?
Akira Kurosawa — believe it or not, I actually have a photo of myself standing right next to him — will be honored tonight on TCM. Four of the director's films will be shown, including the little-known Hakuchi, starring a young Toshiro Mifune in this tale inspired by Dostoyevsky's The Idiot.
The other three Kurosawa efforts are Ikiru, in which a city worker tries to discover life's meaning when he finds out he's dying of cancer; Throne of Blood, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth and once again starring Mifune; and the action-adventure The Hidden Fortress. Not to be missed.
The info below is from the Turner Classic Movies website. Pacific Time.
5:00pm [Drama] Ikiru (1952)
A dying man devotes his last months to building a children's playground.
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Kyoko Seki, Makoto Koburi Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-143 mins7:30pm [Epic] Throne of Blood (1957)
Spurred by his wife and a witch's prediction, a samurai murders his lord to steal the throne.
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-109 mins9:30pm [Epic] Hidden Fortress, The (1958)
In medieval Japan, a samurai fights to sav a feudal lord's daughter from bandits.
Cast: Minoru Chiaki, Susumu Fujita, Kamatari Fujiwara, Toshiko Higuchi Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-139 mins12:00am [Drama] Hakuchi (1951)
A former mental patient's romantic involvements lead to tragedy.
Cast: Masayuki Mori, Toshiro Mifune, Setsuko Hara, Takashi Shimura Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-166 mins