Film – Akira Kurosawa Centennial at Film Forum!

Text by flavorpill NY

Akira Kurosawa portraitAhead 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.

More about Akira Kurosawa

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 Ran
1990 Dreams
aka Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
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)