Akira Kurosawa News, Information and Discussion
News archive for 2006
Possible future Akira Kurosawa offerings from BFI
23 December, 2006There is a word going around that BFI, which has put out several quality releases of Kurosawa’s movies, is considering releasing Dodesukaden, The Most Beautiful, They Who Tread on The More...
Eclipse: Criterion’s new line
18 December, 2006Criterion’s blog has announced a new line of products that will be released in addition to the regular high-quality Criterion releases that we have got so used to. The relevant More...
Sanjuro remake has a website
16 December, 2006Twitch, the film website that is especially interested in non-mainstream movies, reports that the upcoming remake of Kurosawa’s Sanjuro now has a website. It is all in Japanese, but in case you are interested, you can find it here. As the website is copyrighted for 2007, I take it to be rather recent.
Rocking the Throne of Blood
8 December, 2006The New York based post-punk rock band The Rapture have announced the forming of their new record label, called Throne of Blood Records. The reference seems to be to Akira Kurosawa’s Kumonosu-jo, which is sometimes also called The Cobweb Castle in the English speaking world. For more information, see the full news at Pitchfork Media.
Rambo IV borrows from Seven Samurai?
8 December, 2006To promote his upcoming Rocky VI, Sylvester Stallone has been answering questions at Ain’t It Cool News that have been sent by fans from around the world. He tackles a More...
A short Akira Kurosawa video at YouTube
7 December, 2006Someone has upload a minute-long video on YouTube that includes shots from some of his movies, and ends with Kurosawa saying a few words about how his intentions have been to make “beautiful films”. I don’t know where this is taken from, but you may nevertheless want to take the moment and watch it here.
Miki Odagiri passes away
5 December, 2006Miki Odagiri, who played Toyo Odagiri (the girl in Watanabe’s office) in Ikiru is reported to have passed away on the 28th of November. She was 76 years of age, More...
Toshiro Mifune video
4 December, 2006Someone has gone through a number of Toshiro Mifune’s samurai roles and mashed it all together with the song “Holding Out for a Hero” playing on the background as performed by Frou Frou from the Shrek 2 soundtrack. The result is this Youtube video.
A souvenir from Cannes
3 December, 2006Here’s little something I took a photo of last summer when in Cannes, and remembered only now. For those who do not know, the pedestrian areas in the park More...
De Laatste Held, pt.2 (a Dutch Akira Kurosawa documentary)
29 November, 2006Ten days ago I reported about the first part of a Dutch Akira Kurosawa documentary, which had been uploaded to Google Video. The second part is now also available. See here.
Fox’s Kagemusha release is a shorter cut
27 November, 2006 (2 comments)As most of you probably know, Kagemusha comes in a number of lengths, most importantly the original Japanese 179 minute version, and the so-called “International Cut” that runs for 162 More...
Rotten Tomatoes film club discusses Sanjuro
27 November, 2006This is just a heads-up to let you know that some people at the Rotten Tomatoes film forums are running a film club, and Sanjuro is next week’s film. The More...
Article on Kurosawa’s ‘High and Low’
26 November, 2006The PassionForCinema blog has published a nice review of Kurosawa’s High and Low, written by someone by the pseudonym t!. There are some nice observations there, and it reads well. Especially recommended if you have not seen the movie yet, and are thinking which Kurosawa film to watch next!
Fumio Hayasaka’s Seven Samurai and Rashomon recordings in MP3
25 November, 2006 (4 comments)Like some of the online streams of Kurosawa’s movies that I have liked to recently, the following will be something that is strictly speaking not entirely legal. Bear that in More...
Kurosawa on XBox 360
23 November, 2006 (5 comments)Microsoft’s new gaming console XBox 360 apparently comes with an online downloads store, one part of which is the so-called XBox Live Video service that allows users to rent digital More...
Criterion working on 6 more Kurosawa titles?
20 November, 2006 (1 comment)I was just reading through last month’s posts on the IMDb’s Kurosawa forum, and saw a link to this Criterion Collection discussion forum, which lists the titles expected to be More...
