It’s time once again to look at recent Kurosawa related news which are interesting, but not quite interesting enough to warrant their own news posts.
First on offer is an essay on Kurosawa’s geography. Over at Reverse Shot, Ben Parker writes about Kurosawa’s “cartographic principle” by which he means “the insistence on establishing and maintaining spatial orientation not only in a scene but continuously, across an entire film”. The focus of the essay is primarily on High and Low which was screened at the Museum of the Moving Image.
For a more visual essay, head over to Flavorwire who have posted one of those articles which compare Kurosawa’s paintings to the final filmed scenes. Always interesting!
In theatre news, the Philadelphia (United States) based Luna Theater will be staging Fay and Michael Kanin’s 1959 stage adaptation of Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Tickets are on sale and the performances run from March 21 until April 11.
In The Magnificent Seven remake news, Ethan Hawke is said to be joining the film’s cast, which also includes Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Haley Bennett. And Sony is co-financing the film with MGM.
Finally, in Yasujiro Ozu related news, a new book titled Ozu International: Essays on the Global Influences of a Japanese Auteur has been published. Unless I’m mistaken, this is the first English language Ozu book in years. Maybe decades?
