After the recent mention of Hidden Fortress in a thread on these boards I decided I needed to see some more of this director's work (I've only seen Seven Samurai). So today I ordered a nice looking 4 DVD box set which includes the above two films as well as Yojimbo and Sanjuro.

Kurosawa Marathon at my house in a week or so :)

Here's a fun trick

Watch Yojimbo and Fist Full of Dollars back to back.

I'd always known that FFoD was inspired by Yojimbo, but inspired is too mild a term. It is almost scene by scene identical.

Magnificent Seven was heavily influenced by Seven Samurai, but FFoD is a down right carbon copy of Yojimbo.

Yojimbo, followed by FFOD followed by Last Man Standing ;)

Doesn't FFoD actually thank Kurosawa in its closing credits? Anyway I'd like to state for the record that a Katana is WAY cooler than a revolver.

yeah it does thank him...but that's not quite the same as saying "we lifted every word in the script" from him.

And no. Revolvers are far cooler than katanas. And gunslingers are way cooler than samurai. Course, Kurusawa knew that which is why he gave the coolest, smartest, meanest badguy a revolver and all the silly little thugs had katanas...or a really big mallet :-)

I would highly recommend that you check out the movie Ran. It has just been released in Europe on 2 DVD Special edition, I'm not sure what it's status in the US. Basically it's Akira Kurosawa doing King Lear but set in the Japanese time of warring states.

Ran is awesome. I mean truely awesome.

If you do see it, get the largest screen you possibly can. Rent a theater if you can. Kurasawa's panoramic scenes are breathtaking. The battle shots are beyond explanation in terms of being impressive.

Uh, before you do the three identical movies above, you may want to read the Ray Chandler novel from which Yojimbo is taken, too, just to be thorough.

There, I've established my Uber-geekdom for the day. :-)

Mike

the opening scenes of "Ran" are particularly cool widescreen and with your volume turned up loud...
I think it was also Kurosawa who did "Throne of Blood", the Macbeth adaptation? I thought it was pretty good too..

I just saw Takeshi Kitano's version of Zatoichi and I must say I'm impressed. Some minor cgi hiccups aside, I thought the story was quite delicately woven together and as usual Kitano's use of music was superb.

Even though its not related to Samurai etc.. check out Kurosawa's "Dreams" for some surreal goodness :)

cheers

Jason K.

I've seen Ran, in highschool.

Had it been dubbed, I might have enjoyed it, but I thoroughly dislike subtitled movies.

Dislike subtitles? Well, whaddya expect from a guardsman...

Throne of Blood is very good. The final scene is one of the most balls-out displays of archery (10' away or not) I've ever seen. Mifune had to be a trusting man. I'm also a huge fan of Rashomon, which was Kursawa's "breakthrough" film.

Jake

Hi Jake,

Check out "The Emperor and the Wolf", a great book about Kurosawa and Mifune. In it, Mifune explains the scene was done with hollow arrows shot on wires to hit him. But they were REAL arrows. yeeks! Also, the climax to Seven Samurai was shot in the winter... Rain machines, farmer thongs plus cold, cold weather!!!

Scary stuff.

Chris

Kagemusha is another great Kurosawa flick, worth checking out full colour very lush.

Sanjero and seven Samurai are my favs though I do like Rashomon too.

I already have several freinds lined up for Kurosawa night, we are wathcing all 4 movies in one night once they arrive.

And Yojimbo is the only decent version of Hammett's Red Harvest.

OK

You've piqued my curiosity

I am searching the net for the DVDs

Valthalion
Knight Against Chaos

Bankuei wrote: Hi Jake,

Check out "The Emperor and the Wolf", a great book about Kurosawa and Mifune. In it, Mifune explains the scene was done with hollow arrows shot on wires to hit him. But they were REAL arrows. yeeks! Also, the climax to Seven Samurai was shot in the winter... Rain machines, farmer thongs plus cold, cold weather!!!

Scary stuff.

Chris

Malechi wrote: Yojimbo, followed by FFOD followed by Last Man Standing ;)

Well, actually, in the opening credits is says "based on Yojimbo." So there!

Jake

Jake Norwood wrote: Well, actually, in the opening credits is says "based on Yojimbo." So there!

Jake

Not to nitpick, but Last Man Standing has nothing to do with A Few Dollars More.

Fistul...: Bloke enters town, notices the two gangs, plays the two gangs up against each other, gets found out and beaten to a pulp, gangs exterminate each other, bloke takes out the remaining gang members and rides into the sunset.
Last Man...: All of the above.

Few Dollars...: Two bountyhunters going after a really bad ba***d, sometimes doublecrossing each other and sometimes cooperating, gets the guy and his entire gang and rides into the sunset.
Last Man...: Nothing of the above apart from the sunset.

Besides, both Clint Eastwood, who redevelloped much of his character after he took the part, and Sergio Leone said from the start that it was a remake of Yojimbo. They never presented it as an original work at all. This was mostly because they never expected it to ever be shown outside Italy, so they didn't see the point of changing it too much, their audience would be so limited that no one would have ever heard of the original.

Don't foget Kurosawa based Yojimbo on the Dashiel Hammet novel 'Red Harvest'

We've been over that already.

Mike

We've been over that already.

Mike