Akira Kurosawa Online Film Club

The Akira Kurosawa Online Film Club, or “AK Film Club” for short, is our very own film studies group that has the ambitious intention to tear all of Kurosawa’s works to (intellectual) pieces within the next few years.

The basic idea

The way things work here is that we watch a movie for a certain date and then go on to discuss it. We have a set viewing schedule that indicates when each film is to be discussed. There is a new film each month.

Discussion is free and open to everyone. Anything and everything related to the movie can be discussed, although I do retain the right to moderate spammy and offensive posts.

What you need

Apart from the obvious - an Internet connection and the willingness to participate - you really only need to get hold of the films themselves. Almost all of Kurosawa’s films are easy to get a hold of in most parts of the world, either as rentals or by buying the movies.

Remember that to help you with your buying and renting decisions, there is always my Kurosawa DVD Buyer’s Guide. You are of course also more than welcome to ask us for help! (Although let it be noted that we don’t do copies.)

The Rules

There are only a few rules, but I would like everyone participating to be aware of them.

- Please don’t start discussing a film before it is scheduled for discussion. For example, discussion for a film scheduled for August should only start on August 1st. If you want to write something about the film before then, you can do so on your computer and save it. Then, post your observations on the day that the discussion is marked to start.

- Normal forum rules apply. Do your best to keep your posts thoughtful, and proof read what you have written for both language and content before hitting that submit button.

- Everyone has the right to express their views. There may be more than one way to interpret things. Keep this in mind.

- Be polite.

The place

The discussion takes place at this website’s Akira Kurosawa forums.

The schedule

The schedule is the following:

May 2008: Rashomon
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

January 2009: Seven Samurai
February 2009: The Quiet Duel
March 2009: Dersu Uzala
April 2009: Throne of Blood
May 2009: The Idiot
June 2009: Kagemusha
July 2009: Record of a Living Being, aka I Live in Fear
August 2009: The Bad Sleep Well
September 2009: Ran
October 2009: The Lower Depths
November 2009: The Hidden Fortress
December 2009: Sanjuro

Schedule for 2010 will be voted for at the end of 2009.

Discussion so far

The following is an attempt to link to all the Film Club related discussion threads. I update this at the end of each month when the movie under discussion is about to change.

Rashomon (May 2008):

• The Audience,The Truth, and The Baby
• The Baby’s Function and the Identities off the Three Men
• The Relativity of Truth, or Plain Old-Fashioned Lying?
• The Medium
• The Priest’s Problem
• The Soundtrack
• The Symbolism
• The Wipe
• Why They Lie

Drunken Angel (June 2008):

• Changing the Season
• The Dream
• Jungle Boogie and Other Music
• Sanada’s Song
• Sanada: An Angel at the Lower Depths
• Shimura vs. Mifune
• Sanada: What’s in a Name?
• Some Similarities with Rashomon
• The Sorensen Documentary

Yojimbo (July 2008):

• 2 x 2D
• ‘A Fistful of Dollars’, ‘Last Man Standing’, ‘Django’ and ‘Yojimbo’
• All things Dashiell Hammett
• History and Fantasy
• Love for a Killer
• Pleasure Principle
• Tough guys?
• What does it all amount to?
• Yojimbo and the Revisionist Western

Stray Dog (August 2008):

• The End
• Sexuality and the case of the murdered woman
• The Title

High and Low (September 2008):

• The Burakumin Issue
• Mifune’s Penultimate Appearance

Red Beard (October 2008):

• The Apocalypse Now Question
• Kurosawa, Art and Existential Humanism
• The Mantis and Kurosawa’s Evil Problem
• Opening Titles (Roofs)
• Static
• The Well - A Technical Question
• Yasumoto and the Women

Ikiru (November 2008):

• Nippon Beer and Critique of Post-War Society
• A Painting
• The Remake
• The Seat of the Soul
• The Son
• Tilted Wipes
• Trains
• The Yakuza Boss

Madadayo (December 2008):

• Irony
• Kurosawa’s Goodbye?
• Laugh Track
• Stage Lighting
• Wordplay

Seven Samurai (January 2009):

• Art is a Lie that Tells the Truth
• The Final Song
• Great Art vs. Great Discussions
• The Individual and the Collective Observed
• Is Hidetora (of Ran) an alter ego of Kambei?
• Spectacular Kills, Lonely Deaths
• Why No Personalities for the Bandits

The Quiet Duel (February 2009):

• Mangled Metaphors
• A Strange Cut
• Was the Theme Lost in the Shuffle?

Dersu Uzala (March 2009):

• Kurosawa’s Poem of Despair?

Throne of Blood (April 2009):

• As a Painting
• Faster Pussycat! Kill, Kill!
• Fate, Free Will and Villainy
• Lady Asaji, Psychopath or Victim?
The Old Woman
• The Old Woman’s Song
• Washizu as a Pincushion