Ed note: For the next several weeks, composer and film aficionado Lewis Saul has agreed to supply us with in-depth commentary about the films of Akira Kurosawa, now showing in an extended festival at the Film Forum. Even if you're unable to stop by the Forum, we think Lew's insights will deepen your appreciation of these important movies.
Ichiban utsukushiku (The Most Beautiful [1944]
PLAYING January 25th at The Film Forum
This is Kurosawa's second film.
For a detailed frame-by-frame analysis, click here.
I am insanely jealous of you New Yorkers. You will find your seat, the lights will dim ~ and you'll see one of the very worst Kurosawa films he ever made!
No, but I'm really not kidding. I really am jealous! You see, although I think we can all just go ahead and admit that this is not exactly a masterpiece, it does have some moments where you will say to yourself, "gee, I notice that he does that a lot in his later films!"
It is of course, his most obvious "propaganda film" of his four war-time pictures ... but that hardly detracts from enjoying the movie on its own merits. There are several, of course...
I still haven't told you why I'm so jealous of you! When you sit down to watch this film, you will be looking at a new set of subtitles, which are only available to your humble blogger if I shell out $300 for the set pictured above! (Hopefully, they will release this title separately at some point!)
The subtitles which you can see on the transcription at my blog are pretty much unreadable. So enjoy the new ones.
An example of the English translation from the Japanese by the Hong-Kong-based Chinese who did the translation!
Another great example:
"You are healthy. The diseases are scared of you." Laughter. "My bones are vulnerable."
- There are 18 wipes in this film: six horizontal (4l/2r); 11 vertical (10t-b/1b-t); and one very beautiful "iris" wipe!
