Akira Kurosawa News, Information and Discussion
News archive for the 'Kurosawa News' Category
Criterion revisits High and Low
23 April, 2008 (5 comments)Criterion continues their process of updating some of their oldest Kurosawa releases. Next in line is High and Low, which will get a new treatment on a double disc set More...
Filming of Weinsteins’ Seven Samurai to start this year?
16 April, 2008The “Thompson on Hollywood” blog on Variety reports about the latest developments with The Weinstein Co.’s Asian Film Fund. While most of the article is about The Forbidden Kingdom, the More...
The Last Princess, plus more remakes in the horizon
29 March, 2008 (1 comment)Nikkei News has an article on The Last Princess, which as most readers should by now know is a remake of Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress to be released in Japan More...
John Fusco on the ‘Seven Samurai’ remake
18 March, 2008 (3 comments)Screenwriter John Fusco has talked briefly to SciFi Wire about the Seven Samurai remake that he is currently working on under the Weinstein Co. He is quoted in the article More...
AK100 has a website
14 March, 2008 (13 comments)Some time ago I mentioned the “AK100 Project” initiative, which is set to begin later this year in order to celebrate and remember Kurosawa through “exhibitions of Kurosawa’s work, newly More...
Tokyo event with Nogami and Richie
14 March, 2008 (2 comments)Those of you in Tokyo at the end of the month may not want to miss an event that the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan is organizing on the 31st More...
Copyrights for Kurosawa’s scripts sold to a third party
2 March, 2008 (1 comment)While trying to find more information about the recent press announcement regarding unfinished Kurosawa footage, I stumbled upon a Japan Today article from December 29 last year. The article in More...
Unfinished footage by Kurosawa to be released
2 March, 2008 (2 comments)The Screen Daily correspondent Jason Gray writes in his blog about a Kurosawa Production press conference, according to which footage from an unfinished 1983 documentary by Kurosawa, as well as More...
Beastie Boys Kurosawa
1 March, 2008 (9 comments)Criterion’s February 2008 newsletter has a “top ten Criterions” list from the Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch. Four of the ten films on his list are Kurosawa titles, with Seven More...
May 23 DVD release for Morita’s Sanjuro
29 February, 2008 (1 comment)According to the official website, the DVD for Yoshimitsu Morita’s remake of Sanjuro will be out on 23 May, 2008. The release will have two different versions, a basic DVD More...
New region 4 Kurosawa from Madman
24 January, 2008 (5 comments)As Master Thief pointed out a few days ago in the comments to Amazon’s new Kurosawa offerings, the Australian Madman Entertainment’s Eastern Eye series put out a host of new More...
Amazon’s new Kurosawa offerings
22 January, 2008 (5 comments)The Amazon.com exclusive Criterion Collection Director Series: Akira Kurosawa that I wrote about recently turns out to consist of Criterion’s new version of Yojimbo, Seven Samurai and Sanjuro (as well More...
Two new Rashomon releases
21 January, 2008January 7 quietly saw the All Regions DVD release of Rashomon by a company called Triad Productions. Based on the item description on the Amazon website, according to which the More...
Postwar Kurosawa reviews
14 January, 2008 (3 comments)Reviews of the Postwar Kurosawa set have started to fly in. As usual, DVD Talk gives us a good general overview of the box set, while the DVD Beaver review More...
Hidden Fortress remake has a teaser trailer
12 January, 2008 (1 comment)The Hidden Fortress remake now has a teaser trailer that can be viewed on the official website. It of course doesn’t reveal all that much about the finer details, but More...
An Indian Kurosawa box set to be released
9 January, 2008The Indian film company Palador Pictures has announced the release of an Akira Kurosawa DVD Box Set comprising five of the director’s best known films. The box set is exclusively More...
Akira Kurosawa: Interviews published
11 December, 2007 (7 comments)University Press of Mississippi’s book Akira Kurosawa: Interviews has been published and is now available for purchase. The listed retail price is $20, but Amazon.com currently sells the 224 page More...
Amazon.com exclusive Kurosawa collection
29 November, 2007 (4 comments)Thanks to a tip from a reader (whose name I’m not all that certain about, but I’d guess either “Christopher” or “Julie”!), I’ve found out that Amazon.com now lists a More...
DVD Beaver’s review of Drunken Angel
14 November, 2007The guys over at DVD Beaver have taken a look at the new Drunken Angel from Criterion. They compare the print to BFI’s Region 2 release, and note that the More...
DVD Talk reviews Drunken Angel
14 November, 2007 (3 comments)Stuart Galbraith IV has written yet another excellent review of a Kurosawa DVD for DVD Talk, this time for the to-be-released Drunken Angel by Criterion. His assessment of Criterion’s latest More...
Variety on “The Hidden Fortress” remake
30 October, 2007 (2 comments)Variety has an article about the new Hidden Fortress remake that was announced by Toho. The article adds the following to what we already know: In a departure from the More...
An Akira Kurosawa remake roundup
29 October, 2007 (12 comments)Since many of you can’t probably keep up with all the Kurosawa remakes that are happening at the moment, I decided to compile a list of titles in planning or More...
