Akira Kurosawa

Features

Part 4: Challenging Convention

By PopMatters Staff

As cinema went completely commercial, abandoning art for artifice, true aesthetic acumen was hard to come by. Luckily, for the movies included herein, it was their difference, as well as their diversity, that helped them stand out from the rest of the high concept hackwork. [21 June 2007]

Part 1: Pure Classicism

By PopMatters Staff

In its infancy, the cinematic artform went through some formidable technological and stylistic changes. The ten DVDs discussed here highlight the very definition of the Golden Age of filmmaking. [18 June 2007]

Reviews

Throne of Blood

By Chadwick Jenkins

In Throne of Blood, Ambition appears as something outside of the human character that preys upon pride and contributes to the demise of the prideful. [16 October 2009]

Dodes’ka-Den

By Ian Chant

Kurosawa’s camera turns an intense, voyeuristic gaze on the residents of the junkyard that is at once sympathetic and unflinching. [8 April 2009]

Ikiru

By Marc Calderaro

The story is deeply affecting and life-affirming, but the plot is only a small part of what makes Ikiru so masterful. [26 March 2009]

High and Low

By Zeth Lundy

Criterion supersedes its 2002 edition of Kurosawa's 1963 suspense masterpiece with this two-disc set, replete with feature-length commentary, a making-of documentary, and interviews. [22 August 2008]

Post-War Kurosawa: Eclipse Series 7

By Michael Barrett

Many films of this era tap into fear and paranoia but not many address if destruction will come from those who fear it or those who ignore it. [14 March 2008]

Drunken Angel

By Shaun Huston

One need not know much about Japanese national cinema or Akira Kurosawa or post-War Japan to enjoy and appreciate a film like Drunken Angel. [10 January 2008]

Ran (1985/2000)

By Michael Abernethy

Kurosawa achieves an almost perfect fusion of storyteller and painter. [1 January 1995]