Ikiru

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Ikiru!

Original image located here. Accessed 1st August 2025

This is my 500th post on this blog so here's something that I've been saving for a special occasion. 

Much has been said about this movie already: One of Akira Kurosawa's most famous movies. Kurosawa at his most human. Takashi Shimura giving the performance of his career. The Japanese Its a Wonderful Life. So what can I add to the pile?

What is there to say? This is the story of a boring man who, upon diagnosed with a terminal illness, decides to make his remaining time count. And yet such a description doesn't do the film justice: It isn't predictable and it never once makes our protagonist pathetic or a punchline. And that is some remarkable restraint. 

Certainly this movie touched me on a deep level. As I'm getting older, I do ponder on my mortality and wonder if I will get everything I want to do done. Certainly, it's not the first time I've made such ponderings - I recall doing as many outstanding things as possible back in 1999 - but it still makes for an effective motivator. So there's something to be said about someone using his time to go from a  boring, meaningless life into finding something substantial. 
And there is something universal in that message. And seeing it shown in a movie like this is something else: Certainly there may some who would write this off as insincere but hey, who hasn't been confronted with thoughts on their own mortality?

Truly a magnificent movie. 

And as I close out this five hundredth post, I realise: Maybe there is still more to do...

Throne of Blood

And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Throne of Blood!

Original image located here. Accessed 5th May 2023

Last year I watched Ran - Akira Kurosawa's take on the Shakespeare play King Lear. This year I watch Throne of Blood - Akira Kurosawa's take on the Shakespeare play Macbeth ("Aahhhhh! Hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends!").

Part of the thrill of watching this play is seeing a play i am very familiar with being shown in a different context - after all that is the challenge of doing Shakespeare: presenting something that has been done countless times before in a different light. So whilst this play may not follow the text to the letter, there are still some recognisable scenes and the plot progresses the same.
But what this film really understands about the source material is that the play has a sense of mystery and dread about it. And the film certainly runs with it, what with having a lot of fog, paranoia, ominous moments and a tiny number of locations. Indeed the triumph of this movie is that does a lot with what little it has.
Throw in some compelling performances from the two leads (Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada) and a death scene that has to seen to be believed and we have a movie that has lasted very well against the march of time.
Damn Kurosawa sure knew how to make a movie, eh?

Dersu Uzala

And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Dersu Uzala!

Original image located here. Accessed 21st April 2023

I have previously spoken about my efforts to explore the oeuvre of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. So we come to this: One of his lesser-known works.
This came about because Kurosawa wanted to do an adaptation of the novel by Russian author Vladimir Arsenyev. And he got a chance to do so when he was given Russian backing - so, with a Russian cast and crew, along with the opportunity to shoot in the wilderness of Siberia, Kurosawa came up with this movie.

When one thinks of Kurosawa, his samurai epics come to mind as well as his ability for orchestrating action scenes. But that is selling him short: He had a strength for his humanist approach to filmmaking and his subjects. And that is well and truly at play here. The titular character is a Mongolian man, well at home in the wild, and how he assists, and eventually bonds, with the captain of a Russian surveying expedition. It does make for a fascinating character study, with we the audience learning a lot about Uzala both as a character and his survival skills. Which makes the ultimate conclusion hit like a truck.
Another one of Kurosawa's strengths is his ability to conjure up beautiful shots. And here we have plenty of shots of the Siberian wilderness - it's all looking magnificent, especially considering that much of it isn't really accessible to human presence.
So yeah, an excellent movie with Kurosawa doing what he does best. Thoughtful and compelling tied with moments of beauty.

Ran

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Ran!

Original image located here. Accessed 17th June 2022

Anyone heard of this? This was a Japanese movie from 1985, directed by the legendary Akira Kurosawa.
Akira Kurosawa. Any film geek worth their salt knows the name. The man who announced Japanese cinema to the rest of the world. The man who gave us the Seven Samurai and inspired a whole trope in it's wake. The man known for his samurai epics, humanistic approach and his Shakespeare adaptations.
And Ran is, apparently, one of his best. It's one of his aforementioned Shakespeare adpatations, in this case, King Lear.

In a word: Extraordinary. I thought I was familiar with Kurosawa, having seen Rashomon and Seven Samurai, but this is something else entirely. So much to admire I don't know where to begin: I like the use of landscapes, I like the acting, I how many of the battle scenes take place in silence. I like how is a different take on tried and tested material (Shakespeare amirite?). I like the battle choreography and the beauty present.
At first i didn't what to make of this movie but eventually, it did reveal itself as nothing less than a triumph
Some say that this movie was the end result of a lifetime in movie making. Kurosawa was 75 when he made this and it seems that what he learnt over the years is there on the screen.
I believe it.

Rashomon

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Rashomon!

Original image located here. Accessed 11th June 2021

I walk into my local library without any intention to borrow anything and yet i walk out with a DVD of this movie. How strange it is that I partake in an antiqued act that should have died with Blockbuster.
But how could i refuse? This is one of the all time classics - one that announced Japanese cinema to the world and gave us the trope of the same situation retold by multiple unreliable narrators.

And it would appear that seventy one years has not tarnished this film at all. It is gripping, well-directed and beautifully shot. And it is shining example of what one can do with a small cast and an even smaller number of locations (one can imagine many a independent/budding filmmaker watching this and taking notes). It may be bleak when compared to Akira Kurosawa's other masterwork - The Seven Samurai - but it still has his humanist approach and his eye for sword battles