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XXI. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai) [1954] (by Lewis Saul)] (Part 2)

• 0:00:00 (Disc 2). These lovely Eisensteinian images are accompanied by a cute, pentatonic ditty by Hayasaka.
• 0:00:15. Very cool. After seven cuts in 14 seconds (average cut, two seconds), this one lasts ten seconds, uses fluid camera motion, and tells the viewer everything he needs to know about the upcoming scene: the camera tracks four young women -- all carrying straw -- along a path. At once, we see Kikuchiyo at the upper left of frame facing away from the camera. He turns and -- seeing the girls -- runs towards them (us). The camera holds on him, smiling, wondrous! (Mifune was never better.)
• 0:00:54. Nothing much to add, except to put a little punctuation mark on Kikuchiyo's growing fondness for Yohei. Here he runs up to him and speaks as if Yohei himself has hidden these gorgeous women away in his own secret harem or something! Bokuzen's face and laugh ... "oni," ("devil") Kikuchiyo says to him, giving his forehead a little push (I see this gesture a lot in Japanese cinema!)
• 0:01:11. Kikuchiyo's desire to help out the girl is perfectly natural for reasons other than his barely contained sexual passion -- he is naturally a farmer, and feels right at home using the scythe.
•  At around this point, the subplots of Manzo/Shino and Rikichi/? are coming into focus; although we're not sure about Rikichi. He has just turned a bamboo grove into a "bear's den."
• The Russian music again here. Ominous.
• 0:05:42. Waking up Kikuchiyo only proves that Kambei knows he is not really a samurai. This again shows Kambei's wisdom, because such a scary test would be sure to nudge Kikuchiyo into more responsible behavior (which it -- in fact -- seems to do, in the end!) ...

Kurosawa: SEVEN SAMURAI CONTEST! Win a Kurosawa DVD of your choice! Guess the number! (by Lewis Saul)

WIN A KUROSAWA DVD OF YOUR CHOICE!

I am elated to have had this opportunity to blog about Akira Kurosawa.

I like to count things, and I have counted every single cut in Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai) [1954]. (Believe it or not, this information is actually useful to me in my studies of Kurosawa's filmmaking).

HERE'S THE CONTEST:

In honor of today's epic post on Seven Samurai, I am offering a free DVD to the person who can come closest to guessing my worked-so-hard-for tally of the actual total number of cuts (this includes straight cuts, wipes, dissolves and fades to black) in Seven Samurai. The person who guesses the number which is closest to my actual count (final and official) without going over wins a free Kurosawa DVD of your choice. I will ship it to you anywhere in the continental United States. If you want a DVD set of two or more discs, I will divide the Amazon purchase price by the amount of discs and will give you that in an Amazon gift certificate. (For instance, if you want the new AK 100 set [$289.99 today], then I would send you an Amazon GC for $11.60 [$289.99 div. by 25 discs = $11.60]).

Put your guesses in the comment box. One guess per person.

Contest ends at 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, February 18, 2010. Not open to any recognized member of the Kurosawa-gumi, Donald Richie, Stephen Prince or the projectionist at The Film Forum. Winner will be announced in these pages on Friday, February 19, 2010, and need not be present to win the grand prize. Being past or future is fine, too.

In the event of a tie, I will break it at random.org with a timestamp.

I have checked the internet as best I could, and I don't believe that anyone has ever published this information before.

IF, HOWEVER, it becomes known that this information is published (either in a book or on the net) then THIS CONTEST IS NULL AND VOID. I am doing this because I don't think it's ever been done before.

Clear?

-- Lewis Saul

XX. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Yume (Akira Kurosawa's Dreams) [1990] (by Lewis Saul)]

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.

Yume (Akira Kurosawa's Dreams) [1990]

PLAYING January 28th at The Film Forum

This is Kurosawa's 28th film.

I cannot think of another Kurosawa film which engenders such wildly divergent feelings as this one.

For example, personally speaking, of the eight dreams, I can watch four of them endlessly. I find them beautiful and like to linger in their colorful worlds over and over again. I never get tired of them!

