Akira Kurosawa

Machiko Kyo. Japanese star Machiko Kyo was seen in several of the most widely admired cinema classics of the 1950s, including Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu, and Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Gate of Hell. In addition to Daniel Mann’s international blockbuster…

What is Ran? Akira Kurosawa period epic is not an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s King Lear. Mieko Harada pictured. “Critical cribbing” is a term I coined in regard to the tendency of critics, in all fields, to not engage a…

Seven Samurai with Toshiro Mifune. ‘Seven Samurai’ analysis: Akira Kurosawa movie gets better after repeated viewings Some films get better after repeated viewings. Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 black-and-white drama Seven Samurai / Shichinin no samurai is one of them. It fully…

Steven Spielberg The Color Purple Oscar snub: Whoopi Goldberg did receive a Best Actress nomination. Steven Spielberg’s Best Direction Oscar nomination for his 1985 film version of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple was a given. In fact, some felt the…

Clara Bow, known as the “It” Girl, stars in the appropriately titled It. Part III of Moguls & Movie Stars, A History of Hollywood, “The Dream Merchants,” narrated by Christopher Plummer, continues today (a rerun of Monday’s presentation) on Turner…

Watching Akira Kurosawa’s 1948 black-and-white effort Yoidore Tenshi / Drunken Angel is an interesting experience, for he clearly had not mastered the art form, yet. Even so, there is so much that is good in Drunken Angel – touches that…

Toshiro Mifune (second from right) in Seven Samurai 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…

Alfred Hitchcock British films: The Lady Vanishes with Dame May Whitty, Margaret Lockwood, and Michael Redgrave. On Nov. 27–28, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (website) will present the last four films in its “Hitchcock: The British Thrillers” series.…

Rashomon effect revisited: Toshiro Mifune and Machiko Kyo in Akira Kurosawa classic. Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic Rashomon, which officially introduced Japanese cinema to the world at large, will be the next film presented as part of the Academy of Motion…

The Bad Sleep Well with Toshiro Mifune. Akira Kurosawa’s 1960 corporate corruption drama stars the filmmaker’s favorite leading man, Toshiro Mifune, who “gets to display the full range of his acting chops” as a white-collar worker bent on revenge. Kurosawa…