Tag: Akira Kurosawa
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Paprika (2006)
Look, I can rewatch Inception anytime, but after my first viewing at the cinema, I remembered thinking, “The imagery wasn’t really that surreal for a movie about dreams.” Sure, there’s the city folding on itself, and the hallway zero gravity fight, but for the most part, it’s pretty standard stuff – the climax is a… Read.
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Throw Down (2004)
Director Johnnie To said in an interview that he “didn’t want any antagonists” in the Hong Kong film, Throw Down (2004). This is intriguing to hear – no antagonists in a neo-noir martial arts movie set in the backstreets, gambling dens and smoky bars of Hong Kong? And that is specifically about the fighting form… Read.
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Drunken Angel (1948)
Past Movie Squad reviewer Paul Grace wrote a recommendation of Drunken Angel (1948) for an old issue of the VHS Tracking zine. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, I only realised after I had watched it that it was his first collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. While he’s always been a handsome, attractive man to me, Mifune… Read.
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Red Beard (1965)
Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard (1965; Akahige) might intimidate with its three hour length. But this drama, the last film Kurosawa would make in black and white, and with regular collaborator and star Toshiro Mifune, is a beautiful, moving experience. Set in the 19th century in Koshikawa, it is basically a medical drama focused on the… Read.
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Stray Dog (1949)
In Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog (1949; Nora inu), a young Toshiro Mifune plays a rookie detective named Murakami who feels shame and twists himself in knots over losing his newly acquired Colt pistol to a pick-pocket on a tram. This is both a film noir and a police procedural, which seems to have influences on… Read.
VHS Tracking 