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Criterion’s Kurosawa Competition

Criterion LogoOn March 23rd it will be a full hundred years since the birth of Akira Kurosawa. To celebrate the occasion, Criterion has dedicated the whole of March an Akira Kurosawa Month. A message on their front page reads:

March is Akira Kurosawa month at Criterion. On the twenty-third, the great Japanese filmmaker would have been one hundred years old. For this centennial celebration, we will be posting trivia questions and topics for discussion on Facebook and Twitter all month, and giving away a different Kurosawa poster, DVD, or Blu-ray disc every weekday. Be sure to become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to get in on all the action!

If you decide to take part in the competition, good luck and let us know if you win anything!


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Jeff

From the site:

The first-day response of our month of Kurosawa’s birthday giveaways was unexpectedly huge, and we realized within a few hours that we’d made a mess out of our usually well-kept Facebook page. Live and learn!

From now on we’re going to post giveaway alerts to Facebook and Twitter, but you’ll have to come to criterion.com to see the questions and post your answers. This should make less noise in the social media space and also address the frustrations of some loyal customers who don’t use social media and felt left out.

Thanks for sticking with us while we work out the kinks.

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Vili Maunula

Thanks for the update, Jeff!

Today’s question is actually quite interesting. Thinking about it took me back into a world that now feels like a totally different universe altogether. Much has happened in between my first Kurosawa film and today!

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Vili Maunula

Some of the entries to Criterion’s day 4 competition were actually pretty good. They asked people to write a Hollywood-style tagline for a Kurosawa films.

The winning entries were for Ikiru (“This summer: Death is only the beginning.”) and Rashomon (“He said. She said. He said. He said.”).

Today, they ask you to provide a caption.

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Jeremy Quintanilla

The Rashomon tagline is pretty funny, the Ikiru would properly be the very line used if it was released today. Although, I think ideally Hollywood studios would have Watanabe go out in a hail of Yakuza gun fire, just out of nowhere, and for no reason. And too have some sort of Jar-Jar Binks character, because studios don’t think audiences can handle intensity. Or better yet, Jar-Jar Binks is the Yakuza that shoots up Watanabe.
I’m positive some studio exec will come across this post in a few years, and yell “Brilliant!”

The picture captions results so far, haven’t even provoked the slightest chuckle from me. When I can come up with funnier lines then these, all hope is lost.
😮

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Vili Maunula

Tuesday’s prompt was to come up with a Kurosawa-related anagram. The two winning entries were pretty good, I thought: Kagemusha = “A Huge Mask” and Rashomon = “Sham, or no?”

Today, they ask who is the modern heir to Kurosawa. I think Ugetsu at one point suggested Hayao Miyazaki.

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Vili Maunula

Today’s challenge is both challenging and rewarding. “In one sentence, convince a friend who is unfamiliar with Kurosawa to watch one of his films.”

The prize? A DVD box set of AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa!

Good luck!

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Fabien

Do we know if non-USA residents are eligible for prizes?

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Vili Maunula

Fabien, unfortunately only US and Canadian residents are eligible (“You must reside in the U.S. or Canada and leave a valid e-mail address to be eligible for the prize”).

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Fabien

Thanks for the information, Vili, I had tried (several days ago) to find it but hadn’t succeed.
I had no real hope, though, as I know well Criterion’s policy about foreign shipping, but for an exceptional event, you never know.

Anyway, the challenge is interesting.

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