That leaves four additional dreams. I cannot put it any other way -- I detest these four sections, and at times like these, when I feel I must watch them again in order to write something coherent -- I realize just why I dislike them so much. I notice myself squirming in my seat waiting for it to be over and for one of my "favorites" to come up!

I'll let you know which is which in a few more sentences -- my opinions are far from universal; many of my favorite critics love the episodes I hate and vice versa.

As usual, the story behind the making of the film is pretty fascinating, and again it involves Kurosawa's nephew, Mike Inoue: "One day I got a call from my uncle, who said, 'I need your help. Why don't you come over?' He said to me, 'I received a letter from Steven Spielberg which doesn't make any sense.' So I went over to his home and he said that he had written a script called 'Such Dreams I Have Dreamed' and that he had sent a translation of that script to Spielberg for possible financing. I read Spielberg's reply, which said, 'Thank you for sending the synopsis, and if you do a script, please send it to me.' I said, 'Uncle, what did you send to him?' And he said, '[I didn't send a synopsis.] I finished the whole script and sent it to a translation company, and they sent it on.' I read the translation he sent. It was terrible and missing many important nuances from Kurosawa's original Japanese script. I then volunteered to re-translate. It took me over a month to complete my translation as I had to commute to his home frequently to ask him about the nuances he intended to express between the lines. A few days after we sent my translation to Spielberg, we received a fax from him stating that he was highly impressed with this script and offering his help to find a financier. He brought in Warner Brothers who gave us a Negative-Pickup guarantee for the film to be directed by Kurosawa." (Negative pickup means that WB bought the finished film but did not finance it. Kurosawa did so with bank loans) [Galbraith, p. 603].

• "Inoue and Kurosawa decided to meet with Spielberg at Universal Studios. When they greeted each other, they kept bowing, and Spielberg refused to sit down before Kurosawa did" [p. 604].
• The film cost $12 million.

XIX. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Rashômon (In the Woods) [1950] (by Lewis Saul)

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.

Rashômon (In the Woods) [1950]

PLAYING on January 28th at The Film Forum

This is Kurosawa's 11th film.

You lucky New Yorkers will see a brand new 35mm restored print! How I envy you! Go see this film today!

This précis is probably unnecessary, so universally known is this story -- but I include it here so as to make the actors who play these memorable characters more familiar to you:

In the 11th century, a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura -- 21 roles for Kurosawa in his 30 films!*) and a priest (Minoru Chiaki) wait out a heavy rainstorm under the collapsing Rashômon gate. A commoner (Kichijirô Ueda) joins them and the woodcutter tells his story about a samurai (Masayuki Mori), his wife (Machiko Kyô, her only AK role) and a bandit (Mifune). They all testified in court, and in addition, a medium (Noriko [Fumiko] Homma) testified on behalf of the dead samurai. Throw an abandoned newborn infant into the mix at the finish, as Kurosawa appends a sharp moral uplift.

The profound influence that this film had on future cinema is impossible to overstate. In 1950, no one had ever seen anything like it! Galbraith points out three films which later attempted to mimic the structure of Kurosawa's masterpiece: Kubrick's The Killing [1956]; Alain Resnais' L'année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) [1961]; and Mario Bava's Quante volte ... quella notte (Four Times that Night) [1972] [p. 129].

XVIII. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Kagemusha (The Double/Shadow Warrior) [1980] (by Lewis Saul)

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.

Kagemusha (The Double/Shadow Warrior) [1980]

PLAYING January 27th at The Film Forum

This is Kurosawa's 26th film, but only his third color film!

It is easy to remember the years that the six films #23-28 were made: starting in 1965 (#23), we get a new film exactly every five years ... so 1970 (#24); 1975 (#25); 1980 (#26); 1985 (#27); 1990 (#28) ...

I'm fairly certain Kurosawa would have been happier if he had been able to make a film or two in between those big Five Year Plans!

However, things with the Japanese film industry were so bad at this time that Kurosawa's previous film had been shot and partially financed in the (former) Soviet Union. So after wrapping Dersu Uzala (playing February 4th) in 1975, Kurosawa had plenty of time on his hands to create a new film -- entirely in his own imagination! He created nearly 250 paintings and sketches of the scenes and characters. Finally, he showed them to George Lucas who was stunned to learn of Kurosawa's financing problems.

