http://akirakurosawa.info News, information and discussion on the Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:58:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en According to Blu-ray.com, Optimum Home Entertainment will release Ran on Blu-ray on September 28. The UK release may be region-locked to Blu-ray region B. A discussion topic at Blu-ray.com forums has some additional information, including the fact that the print will be the Studio Canal print that was used for the ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/06/17/optimum-to-release-ran-on-blu-ray/ Do you ever have the feeling that Seven Samurai is a little bit everywhere these days? Well, with last year's Japanese Pachinko remake, the Weinsteins reimagination project, Irvine Welsh's soccer adaptation, a rumoured sci-fi adaptation, an apparent Chinese homage, a related short film and even a one-man touring theatre performance ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/06/10/seven-samurai-this-time-in-the-middle-ages/ If you have been a reader for some time, you may remember last year's Japanese remake of Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, which got some fairly mixed reviews: Daily Yomimuri called it excellent entertainment, while Mark Schilling didn't find it much of anything. I have now finally had the opportunity to watch ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/06/07/review-the-last-princess/ Welcome to the 14th edition of our very own social experiment dubbed the Akira Kurosawa Online Film Club! For us, fourteen is an excellent number indeed, for it signifies the arrival of Kurosawa's 1980 opus Kagemusha for discussion. Written at a time when Kurosawa hadn't had a major Japanese studio behind ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/06/01/ak-online-film-club-14-kagemusha/ Would you be interested in seeing some twenty thousand pages of Kurosawa's screenplays, photos, storyboards, drawings, notes, newspaper clippings, personal scribblings and other materials? If yes, head to the Akira Kurosawa Digital Archive, just opened by Kyoto's Ryukoku University in collaboration with Kurosawa Production. I don't think that I am exaggerating ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/05/27/akira-kurosawa-digital-archive-opens/ NipponCinema.com has the first teaser trailer for Hiroyuki Nakano's forthcoming film Tajomaru. As reported earlier, the film follows the adventures of the titular rogue from Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short story "In A Grove", most famously portrayed by Toshiro Mifune in Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Instead of a remake or an adaptation, however, Nakano's film ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/05/26/first-tajomaru-teaser-trailer/ Well, the first on the list is being remade by the author of the second, set in the world of the last mentioned. Yes, you read it right. Irvine Welsh is reportedly planning to direct The Magnificent Eleven, a football/soccer film based on The Magnificent Seven (the western based on Kurosawa's ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/05/23/what-do-seven-samurai-trainspotting-and-soccer-have-in-common/ Criterion has announced an August 18 release for a blu-ray edition of Kagemusha. In terms of extras, the blu-ray edition is an exact copy of Criterion's double DVD release. More information about the release can be found on Criterion's product page. http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/05/18/criterion-to-release-kagemusha-on-blu-ray/ Welcome to the 13th edition of the Akira Kurosawa Online Film Club! Yes, a year has already passed since we began with Rashomon, and what a wonderful year it has been! But, forward we shall soldier, with this month's target set on The Idiot, Kurosawa's 1951 film perhaps best known for ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/05/01/ak-online-film-club-13-the-idiot/ New York Times film critic A.O. Scott has recorded a three-and-a-half-minute piece on Ran under his "Critics' Picks" series. The video can be seen at YouTube. Although just a very short introductory piece, I find Scott's video quite good. Or, it did at least make me want to watch the film ... http://akirakurosawa.info/2009/04/09/new-york-times-critics-picks-ran/