Tag Archives: toshiro mifune

KUROSAWA: YOJIMBO

Toshiro Mifune can’t believe what he sees in YOJIMBO.

Toshirō Mifune can’t believe what he sees in YOJIMBO, being shown in HD at Symphony Space

YOJIMBO (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Sunday, August 7, 3:00
Series continues through August 28
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org

Kuwabatake Sanjuro (Toshirō Mifune) is a lone samurai on the road following the end of the Tokugawa dynasty in yet another of Akira Kurosawa’s unforgettable masterpieces. Sanjuro comes to a town with two warring factions and plays each one off the other as a hired hand. Neo’s battles with myriad Agent Smiths are nothing compared to Yojimbo’s magnificent swordfights against growing bands of warriors that include the evil Unosuke (Tatsuya Nakadai), who is in possession of a new weapon that shoots bullets. Try watching this film and not think of several Clint Eastwood Westerns (including Sergio Leone’s pasta remake, A Fistful of Dollars) as well as High Noon. The film is being screened as part of Symphony Space’s “Kurosawa” series, featuring the first time ever many of the Japanese auteur’s finest films are being shown on the big screen in HD; coming up is High and Low on August 13, Hidden Fortress on August 14, Stray Dog on August 27, and Rashomon on August 28.

WEEKEND CLASSICS — KUROSAWA: THE LOWER DEPTHS

THE LOWER DEPTHS is another masterful tour de force from Akira Kurosawa

THE LOWER DEPTHS (DONZOKO) (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
July 8-10, $13, 11:00 am
Series continues through September 11
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Loosely adapted from Maxim Gorky’s social realist play, The Lower Depths is yet another masterpiece from Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa. Set in an immensely dark and dingy ramshackle skid-row tenement during the Edo period, the claustrophobic film examines the rich and the poor, gambling and prostitution, life and death, and everything in between through the eyes of impoverished characters who have nothing. The motley crew includes the suspicious landlord, Rokubei (Ganjiro Nakamura), and his much younger wife, Osugi (Isuzu Yamada); Osugi’s sister, Okayo (Kyôko Kagawa); the thief Sutekichi (Toshirō Mifune), who gets involved in a love triangle with a noir murder angle; and Kahei (Bokuzen Hidari), an elderly newcomer who might be more than just a grandfatherly observer. Despite the brutal conditions they live in, the inhabitants soldier on, some dreaming of their better past, others still hoping for a promising future. Kurosawa infuses the gripping film with a wry sense of humor, not allowing anyone to wallow away in self-pity. A staggering achievement, The Lower Depths is screening July 8-10 at 11:00 am as part of the IFC Center’s Weekend Classics: Kurosawa series, which continues July 15-17 with Dersu Uzala and July 22-24 with Ran.

WEEKEND CLASSICS — KUROSAWA: STRAY DOG

Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune are on the hunt in Kurosawa detective story

STRAY DOG (Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
June 3-5, $13, 11:00 am
Series continues through September 11
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Akira Kurosawa’s thrilling police procedural, Stray Dog, is one of the all-time-great film noirs. When newbie detective Murakami (Toshirō Mifune) gets his Colt lifted on a bus, he thinks he will be fired if he does not get it back. But as he searches for it, he discovers that it is being used in a series of robberies and murders that he feels responsible for. Teamed with seasoned veteran Sato (Takashi Shimura), Murakami risks his career — and his life — as he tries desperately to track down his gun before it is used again. Kurosawa makes audiences sweat as postwar Japan is in the midst of a heat wave, with Murakami, Sato, prostitute Harumi Namiki (Keiko Awaji), and others constantly mopping their brows, dripping wet. Inspired by the novels of Georges Simenon, Stray Dog is a dark, intense drama shot in creepy black and white by Asakazu Nakai and featuring a jazzy soundtrack by Fumio Hayasaka that unfortunately grows melodramatic in a few key moments — and oh, if only that final scene had been left on the cutting-room floor. Stray Dog will be screening at 11:00 am on June 3-5 as part of the IFC Center’s Weekend Classics — Kurosawa series, with half of the proceeds from all festival screenings benefiting Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund. Upcoming screenings includeKagemusha (June 10-12), High and Low (June 17-19), and Dodes’ka-Den (June 24-26).

WEEKEND CLASSICS — KUROSAWA: YOJIMBO/SANJURO

Toshirō Mifune can’t believe what he sees in YOJIMBO

YOJIMBO (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
April 22-24, $13, 11:00 am
Series continues through August
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Toshirō Mifune is a lone samurai on the road following the end of the Tokugawa dynasty in Akira Kurosawa’s unforgettable masterpiece. Mifune comes to a town with two warring factions and plays each one off the other as a hired hand. Neo’s battles with myriad Agent Smiths are nothing compared to Yojimbo’s magnificent swordfights against growing bands of warriors that include one man with a gun. Try watching this film and not think of several Clint Eastwood Westerns (particularly Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, since this is a direct remake of that 1964 Italian flick) as well as High Noon. Yojimbo will be screening at 11:00 am on April 22, 23, and 24 as part of the IFC Center’s Weekend Classics — Kurosawa series, which continues next week with the Kurosawa-Mifune follow-up Sanjuro.