"It was a tragedy. It was like telling Michelangelo, 'All right, you're seventy and we're not letting you paint anymore.'"

Now, recall -- it's 1980 and a certain Lucas film has done pretty well at box office! Thus, he was able to pretty much blackmail 20th Century into coming up with the remaining money and shaming Toho into co-financing the film. (Francis Ford Coppola got in on the act as well.) And so,

" ... for the first time in history, an American studio was pressured into buying a film it didn't especially want, to engineer another company into pouring money into a film it did not want to make" [Galbraith, p. 547-8].

XVII. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Waruiyatsu hodo yoku nemeru (The Bad Sleep Well) [1960] (by Lewis Saul)

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.

Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru (The Bad Sleep Well) [1960]

PLAYING on January 26th at The Film Forum

This is Kurosawa's 19th film and the first co-production between his new production company and Toho.

From my reading, it has always seemed that the reason Toho was anxious to have Kurosawa foot the bill for the expensive costs of his films -- and therefore take risks he had never been forced to take previously -- was that he often seemed to choose themes for his films which did not seem "commercial" at first glance. If his next film Yojimbo [1961] {playing February 3rd} had been his 19th film instead of his 20th, I would have thought that this was exactly the case -- Yojimbo seems hand-crafted with an eye towards making a bit hit!

But instead he made this film. A powerful, unflinching (although some still accuse Kurosawa of flinching, in the end [see below]) look at corporate Japan at the beginning of the big economic boom, and the gangsters in suits who ran/run the corporations ...

The Shakespearean connection here (Hamlet) would seem to be the most tenuous of the three (MacBeth/Throne of Blood and Ran/King Lear are the other two) -- and you can read many pages in Goodwin about it -- I'll leave that to you experts. I'm just a dumb musician.

Galbraith's chapter on this film is filled with terrific anecdotes, perhaps because of his relationship with Mike Inoue, Kurosawa's nephew, who had a lot to do with the origins of this very interesting movie:

"When I went to college I wanted to be a scriptwriter. I wrote a script and gave it to my uncle to read. Of course, he received scripts from all over. I wrote my name on the script, and every time I went to see him the script was always under a big pile, and each time I would move it to the top of the stack. One day I went to his birthday party and his wife rushed out to meet me at the front door and said, 'You'll be very happy to know your uncle had nothing to do while he was waiting for the guests to arrive, and he started reading your script.'" After some encouragement and six months more work, Inoue presented his uncle with a script entitled, "Bad Men's Prosperity." "[Kursoawa said], 'The story is very interesting. I might take up the subject for a film, but I'd have to refine the script you wrote. You don't mind, do you?'"

Inoue received no screen credit, but he didn't seem to mind. "Some of the scenes I spent ten pages on he replaced with only one line. I had many sleepless nights writing those scenes, but I have to admit their version was much better, and it wasn't my script anymore."

XVI. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for our Youth) [1946] (by Lewis Saul)

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.

Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth) [1946]

PLAYING January 25th at The Film Forum

For a detailed frame-by-frame (literally, at one point!) analysis, click here.

Although Yukie Yagihara (Setsuko Hara) says this line to Itokawa (Akitake Kôno, five early films with AK) very late in the film, the line resonates throughout this fantastic 1946 film -- Kurosawa's first post-war film.

It is a shame that Criterion has not released this as a regular Criterion Collection DVD, with some expert commentary. The political situation alone is important enough to the film to have someone discuss that in depth. But let us be thankful for what we have -- a nice, quite watchable print on the Eclipse Series line -- no frills, but the price is right (and four other films in the package)...

