Comments for Akira Kurosawa: News, Information and Discussion

Comment on Teruyo Nogami: A new film + the Kurosawa book by Bill white

Bill white — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:24:37 +0000

I have a question about the film “Kabei.” I saw it yesterday, and was struck with how modern some of the men’s fashions seemed. Was it possible for a man to have such long, carefully styled, hair in this period? I understand the family in the film was from academic society, and wondered if perhaps their fashion sense was really this progressive.

Comment on Guide to the Akira Kurosawa Digital Archive by Vili Maunula

Vili Maunula — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:58:39 +0000

deconstruct: CM stands for commercials, so 14. cm (?) (cm) is photos from his commercials.

Thanks, deconstruct! I didn’t know that.

Comment on Akira Kurosawa Digital Archive opens by Jeremy Quintanilla

Jeremy Quintanilla — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:54:32 +0000

^^ If you have a high screen resolution that enables you to see the whole image at a size large enough for scaling to wallpaper, you can use Windows Vista’s Snipping Tool or some of the better screen capture software. Otherwise there is no way, as they purposely arrange the image to be embedded as part of the flash and acrobat, rather them an image.

I notice they do list the file’s name and the location of the archive used to display the image, but I haven’t bother to see what happens when I attempt to access the image directly, as I don’t want to abuse their work. I do not however think it will work.

Comment on Guide to the Akira Kurosawa Digital Archive by deconstruct

deconstruct — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:32:36 +0000

Thank you for translating the menu. There is so much to explore!

CM stands for commercials, so 14. cm (?) (cm) is photos from his commercials.

Comment on Akira Kurosawa Digital Archive opens by deconstruct

deconstruct — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:43:50 +0000

Incredible! It is enough to make any AK fan’s head explode.
The photos are fascinating. Is it possible to download them at all? Would love to use as wallpaper or the like.

Comment on Review: The Last Princess by cocoskyavitch

cocoskyavitch — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:57:37 +0000

Greatr review, Vili. I wish I could hunt down the film, but I’ve got lots to do before I hit the road!

Comment on Online Videos: Full Akira Kurosawa Movies by Vili Maunula

Vili Maunula — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:32:14 +0000

Fabien is absolutely right, copyright laws are mind-bogglingly complicated. I think that the latest we have heard of the court case in Japan can be found here.

How much any of that applies to the rest of the world is a completely different question. I think that in most European countries, a work is under copyright for at least “70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last principal director, author or composer dies.” (UK Copyright Service).

OpenFlix, meanwhile, notes that practically no foreign film released after 1923 is currently in public domain in the US.

I therefore doubt that any Kurosawa film is currently in public domain. But again, I am far from being an expert in international law. I have started researching this issue several times by now, and never really get anything else out of it than a headache!

Comment on Online Videos: Full Akira Kurosawa Movies by Fabien

Fabien — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:34:48 +0000

Oh, sorry, I didn’t get the point.
But the Wikipedia entry you are quoting, as far as I understand it, refers to physical releases (DVDs) of the film which can be bought online, and not to streaming versions.

Moreover, according to the deletion of several early Kurosawa films at Google Video and Archive.org, there are probably some legal issues or suspicions towards the “publicdomainness” of these films (intellectual property is complex, a fortiori with international points of view – some countries consider a film to fall in public domain 70 years after authors’ death, others 50 years after the first release, etc. and a lawsuit case has been recently reported here by Vili).

I fear also that the very few requests for these interesting but badly-renowned films will not encourage more releases.

Comment on Online Videos: Full Akira Kurosawa Movies by Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:25:11 +0000

Thanks for the help Fabien, though I’d rather watch online streams of the films (seeming as they are in public domain) which are free rather than me purchasing them.

Comment on ‘Seven Samurai’, this time in the Middle Ages by NoelCT

NoelCT — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:55:57 +0000

I’ve always thought a version of SEVEN SAMURAI set in the middle ages with knights and serfs would be a nice way to restage the tale, but Rob Cohen? DRAGONHEART wasn’t bad, but stripped the original script, a truly fantastic read, of much of its subtext. Since then, he’s become little more than a hack action director. I’ve seen nearly all his films, and they are entertaining enough, but he’s much more concerned with “cool” popcorn thrills and this bizarrely reckless cubist editing philosophy (just try listening to some of his more recent commentaries) than he is complex characters and layered storytelling. I’ll still see the flick should it get made, but my expectations will be kept low. At the moment, I’m more enthusiastic about the modern version with mercenaries in Thailand. That concept has a lot of potential and I’m eager to see who they line up to direct.