Text by flavorpill NY
Ahead of Akira Kurosawa‘s centenary on March 23, Film Forum more or less runs through the auteur’s consummate filmography (on queue: Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo) in six action-packed weeks. Two masterpieces also bracket this domo-arigato series: Stray Dog, an early, naturalistic film about a detective and the search for his missing gun in postwar Tokyo, and Ran, Kurosawa’s superlative, late-career translation of King Lear to the feudal East and its tragic, color-specific daimyos. The former stars Toshiro Mifune and the latter Tatsuya Nakadai, two Japanese icons who reappear throughout a canon that incorporates everything from pulp to Noh theatre, Shakespearean tragedy to the almighty Bushido code.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Japanese | Romanization |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 | Sanshiro Sugata aka Judo Saga |
姿三四郎 | Sugata Sanshirō |
| 1944 | The Most Beautiful | 一番美しく | Ichiban utsukushiku |
| 1945 | Sanshiro Sugata Part II aka Judo Saga 2 |
續姿三四郎 | Zoku Sugata Sanshirô |
| The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail | 虎の尾を踏む男達 | Tora no o wo fumu otokotachi | |
| 1946 | No Regrets for Our Youth | わが青春に悔なし | Waga seishun ni kuinashi |
| 1947 | One Wonderful Sunday | 素晴らしき日曜日 | Subarashiki nichiyōbi |
| 1948 | Drunken Angel | 酔いどれ天使 | Yoidore tenshi |
| 1949 | The Quiet Duel | 静かなる決闘 | Shizukanaru ketto |
| Stray Dog | 野良犬 | Nora inu | |
| 1950 | Scandal | 醜聞 | Sukyandaru aka Shūbun |
| Rashomon | 羅生門 | Rashōmon | |
| 1951 | The Idiot | 白痴 | Hakuchi |
| 1952 | Ikiru aka To Live |
生きる | Ikiru |
| 1954 | Seven Samurai | 七人の侍 | Shichinin no samurai |
| 1955 | I Live in Fear aka Record of a Living Being |
生きものの記録 | Ikimono no kiroku |
| 1957 | Throne of Blood aka Spider Web Castle |
蜘蛛巣城 | Kumonosu-jō |
| The Lower Depths | どん底 | Donzoko | |
| 1958 | The Hidden Fortress | 隠し砦の三悪人 | Kakushi toride no san akunin |
| 1960 | The Bad Sleep Well | 悪い奴ほどよく眠る | Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru |
| 1961 | Yojimbo aka The Bodyguard |
用心棒 | Yōjinbō |
| 1962 | Sanjuro | 椿三十郎 | Tsubaki Sanjūrō |
| 1963 | High and Low aka Heaven and Hell |
天国と地獄 | Tengoku to jigoku |
| 1965 | Red Beard | 赤ひげ | Akahige |
| 1970 | Dodesukaden | どですかでん | Dodesukaden |
| 1975 | Dersu Uzala | デルス・ウザーラ | Derusu Uzāra |
| 1980 | Kagemusha aka The Shadow Warrior |
影武者 | Kagemusha |
| 1985 | Ran | 乱 | Ran |
| 1990 | Dreams aka Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams |
夢 | Yume |
| 1991 | Rhapsody in August | 八月の狂詩曲 | Hachigatsu no rapusodī aka Hachigatsu no kyōshikyoku |
| 1993 | Madadayo aka Not Yet |
まあだだよ | Mādadayo |
| 2010 | Gendai no Noh aka The Raven |
(posthumous release) |