DVD Times reviews Optimum’s ‘Ran’
20 November, 2006 (5 comments)Kevin Gilvear at DVD Times has reviewed Optimum’s Region 2 release of Ran, which is due out on November 26th. Rather than spending any time with the movie itself, More...
A Dutch Akira Kurosawa documentary
19 November, 2006 (1 comment)Google Video has the first part of a Dutch documentary called De Laatste Held (”The Last Hero”), which looks at some of Akira Kurosawa’s films from the background of the More...
Akira Kurosawa News and Information downtime
14 November, 2006Update: We are back up. The move did not go entirely as planned, and downtime in fact lasted for slightly over three hours, but all in all everything looks fine More...
Sanjuro press conference
14 November, 2006 (7 comments)Toho held a press conference on Sunday for the new Sanjuro remake, which has already started filming and is to be released in Japan in December 2007. Very little new More...
Rashomon, Sanjuro and Yojimbo at vidiLife.com
14 November, 2006Someone has uploaded Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Sanjuro and Yojimbo to vidiLife, a service much like Youtube. While the earlier Google Video versions of Sanshiro Sugata and Rashomon may or may More...
Donal Richie’s films screened in Tokyo
10 November, 2006If you happen to live in Tokyo, the SuperDeluxe in Nishi-Azabu (Minato-ku) is going to be screening Donald Richie’s short works under the title Japanese Cinema Eclectics: Donald Richie — More...
Kurosawa and animals
9 November, 2006 (4 comments)Now, this may go somewhat beyond our usual coverage, but yesterday I found this rather interesting blog entry on Rose’s Crafty McGee blog, which is mainly about arts, crafts and More...
Region 2 ‘Ran’ released on November 20th in the UK
7 November, 2006 (11 comments)Optimum Releasing is putting out a new region 2 DVD version of Ran on November 20 this year. MovieMail.co.uk indicates that the double disc release will include the documentary “A.K.” by Chris Marker, but does not seem to have any of the other extras present in the region 1 Criterion Collection DVD.
Article: Movies Akira Kurosawa Saw
5 November, 2006 (2 comments)There is an excellent and very interesting post at lady_wakasa’s blog, basically taking Something Like an Autobiography (Kurosawa’s autobiography, as you all know) and chronologically listing the films that the mentions up until the age of 19. The resulting list is one of the most interesting things I have seen for a long time!
Information about the Cinema Reserve (R2) edition of Kagemusha
4 November, 200620th Century Fox is putting out a new region 2 release of Kagemusha under their ‘Cinema Reserve’ series. The double DVD is to be released on November 27. The More...
Article: Pluralism - Rashomon and Contested Conceptions of Criminality
2 November, 2006Update (November 9): The body of the essay has now been changed and corresponds with the abstract. Do take a look if you are interested. Through the Legal Theory Blog More...
AKN&I gets a new design
31 October, 2006 (3 comments)Tired of the old baby-blue design that this website had, I spent a day brainstorming, Photoshopping and looking at other people’s blogs. By the end of the day I had More...
Forman and Ichikawa receive the Akira Kurosawa Award
30 October, 2006Since 2004, the Tokyo International Film Festival has included, among its other awards, the Akira Kurosawa Award. The award is given to to film directors and producers who have through More...
Article on ‘The Bad Sleep Well’
20 October, 2006There is an interesting little article at The Indigestible on Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well. It makes a curious suggestion that the film could be seen as “a bizarre More...
Details for Criterion’s Yojimbo and Sanjuro
18 October, 2006 (2 comments)We have not yet properly managed to get over the brilliance of Criterion’s Seven Samurai, and now the company is putting out information about their upcoming Yojimbo and Sanjuro More...
DVD Times: Criterion’s Seven Samurai set
17 October, 2006My personal DVD website of choice, DVD Times, has published a review of Criterion’s Seven Samurai, and like all the reviews before it praises the DVD set as not More...
Public Domain Kurosawa Films Available at Google Video
7 October, 2006Update: These films are now available with English subtitles. Some of you may remember my earlier post about pre-1953 Japanese films being in public domain. While I am still a More...