‘The Hidden Fortress’ remake
29 October, 2007 (2 comments)Tokyo Graph reports that a remake of The Hidden Fortress is on its way. Directed by the special effects specialist turned director Shinji Higuchi, the movie will star Jun Matsumoto, More...
Postwar Kurosawa Collection from Criterion’s Eclipse
25 October, 2007 (9 comments)It has been announced that Criterion, as part of its new Eclipse series, is releasing a Kurosawa collection that gathers some of the director’s less available works from the immediate More...
Madadayo, The Quiet Duel from Yume Pictures
2 October, 2007 (3 comments)Yume Pictures has released a Region 2 DVD of Madadayo. This is very good news for those in Europe, as there has so far been no viable option for an More...
‘Drunken Angel’ by Criterion in November
16 August, 2007 (9 comments)Criterion has set November as a release date for a Drunken Angel DVD. Newly digitally restored, the film comes with a 30-minute commentary by Donald Richie, a 30-minute “making of” More...
Tsubaki Sanjuro poster #2
2 June, 2007 (4 comments)The second poster for Yoshimitsu Morita’s remake of Kurosawa’s Tsubaki Sanjuro has been made available on the movie’s official website. Here it is: A bigger version can be seen at the official site. As the poster points out, the film is to be released on December 1st. Thanks to Twitch for the heads-up.
Weinsteins to preserve Madadayo
24 May, 2007 (1 comment)The Weinstein Company has announced three new DVD labels with one of them, the Miriam Collection, being devoted to “restorations, prestige and foreign pics”. The first title to be released More...
YouTube: For Beautiful Movies
24 May, 2007 (5 comments)The Message from Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies has now been uploaded to YouTube in its entirety. I am not entirely sure what to make of this in terms of More...
Contents list for Akira Kurosawa: Interviews
21 May, 2007University Press of Mississippi has been kind enough to provide me a copy of the table of contents to be included in the Akira Kurosawa: Interviews book that I wrote More...
New Book — Akira Kurosawa: Interviews
20 May, 2007 (5 comments)In December 2007, University Press of Mississippi will publish a book titled Akira Kurosawa: Interviews. The 224-page book, available both in hard cover and paperback, will be made available as More...
Youtube: A Message from Akira Kurosawa
20 May, 2007Someone seems to have uploaded to Youtube two chapters from the A Message from Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies interview series that was done in the early 1990s. These are More...
‘Ikiru’ to be adapted on TV
10 May, 2007 (3 comments)The Japanese television network TV Asahi is reportedly currently filming a TV remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1952 movie Ikiru. Production of the television drama, which stars the popular kabuki More...
Another YouTube video on the Making of ‘Ran’
5 April, 2007Yet another somewhat cryptic message has been posted over at YouTube regarding the making-of footage shot during the filming of Kurosawa’s ‘Ran’. Do take a look.
More information about the Toho lawsuit
4 April, 2007 (1 comment)deconstruct notes at the forum that Variety has slightly more information about the reported lawsuit Toho launched on Monday against Cosmo Contents at the Tokyo District Court regarding the company’s More...
Something Like an Update
28 March, 2007 (10 comments)I have finished an update regarding the website design. Now, you may ask “why bother?” or “what was wrong with the old design?”. Well, there was nothing terribly wrong with More...
News from BFI
14 March, 2007 (5 comments)Thanks to Master Thief, I have corrected an error on the “Akira Kurosawa’s Movies on DVD” page — the BFI release of High and Low is 2.35:1, not 2.55:1 More...
Sanshiro Sugata II in May by Eastern Eye
11 March, 2007 (5 comments)May 2nd, 2007 will see the Region 4 DVD release of Sanshiro Sugata II by Eastern Eye. Unless they have completely messed up the release, this DVD should become the More...
DVD Times reviews the Artificial Eye release of ‘Dersu Uzala’
28 February, 2007 (9 comments)Noel Megahey at DVD Times has reviewed the region-free release of Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala by Artificial Eye. While I personally think that the film review makes a little bit More...
French High Definition ‘Ran’ in March
23 February, 2007 (40 comments)Studio Canal seems to be about to release a High Definition (HD) DVD of Kurosawa’s Ran on March 5th, 2007. I may be wrong here, but this might just be More...
Region 4 releases for ‘Madadayo’ and ‘The Quiet Duel’
23 February, 2007 (4 comments)Master Thief has kindly brought to my attention the fact that March 7th, 2007 will see the release of two region 4 Akira Kurosawa DVDs from the Australian company Madman More...
Download Rashomon at the Internet Archive
6 February, 2007 (30 comments)As reported earlier, Japanese movies made before 1953 are in public domain. The Internet Archive, which archives Internet and multimedia resources, has now added a downloadable version of Kurosawa’s Rashomon. More...
70 Hours of Film Footage Available from the Making of Ran?
26 January, 2007 (6 comments)Someone has recently posted a 5-minute long video on YouTube that shows behind-the-scenes activity from the shooting of Kurosawa’s late classic movie Ran. As the documentary-like film plays, and narrator More...
Criterion’s Yojimbo and Sanjuro out on Tuesday
22 January, 2007 (25 comments)This is just a reminder to those of you who live in the US that Criterion’s new Yojimbo and Sanjuro DVDs will be available on Tuesday. The new high More...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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.
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.
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.