Galbraith's précis is nice:

"Professor Yagihara is dismissed from Kyoto University, and the students revolt. Yukie is courted by two of Yagihara's students, Noge (Susumu Fujita) and Itokawa (Kôno). Yukie lives in a carefree, bourgeois world oblivious to the tumultuous events that surround her. Noge is expelled for his anti-militaristic activities, while the weak-willed Itokawa chooses the opposite path, joining the military government as a public prosecutor. Yuke follows Noge to Tokyo, becoming first his secretary, then his wife. Noge is arrested again and dies in jail, presumably tortured to death. She returns briefly to her parents before deciding to take her husband's remains to his rice farmer parents (Haruko Sugimura [a favorite of Ozu's, but AK used her only used more, in Akahige {Red Beard} |1965|] and Kokuten Kôdô). Because of their son's infamy, the parents are ostracized from the village community and forced to eke out a living during the night. The mother curses her son. But Yukie's selfless decision to work in their rice paddies like an ordinary peasant, refusing to hide in the shadows, gradually impresses Noge's parents. When their neighbors viciously trample their rice crop, Yukie determinedly starts over, in spite of total

XV. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Ichiban utsukushiku (The Most Beautiful) [1944] (by Lewis Saul)

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!

XIV. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Shubun (Scandal) [1950] (by Lewis Saul)

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.

Shubun (Scandal) [1950]

PLAYING January 24th at The Film Forum

This is Kurosawa's 10th film.

For a detailed frame-by-frame analysis of this film, click here.

Those intrepid freaks who may have checked out my insanity may have noticed that my comments and references only plow through about half of this film (although the entire film is "transcribed"). This is where I was rudely interrupted by my musical career at some point, and have never gotten back to them.

I am thankful now for the opportunity to get back to this fantastic film.

Actually, this is considered by almost every single Kurosawa scholar -- and most of his fans -- to be a "minor" picture. Richie complains that once the lawyer, Hiruta (Takashi Shimura) "takes over the picture" it somehow loses momentum.

I don't know -- I just know that the very first time I saw this (in 1999), it deeply affected me.

XIII. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Shizukanaru ketto (The Quiet Duel) [1949] (by Lewis Saul)

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.

Shizukanaru keto (The Quiet Duel) [1949]

PLAYING January 24th at The Film Forum.

This is Kurosawa's eighth film.

For a detailed frame-by-frame analysis, click here.

This conversation occurs at a crucial point in the film as Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki (Toshirô Mifune) asks Susumu Nakada (Kenjiro Uemura, sole AK role) an interesting question ...

I detailed the 12 roles of Katamari Fujiwara in my post on Kakushi toride no san akunin (The Hidden Fortress) [1958] ... here are the 16 roles of Mifune, between 1948 and 1965, about one per year:

1. Matsunaga, a gangster (Yoidore tenshi [Drunken Angel] {1948});
2. Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki (this film);
3. Detective Murakami (Nora inu [Stray Dog] {1949});
4. Ichirô Aoe, painter (Shubun [Scandal] {1950});
5. Tajômaru, the bandit (Rashômon [1950]), playing January 28th;
6. Akama (Hakuchi [The Idiot] {1951});
7. Kikuchiiyo, the "samurai" (Shichinin no samurai [The Seven Samurai) {1954}), playing January 29th and 30th;
8. Nakajima, a 70-year-old man (Ikimono no kiroku [I Live in Fear/Record of a Living Being] {1955});
9. Washizu, a samurai (Kumonosu-ju [Throne of Blood] {1957});
10. Sutekichi, a thief (Donzoko [The Lower Depths] {1957}), playing January 31st and February 1st;
11. General Rokurota Makabe (Kakushi-toride no san-akunin [The Hidden Fortress] {1958});
12. Kôichi Nishi, an executive secretary (Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru [The Bad Sleep Well] {1960}), playing January 26th;
13. The ronin (Yojimbo [1961]), playing February 3rd;
14. The ronin (Sanjûrô Tsubaki [1962]), playing February 3rd;
15. Kingo Gondo, a shoe executive (Tengoku to jigoku [High and Low {1963});
16. Kyojô Niide (Red Beard),a doctor (Akahige [Red Beard] {1965}), playing February 2nd;

So, it is obvious even this early that Mifune's versatility was a strength for this still young actor (29, here). He would go on to play amazing, wonderful roles for Kurosawa over the years.