Picture: Toshiro Mifune’s Autograph
6 October, 2006While doing my regular checks of the Yahoo! Japan Auctions, I stumbled on this item that sells a promotional picture from Red Beard with Toshiro Mifune’s autograph on it. It looks pretty great, in fact. Were it poster size, I might in fact have bid on it.
Article: Bidding for Items in Yahoo! Japan Auctions
6 October, 2006I have written a short article for my general blog about the services that let you bid on Yahoo! Japan Auctions even when you live outside of Japan and don’t speak a word of Japanese. In case some of you might be interested, take a look here: Bidding in Yahoo! Japan Auctions from Outside of Japan.
Article on Rashomon
5 October, 2006Charlie Thomason at Cinema Noir has posted an article about Rashomon, which is well written and introduces the film nicely. Do take a look.
Kurosawa Article: Red Beard (plus Ikiru)
3 October, 2006 (4 comments)There is a rather good piece written by Ganesh at Brooklyn Masala about Red Beard (Akahige). Do take a look: link Update: And I thought I already linked to this one, but it seems I didn’t: here is Ganesh’s earlier article on Ikiru. Enjoy!
Article: Tetsuya Nakadai
3 October, 2006Chuck Stephens has written a nice article on Tetsuya Nakadai’s career. Although the entry is dated August 14, this is the first time I see it, and so here is the link now: Tetsuya Nakadai.
Donald Richie Tours the US East Coast
30 September, 2006The Japanese film expert Donald Richie will be making some appearances on the US East Coast in October. The Kurosawa-related events are: Thursday, 19th of October: Richie introduces a special More...
The Quiet Duel on DVD
30 September, 2006This somehow almost slipped past my radar unnoticed. While we were all concentrated on Criterion’s Seven Samurai release, BCI/Ronin entertainment has meanwhile put out a DVD of The Quiet More...
Akira Kurosawa on Robert Altman’s list
29 September, 2006It is perhaps somewhat irrelevant, but I thought I might mention it anyway. A recent Sydney Morning Herald article/interview with Robert Altman mentions that Altman admires Kurosawa’s films. The article More...
Teruyo Nogami: A new film + the Kurosawa book
29 September, 2006 (2 comments)After finding success with the recent samurai trilogy that included the 2004 Academy Award nominated film The Twilight Samurai, as well as The Hidden Blade and most recently Bushi More...
Article: On the restoration process of ‘Seven Samurai’
23 September, 2006CNN has an interesting article dealing with the work that went into restoring ‘Seven Samurai’. Apparently, the original negative of the film is missing, and the criterion DVD restoration More...
Changes in the RSS feed
20 September, 2006I have switched Akira Kurosawa News and Information to use feeds through Feedburner. No action is required from your part. However, if you encounter anything that seems odd, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’ currently the third most talked about classic movie
18 September, 2006 (2 comments)According to my new cinema related web service, Movie Say: the Film Buzz Index, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai currently ranks as the third most discussed classic film on the More...
2004-2005 Akira Kurosawa Memorial Short Film Competition DVD Release
9 September, 2006Sorry about the gigantic title. It has recently come to my attention that a (region 2) DVD is to be released later this month collecting some of the works submitted More...
Blogged: Ikiru
6 September, 2006Agus at Rhythmic Soul has blogged on Kurosawa’s Ikiru. You can read his reflections here.
Tehran pays hommage to Kurosawa
6 September, 2006September 12th marks the Cinema Day in Iran, and this year it is Akira Kurosawa who will be honoured at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall. Some of Kurosawa’s colleagues will give speeches on their memories of the late director, as well as reflecting on his cinematic style and technique. There will also be an exhibition of posters and manuscripts. Source: Mehrnews
DVD Verdict’s review of the new ‘Seven Samurai’ release
5 September, 2006 (2 comments)DVD Verdict has reviewed Criterion’s new Seven Samurai release and given it full points. Includes some screenshots. You can read the review here
Blogged: Blogging a disastrously translated “Record of a Living Being”
2 September, 2006J. M. Kearns at Idyllopus has posted a mammoth article on “Record of a Living Being”, and it is well worth reading through. Not only will it practically make you More...