Toshiro Mifune can’t believe what he sees in SANJURO

Toshirō Mifune can’t believe what he sees in SANJURO

SANJURO (Akira Kurosawa, 1962)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
April 29 – May 1, $13, 11:00 am
Series continues through August
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

In this Yojimbo-like tale, Toshirō Mifune shows up in a small town looking for food and fast money and takes up with a rag-tag group of wimps who don’t trust him when he says he will help them against the powerful ruling gang. Funnier than most Kurosawa samurai epics, the film is unfortunately brought down a notch by a bizarre soundtrack that ranges from melodramatic claptrap to a jazzy big-city score. Sanjuro will be screening at 11:00 am on April 29-30 and May 1 as part of the IFC Center’s Weekend Classics — Kurosawa series, with half of the proceeds from all festival screenings benefiting Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund.

5 JAPANESE DIVAS: THRONE OF BLOOD

Isuzu Yamada is divaliciously villainous in Akira Kurosawa classic based on MACBETH

THRONE OF BLOOD, AKA MACBETH (KUMONOSU JÔ) (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Sunday, April 17, and Monday, April 18, 1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, 9:40
Series continues through April 21
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

Akira Kurosawa’s marvelous reimagining of Macbeth is an intense psychological thriller that follows one man’s descent into madness. Following a stunning military victory led by Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki), the two men are rewarded with lofty new positions. As Washizu’s wife, Asaji (Isuzu Yamada, with spectacular eyebrows), fills her husband’s head with crazy paranoia, Washizu is haunted by predictions made by a ghostly evil spirit in the Cobweb Forest, leading to one of the all-time classic finales. Featuring exterior scenes bathed in mysterious fog, interior long shots of Washizu and Asaji in a large, sparse room carefully considering their next bold move, and composer Masaru Sato’s shrieking Japanese flutes, Throne of Blood is a chilling drama of corruptive power and blind ambition, one of the greatest adaptations of Shakespeare ever put on film. Throne of Blood is screening April 17-18 as part of Film Forum’s “5 Japanese Divas” series, featuring four weeks of films starring Yamada, Machiko Kyo, Kimuyo Tanaka, Setsuko Hara, and Hideko Takamine, who play strong, determined women in such classic works as Yasujiro Ozu’s Early Summer (1951) and Tokyo Story (1953), Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966), Mikio Naruse’s Okaasan (1952) and Flowing (1956), Kurosawa’s The Idiot (1951) and Throne of Blood (1957), Keisuke Kinoshita’s Carmen Comes Home (1951) and Twenty-Four Eyes (1954), and Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu (1953), Sansho the Bailiff (1954), and Street of Shame (1956), among others.

WEEKEND CLASSICS — KUROSAWA: I LIVE IN FEAR

Toshirô Mifune lives in fear in Akira Kurosawa classic

I LIVE IN FEAR (IKIMONO NO KIROKU) (Akira Kurosawa, 1955)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Saturday, April 16, and Sunday, April 17, $13, 11:00 am
Series continues through August
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Akira Kurosawa’s powerful psychological drama begins with a jazzy score over shots of a bustling Japanese city, people anxiously hurrying through as a Theremin joins the fray. But this is no Hollywood film noir or low-budget frightfest; Kurosawa’s daring film is about the end of old Japanese society as the threat of nuclear destruction hovers over everyone. A completely unrecognizable Toshirô Mifune stars as Nakajima, an iron foundry owner who wants to move his large family — including his two mistresses — to Brazil, which he believes to be the only safe place on the planet where he can survive the H bomb. His immediate family, concerned more about the old man’s money than anything else, takes him to court to have him declared incompetent; there he meets a dentist (the always excellent Takashi Shimura) who also mediates such problems — and fears that Nakajima might be the sanest one of all. I Live in Fear is screening this weekend at 11:00 am at the IFC Center as part of its Weekend Classics: Kurosawa series, with fifty percent of ticket sales benefiting the Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund.

5 JAPANESE DIVAS: RASHOMON

Machiko Kyo stars in Akira Kurosawa masterpiece, screening as part of Japanese diva series at Film Forum

RASHOMON (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Saturday, April 9, 11:15, 2:50, 6:20, 9:50
Series continues through April 21
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

One of the most influential films of all time, Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 masterpiece stars Toshiro Mifune as a bandit accused of the brutal rape of a samurai’s wife (Machiko Kyo) and the murder of her husband (Masayuki Mori). However, four eyewitnesses tell a tribunal four different stories, each told in flashback as if the truth, forcing the characters — and the audience — to question the reality of what they see and experience. Kurosawa veteran Takashi Shimura — the Japanese Ward Bond — plays a local woodcutter, with Minoru Chiaka as the priest. The mesmerizing work, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, is beautifully shot by Kazuo Miyagawa; Rashomon is nothing short of unforgettable. Rashomon is screening April 9 as part of Film Forum’s “5 Japanese Divas” series, featuring four weeks of films starring Kyo, Isuzu Yamada, Kimuyo Tanaka, Setsuko Hara, and Hideko Takamine, who play strong, determined women in such classic works as Yasujiro Ozu’s Early Summer (1951) and Tokyo Story (1953), Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966), Mikio Naruse’s Okaasan (1952) and Flowing (1956), Kurosawa’s The Idiot (1951) and Throne of Blood (1957), Keisuke Kinoshita’s Carmen Comes Home (1951) and Twenty-Four Eyes (1954), and Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu (1953), Sansho the Bailiff (1954), and Street of Shame (1956), among others.