Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada
Have I Seen it Before: Never, but like the siren call of whatever makes sirens call (wouldn’t we want to call it a mermaid call, if that’s what we mean?), if a movie is projected in 35mm, I’ll be there. Thankfully, I’ve managed to fill this year with more 35mm screenings than in any year in recent memory.
Did I Like It: Samurai movies are from a foundational genre in my movie watching life. I think, after a screening of Seven Samurai (1954) that just never quite connected with me (yes, I know I need to give it another shot; it’s on the list) that the entire canon never really felt like a priority.
What a shame too, because so many things I admire about more recent films owe their influence directly to Kurosawa, and this film is no exception. It has the clean, ruthless efficiency of an early Carpenter film. It has the undercurrent of somewhat demented humor that made the films of Richard Donner or Joe Dante* so great. It harnesses the same scope of strong, silent heroes set against colorful characters of all stripes that were these films not to exist, Clint Eastwood would have remained a bit player in late-age Universal monster movies, and George Lucas’ work would have just descended into senseless optical fireworks**.
I liked it so much that I want to see it again as soon as possible (35mm or no), want to track down both Last Man Standing (1996)—and American remake from Walter Hill—and the film’s sequel Sanjuro (1962). Seven Samurai moves to the top of the to-watch list as well…
*One might argue that Dante owes more to James Whale, but I’d distrust anyone that says that there isn’t at least a bit of Kurosawa there.
**It might have eventually done just that, but there is certainly plenty of Kuwabatake Sanjuro (Mifune) in even later characters like Qui-Gon Jinn and Din Djarin. Mifune was even Lucas’ first choice for Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), but the sword master begged off thinking that the whole affair would make light of his previous work.