Akira KUROSAWA

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A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods. The film won the 1976 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the Golden Prize and the Prix FIPRESCI at the 9th Moscow International Film Festival and a number of other awards. More

THE TOWN―its denizens like to call it that―is little more than an ugly array of sheet metal and tar paper shacks thrown together on ground closely resembling the city dump. Nevertheless, despite its appearance, the community would seem to be akind of dreamland for its inhabitants who, albeit their hand-to-mouth existence, seek happiness in their own strange and varied ways. First, there is the woman who feverishly prays that her feebleminded son will be cured: The boy, an adult, spends his waking hours either drawing pictures of or pretending he is operating streetcars. More

Young Dr. Yasumoto returns to Edo following three years of medical training in Nagasaki. Believing he will become a physician to Shogunate, he is badly disillusioned to learn he must work in the poorly-financed Koishikawa Clinic, which is headed by a Dr. Niide, known to most as Red Beard. Everything in the clinic is repulsive to Yasumoto, and he becomes determined to get himself discharged: He drinks, refuses to wear medical attire; breaks every rule he can think of, in fact, including venturing to a prison-like room, forbidden to all but Red Beard himself, to observe a lovely mental More

Kingo Gondo, executive director of the National Shoe Company, meets with three other executives from the same firm in his beautiful Yokohama mansion. Their purpose is to change the production policy of the company: Instead of making expensive footwear, long famous for good quality and durability, they would switch to a low-cost mass-produced line of shoes and thus increase sales and income. But to make this change, the president must be eased out of office. More

A few years before the War of the Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868, a group of young progressives, weary of the corruption rampant in their clan, appear before the chief steward to ask for justice. But the steward, aware of the prevailing condition, is helpless to do anything, for he is merely being controlled. Disappointed, the group visit the chief inspector of their clan and present their case to him. After consideration, the inspector, who is in reality one of the most corrupt, agrees to their leader. More

Sanjuro, soldier of fortune―unemployed, unbathed, generally unprincipled, with only the threadbare clothes on his back and his razor-sharp swords. But vagrant as he sees, his faded garments bear the crests of a samurai, labeling him as a member of the superior, warrior class. His wandering takes him to a foreboding village, one under the yoke of two gangs―bitter rivals―who are constantly at war with each other. Decent citizens are too terrified to venture into the streets, and the police are helpless. More

An elaborate wedding reception for Yoshiko, daughter of President Iwabuchi of the Unutilized Land Development Corporation, and Koici Nishi, his private secretary, is about to commence when Assistant Chief Wada of the Corporation is arrested by police detectives. Later, the wedding cake is brought in, but, strangely, it is in the form of a mammoth building which had been the cause of a scandal five years ago in which President Iwabuchi, Administrative Officer Moriyama and Contract Officer Shirai had been involved. The case had been hushed up after the suicide of Assistant Chief Furuya. More

It happened in the age of civil wars. Feudal Lord Yamana defeats his rival, Akizuki, holding the neighboring province. But Lady Yukihime, heiress to the Akizukis, survives and hides within her dead father’s fief and the whereabouts of Akizuki clan’s war funds consisting of some 170 pounds of gold bars are unknown. Feeling uneasy at the thought that Lady Yukihime may escape with the gold into the neighboring province held by Hayakawa who is friendly to Akizuki, Yamana orders a thorough search for Yukihime and the gold and places a strict guard along the border. More

This is a story which happened during the era of civil wars in Japan when there were constant feuds among the war lords. Taketoki Washizu is a captain under Kuniharu Tsuzuki, Lord of Kumonosu-Djo or Cobweb Castle. He is in command of Fort No. 1. When Fujimaki, in charge of the North Mansion, revolts unexpectedly, Taketoki and Yoshiaki Miki, who commands Fort No. 2, joins forces and distinguish themselves in battle by quelling the insurgents, thereby averting a crisis for their lord. More

Around the time of wheat harvesting, the wandering bandits come to raid the villages and the villagers tremble with fear and apprehension. The only way to defend the village is to hire the samurai mercenaries. With the cooperation of a veteran fighter Kambei, Korobei, Kyuzo, Heihachi, Shichiroji, Katsushiro and Kikuchiyo are chosen, the last being a wild youth of farmer descent. The defense of the village is built up with the help of the samurai and combat training is started. With the end of the harvesting of the corn, the raids by the bandits begin. The enemy number some 40 odd. More

Kanji Watanabe was the Chief of the Citizens’ Section of the Municipal Office with a record of 30 years’ regular attendance without absence. Suddenly this man failed to show up at work and with no notice. He received a big shock when the doctor pronounced him as having ulcer of the stomach and gave him only a few months to live. Having lost his wife some time ago, his first impulse was to go to his son, whom he had brought up single-handed and to disclose to him his agony and ask for consolation. But he finds his son married and with his own troubles and hardships of life. More

Rashomon is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made: Three men take shelter at one of the gates leading to Kyoto, waiting for the rain to stop. We are under the Heian era (9th - 12th centuries). To pass the time, they discuss an event that took place recently: the discovery of the body of a samurai, probably killed by the bandit Tajomaru. The three men were in fact called to testify at the trial. They each report what they said at the trial, and what they saw. Four versions are opposed, the widow - who was allegedly raped by the bandit - also having her own. More

The Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky wanted to show a really good person in his well-known novel "The Idiot". Ironically, he chose an idiot. The Japanese Akira Kurosawa realized his obsession with the film adaptation of the book: The depiction of the necessary failure in an unjust society. It is an adaptation in the best sense, as the filmmaker transfers the material to the cold Japanese island of Hokkaido. The eponymous hero returns home after an absence and fails because his naivety prevents him from defending himself against the intrigues. More

Kurosawa's favourite actor of the early years was Toshiro Mifune. Here he plays the famous painter Ichiro Aoye, who spends his holidays in the mountains and meets the young singer Miyako Saijo. They live in the same hotel and spend some time together. Two reporters photograph them together and publish the pictures in a tabloid magazine - in revenge for Saijo's refusal to give them an interview. The scandal was there, and the painter's lawyer is bribed by the editor-in-chief of the magazine to get money for his seriously ill daughter. More

At the end of the war, doctor Fujisaki is wounded during an emergency operation in the hospital. A little later he notices that the patient is suffering from syphilis and that he has infected himself. Fearing to pass on the disease, he breaks up with his fiancée after the war and silently fights his illness with the means available at the time. His former patient, however, lives carelessly and marries; his deformed child is born dead. The "Arztfilm" was a popular genre in the post-war years, especially in Germany. More

He is still young, the actor who should become known around the world with masterpieces like "Rashomon" or "The Seven Samurai". Here, Akira Kurosawa has created a thriller against the background of the recent and completely unprocessed Japanese war past, of which many of the characters, whether woman or man, talk. "Stray Dog" plays during the sultry hot summer in Tokyo in 1949. The young and completely inexperienced inspector Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) gets his loaded service weapon stolen from his jacket pocket in an overcrowded bus. Murakami is beside himself. More

A young man calls at Dr. Sanada’s clinic saying he has got his hand smashed by a closing door. This man, Matsunaga by name, is an outlaw of the locality looking after the affairs of his boss in this black market region. Though simple-hearted and naive by nature, he is one of the young men who have lost their aim in life in the post-war confusion of the world around him. Actually he has got wounded by a bullet in his fight with other ruffians. Dr. More