DVD Talk Review of Criterion’s new ‘Seven Samurai’
26 August, 2006 (4 comments)The new region 1 Criterion version of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, which spans three whole DVDs, is going to be relesed on September 5th. DVD Talk has taken a look More...
Blogged: Shots in ‘Throne of Blood’
23 August, 2006 (2 comments)KM writes some interesting observations about Throne of Blood at his blog Flotsam. The comments are also worth scanning through.
Blogged: Samurai archery
7 August, 2006Samurai Dave - The Roving Ronin Report has an interesting article on the history behind Japanese horseback archery. What makes the text relevant to Kurosawa is the following paragraph, which More...
Blogged: a Stray Dog article
1 August, 2006 (5 comments)Mark at Movie Masterworks has written an excellent article on Stray Dog (Nora inu). His observations on Kurosawa’s movie are well worth reading. Before you go, however, please note that More...
Blogged: Yojimbo opening shots
24 July, 2006Jim Emerson’s Scanners blog has a new entry on the opening shots of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Do take a look.
Akira Kurosawa exhibiton in Tokyo
22 July, 2006An exhibition of Akira Kurosawa’s paintings opened yesterday at the Meguro Gajoen centre in Tokyo. The event, which lasts until the 13th of August this year, is titled “Hundred-stepped Stairway More...
Donnie Yen on the state of Seven Samurai remake
21 July, 2006Malaysia Star quotes Donnie Yen, who in a press conference yesterday confirmed that the Weinstein Company’s project for a Hollywood remake of Seven Samurai is still in its very early More...
A Japanese “Sanjuro” remake on its way
13 July, 2006 (1 comment)The Japan film news blog Ryuganji reported today that a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1962 film Tsubaki Sanjuro (or “Sanjuro” in English) is being prepared in Japan. The film, which More...
Pre-1953 Japanese films are in public domain
12 July, 2006 (3 comments)News are emerging that a Tokyo District court has ruled all pre-1953 Japanese films to be in the public domain. Paramount Pictures was contesting this based on a 2004 ruling More...
Blogged: Oddest director/actor pairs
12 July, 2006The film blog Cinematical has run an article about the seven oddest director actor combos. Akira Kurosawa makes the list with his Rhapsody in August star Richard Gere.
Criterion’s Seven Samurai: further details
26 June, 2006Further details about Criterion’s Seven Samurai restoration process have emerged. See this Livejournal entry for details. Criterion appears to have gone all the way to preserve the film, so kudos to them for that.
New website additions
25 June, 2006Some new trailers of Akira Kurosawa’s movies have now been added to the Akira Kurosawa videos and trailers section. I also made some preliminary research on the availability of Kurosawa related movie posters. See the results in the new Akira Kurosawa posters section. As always, comments and queries are more than welcome!
Seven Samurai meets Black Sabbath
24 June, 2006Someone has made a rather interesting mash-up of the trailer to Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and Black Sabbath’s song “War Pigs”. It is available at Google Video for you to see.
3 Disc ‘Seven Samurai’ on its way
16 June, 2006On September the 5th this year Criterion will release a new edition of Seven Samurai, and this one looks like it will finally be the definite one. Certainly better than More...
Yojimbo 5
11 June, 2006While some of us are horrified by the recent rumours about a Seven Samurai remake, it is good to remember that it would not be the first time Kurosawa’s films More...
Takemitsu downloads
11 June, 2006Psst. If you follow this link, you arrive at a blog called Classical Connection that specializes in making out-of-print classical music available. And even more interestingly, you end up on More...
John Fusco to pen the ‘Seven Samurai’ remake
9 June, 2006 (1 comment)Reports are flying in that John Fusco has been attached to write the script for the much-talked-about Seven Samurai remake. The choice is not entirely odd considering that Fusco has More...
Zhang Ziyi’s proposed role in the ‘Seven Samurai’ remake
7 June, 2006 (1 comment)Guardian Unlimited’s film section adds to the ‘Seven Samurai’ rumours by noting that Zhang Ziyi “is reportedly interested in playing the part of a peasant girl who hides from bandits More...
