Unlike many of his Japanese filmmaking peers such as Yasujirō Ozu and Masaki Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa often adapted Western literature in his films. That said, he was always sure to give them a Japanese reframing. He remade "Macbeth," "Hamlet," and "King Lear" as "Throne of Blood," "The Bad Sleep Well," and "Ran," respectively. However, "Throne" and "Ran" traded medieval Scotland/England for Feudal Japan while "The Bad Sleep Well" was about the 20th-century Japanese corporate world, not the Danish monarchy.
While Kurosawa was a student of Shakespeare, he didn't only trade in high-end literature. For "High and Low," he adapted the pulp detective novel "King's Ransom," moving the setting from Manhattan to Yokohama.
National Shoes executive Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is disgusted by his colleagues' greed and apathy. He plans a leveraged buyout of the company, putting his life savings on the line. Unfortunately for Gondo, a kidnapper picks the...
While Kurosawa was a student of Shakespeare, he didn't only trade in high-end literature. For "High and Low," he adapted the pulp detective novel "King's Ransom," moving the setting from Manhattan to Yokohama.
National Shoes executive Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is disgusted by his colleagues' greed and apathy. He plans a leveraged buyout of the company, putting his life savings on the line. Unfortunately for Gondo, a kidnapper picks the...
- 12/18/2022
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Great new for Frank Sinatra fans. None But The Brave is currently available on Blu-ray From Warner Archives. Ordering information can be found Here
A crippled C-47 transport crash-lands on a remote Pacific island. For the Marines aboard, World War II becomes smaller, but no less deadly. The atoll is held by a Japanese platoon, also cut off from its command.
Debuting director Frank Sinatra stars in this suspenseful war saga, joined by Clint Walker, Tony Bill and Olympic champion Rafer Johnson. After initial bullet-laced confrontations, the Japanese leader (Tatsuya Mihashi) offers to swap water for the aid of Pharmacist Mate Maloney (Sinatra), whom he has mistaken for a doctor. When Maloney amputates the leg of a Japanese soldier and saves his life, peace results. But can it last? There are two sides to every war. None but the Brave skillfully shows the heroism of both.
Frank Sinatra added “director...
A crippled C-47 transport crash-lands on a remote Pacific island. For the Marines aboard, World War II becomes smaller, but no less deadly. The atoll is held by a Japanese platoon, also cut off from its command.
Debuting director Frank Sinatra stars in this suspenseful war saga, joined by Clint Walker, Tony Bill and Olympic champion Rafer Johnson. After initial bullet-laced confrontations, the Japanese leader (Tatsuya Mihashi) offers to swap water for the aid of Pharmacist Mate Maloney (Sinatra), whom he has mistaken for a doctor. When Maloney amputates the leg of a Japanese soldier and saves his life, peace results. But can it last? There are two sides to every war. None but the Brave skillfully shows the heroism of both.
Frank Sinatra added “director...
- 6/25/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Twitch curated Tokyo Drifters: 100 Years Of Nikkatsu screening series continues at the Tiff Bell Lightbox this Saturday with a rare screening of Kawashima Yuzo's Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District. Considered one of the greatest Japanese films of all time by a master filmmaker largely overlooked in the west, Suzaki Paradise will screen from a subtitled 35mm print and you can win tickets now!A more sombre offering from Nikkatsu, Yuzo Kawashima's Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District offers an unsparing look at postwar poverty and desperation. Young married couple Tsutae (Michiyo Aratama) and Yoshiji (Tatsuya Mihashi) arrive in Tokyo with little more than the clothes on their backs and take up residence just outside Suzaki, one of Tokyo's most notorious red-light districts. Lusting after the...
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- 3/21/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Anybody who has ever been to a high school reunion (and I’ve been to my share) will tell you that the calendar and the clock can be incredibly cruel (particularly when combined with the long-term effects of gravity, but let’s not go there).
Time punishes creative works as well. Some work grows dated, stale, stiff. Time and the evolving form of the given art leaves a once vibrant and exciting work behind looking dead and obsolete.
More cruel, perhaps, is work that is simply…forgotten. Not for any good reason. Good as it was, maybe it was simply not successful enough to lodge very deeply in the popular consciousness; working well enough in its day, but soon lost among the ever-growing detritus of a lot of other pieces of yesterday.
Movie music is particularly vulnerable to the cruelties of time. Outside of the form’s devotees, it rarely...
Time punishes creative works as well. Some work grows dated, stale, stiff. Time and the evolving form of the given art leaves a once vibrant and exciting work behind looking dead and obsolete.
More cruel, perhaps, is work that is simply…forgotten. Not for any good reason. Good as it was, maybe it was simply not successful enough to lodge very deeply in the popular consciousness; working well enough in its day, but soon lost among the ever-growing detritus of a lot of other pieces of yesterday.
Movie music is particularly vulnerable to the cruelties of time. Outside of the form’s devotees, it rarely...
- 1/14/2013
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Written and directed by Takeshi Kitano.
Starring Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tatsuya Mihashi,
Chieko Matsubara, Kyoko Fukada and Tsutomu Takeshige.
Running time: 113 min.
Dolls is a beautiful, clever, original stylization with just the right touch of subtle irony characteristic of other Kitano’s works.
Plot
There are three stories in the movie, all of them concerning love, always futile, tragic and pierced with the feeling of loneliness.
The central story is about a young couple, Matsumoto and Sawako. They are engaged to be married, but Matsumoto is persuaded by his parents to marry the daughter of his boss. As a dutiful son, the young man respects his parents’ request: they worked hard to get him through college and give him a good chance at life.
At the wedding Matsumoto is informed that Sawako attempted suicide. She survived, but lost her mind and is now in a semi-vegetative state. Matsumoto leaves...
Starring Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tatsuya Mihashi,
Chieko Matsubara, Kyoko Fukada and Tsutomu Takeshige.
Running time: 113 min.
Dolls is a beautiful, clever, original stylization with just the right touch of subtle irony characteristic of other Kitano’s works.
Plot
There are three stories in the movie, all of them concerning love, always futile, tragic and pierced with the feeling of loneliness.
The central story is about a young couple, Matsumoto and Sawako. They are engaged to be married, but Matsumoto is persuaded by his parents to marry the daughter of his boss. As a dutiful son, the young man respects his parents’ request: they worked hard to get him through college and give him a good chance at life.
At the wedding Matsumoto is informed that Sawako attempted suicide. She survived, but lost her mind and is now in a semi-vegetative state. Matsumoto leaves...
- 5/30/2012
- by AyunaMakwa
- AsianMoviePulse
High and Low Directed by: Akira Kurosawa Written by: Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni and Akira Kurosawa Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tatsuya Nakadai With the summer blockbuster season wrapping up and a quarter of the year to go, it may be too early to pick a favourite movie of 2011. However, of all the classic films I'll get around to watching for the first time this year, I can comfortably say that Akira Kurosawa's High and Low will likely be my favourite. I arrived a little late to this party, but it's never too late to catch up with great cinema and what better way to do so than with a blu ray release by the Criterion Collection? This film is definitely a buy. Regular Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune plays Kingo Gondo, a successful business man working for a company called National Shoes. His insistence upon high quality...
- 8/24/2011
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
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