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AK Film Club: ‘Drunken Angel’ for June, other films to follow

Although we have yet but scratched the surface of Rashomon with our first ever Film Club discussion series, it is already time to start thinking about the next films so that everyone has the opportunity to get a hold of them.

What I did for this purpose was I counted the “votes” that (most of) you had cast for the different movies in the Planning the Akira Kurosawa Film Club thread. I pushed those films with many votes to the top, and then tried to arrange them to a suitable order for the rest of the year. Giving up with any thematic ordering, I decided to try to produce an ecletic mix, with both contemporary and period pieces mixed in order to provide some variety for our viewing and discussion pleasure.

This gave me the following list, with Drunken Angel scheduled for June.

June 2008: Drunken Angel
July 2008: Yojimbo
August 2008: Stray Dog
September 2008: High and Low
October 2008: Red Beard
November 2008: Ikiru
December 2008: Madadayo

While I think that the Drunken Angel decision is final, if you would like to discuss changing anything in this list, just say so. I am certainly open for ideas.

We are saving some big guns for 2009. For example Ran, Seven Samurai or Throne of Blood none of them made it to the 2008 list. Which is perhaps only good, as some of these films are long and very complex, so we may need some practice before trying to tackle them.


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Discussion

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Jeremy Quintanilla

List look great to me, Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, High and Low, and Red Beard I’m excited about. Ikiru is a obvious must, and my most anticipated movie.

Madadayo, I will properly make enemies with that one, perhaps I best avoid it 😯 Or maybe I should just say まだ ζΊ–ε‚™γŒγ§γγ¦γ„γͺいんだ (I think thats right)

The samurai age movies are certainly no easy task, Yojimbo however should be rather fun.

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sanjuro

It’s a great list and I’m looking forward to all of them. The great relief about this list for me is that it doesn’t include anything relatively obscure so I won’t be breaking out my Mei Ah copies just yet. The only problem is that my Drunken Angel is in Japanese with Greek subtitles and my Greek is pretty bad so I’ll have to invest in the BFI or Criterion in time for June. I may have to upgrade my Ikiru too – my sole copy is actually on VHS and is already looking a bit worse for wear. Multiple pausings will probably kill it off.

Can’t wait for Red Beard especially, as I think it’s such an overlooked masterpiece, and looking forward to watching Madadayo again too (well, I really liked it).

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Andrew

Looks like a great list to me (count me as one of the admirers of ‘Madadayo,’ by the way). I plan to re-view ‘Rashomon’ early next week and hop in the discussion. I’ll also be a little late to the ‘Drunken Angel’ party, too, as I’ll be on vacation during the first part of June.

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Jeremy Quintanilla

I think Red Beard is among the AK best.
Sanjuro, I would say a bit of upgrading is well past due :mrgreen:

appears the computers at work show Japaneses text in “???”, so anyways the whole “????” if you see it, was me just trying to be cool with a bit of Japanese

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Store Hadji

I love all of those.

I’m still perplexed by Yojimbo, that absurdist farce with the 1960s fashion template, but I did enjoy it.

Hmmm, which are the months for Dreams, Dodeskaden, The Idiot and I Live in Fear?

Mr. K has nearly three years’ worth of films to talk about. :mrgreen:

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Vili Maunula

The schedule for 2009 will be decided around November. Probably with a vote of some kind.

From the films that you mentioned, Dodesukaden is a bit problematic because of its poor availability for the English speaking market. Let’s hope that we’ll get a good release within the next three years!

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Store Hadji

There are used VHS copies of it for sale on Amazon.com, specifically a few Amazon Marketplace sellers. And there’s an Ebay Store that carries it. That’s the copy I have. It’s widescreen and with English subtitles.

It’s not a Criterion dvd, of course, but was a great boon for folks like me who needed to obtain a copy.

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sanjuro

My upgraded version of Drunken Angel has finally arrived – the Criterion edition. Haven’t managed to watch it yet but I am looking forward to watching it for the first time with subtitles I can understand.

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Vili Maunula

I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive. Should be next week. I watched half of the film yesterday with Hong Kong subtitles, but then grew tired of Ching Wing and his associates.

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