Ambiguity over Donnie Yen’s comments about ‘Seven Samurai’
6 June, 2006A Twitchfilm article has pointed out that what Donnie Yen has actually said about his conversations with Harvey Weinstein at Cannes could be first of all interpreted as not necessarily referring to a Seven Samurai remake but a remake of some Kurosawa film in general, and secondly that nothing concrete really has yet been decided.
Management trouble in the Kurosawa family?
5 June, 2006This comes a bit late, but as reported by Hoga News which in turn refers to a Japanese article found here, it appears that the confusion with the planned More...
Zhang Ziyi signs for a remake of ‘Seven Samurai’
4 June, 2006The reports are coming in that Zhang Ziyi has signed on for a three-movie deal with Harvey Weinstein. One of the films listed is the much-rumoured Seven Samurai remake that also has the names of George Clooney and Donnie Yen attached to it. Could this mean that it is really happening? We shall wait and see.
Kurosawa and the Blogosphere
2 June, 2006In this week’s roundup of Kurosawa related blog entries… Martha Fischer has expressed her opinion about the new Seven Samurai remake at Cinematical.com. A similar opinion may also be found at I Watch Stuff.
Samurai 7.0: a stage play
2 June, 2006The American Beau Jest Moving Theatre have adapted Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai on the stage as Samurai 7.0. The result is described on their website as a “timeless tale More...
Sprite Animation’s Monster Samurai Influenced by Kurosawa
31 May, 2006In a press release available at Yahoo! Financial News, Moto Sakakibara, the writer-director of a forthcoming film and TV series Monster Samurai, is quoted mentioning Akira Kurosawa as one of his influences. In case you are interested in the project, you can read an introduction and see some pictures at Sprite Animation’s showcase page.
Shohei Imamura Dies
30 May, 2006 (1 comment)The legendary Japanese New Wave director Shohei Imamura has passed away at the age of 79. He directed 22 films during his career spanning for more than four decades. His best known works include The Ballad of Narayama, Black Rain and The Eel.
Cast of the Seven Samurai remake coming together
30 May, 2006Hong Kong’s The Standard reports that Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen is to star in the planned Hollywood remake of the Seven Samurai alongside George Clooney and Zhang Ziyi. The project, which has been around for years now, currently appears to be under the care of the Weinsteins.
Kurosawa inspired musical: ‘See What I Wanna See’
29 May, 2006This has somehow evaded my attention so far, but apparently a musical called See What I Wanna See was inspired by Rashomon. Whether it really is Kurosawa’s film, or more directly Akutagawa’s short story In A grove is not really made that clear by this article where I received my information from.
Mountain Patrol: traces of Kurosawa?
29 May, 2006A new Chinese film directed by Chuan Lu and titled Mountain Patrol has been compared to Kurosawa’s works by both the Seattle Times (”…reminiscent of David Lean’s sprawling spectacles and More...
Website Opening
28 May, 2006 (2 comments)This post marks the opening of this website. Some work still remains to be done, but as matters stand now, it is open for visitors. Note that I have also included links to some older DVD reviews of Kurosawa’s films, hence the news articles stretching back to 2001.
Samurai 7
26 May, 2006Whether or not this is any good, I don’t know (yet I have my doubts). But since it has been in the news recently, and is vaguely Kurosawa related, I More...
Kurosawa film school closes
18 May, 2006 (1 comment)Mainichi Daily News reports that the Akira Kurosawa film school has closed without ever actually opening its doors.
Akira Kurosawa film school planned
26 April, 2006 (1 comment)Kurosawa Productions is opening a film school in Japan, with some of Kurosawa’s old regular actors, assistant directors, technicians, and other people who helped him to create his films involved. Here is the news article.
DVD Town review: The Bad Sleep Well (Criterion)
9 January, 2006DVD Town’s review of The Bad Sleep Well points out that the transfer is excellent, while the extras are lacking. You can access the review here.
DVD Times Review: Ran (Criterion Collection)
1 January, 2006DVD Times has reviewed the new double disc Criterion Collection edition of Ran. As always, it is a good and thorough look at both the film and the package it comes in, and hence recommended reading. You can access the article here.