For some reason, TCM channel has been having a Akira Kurosawa fest...Seven Samurai, Yojimbo. It is amazing how that fellow could get the audience engaged, despite the lack of color, special effects, and grand band music.
I loved his takeoffs on Shakespearean plays...Throne of Blood. To see the play from a Japanese perspective. Wow!! Food for thought, food for the eyes.
It seems that often, his films show landscape that is so dusty, dirty, and windy. Although I lived in Japan, I never saw such places. It lends a sense of desolation and desperation to the scene.
We cannot leave off the handsome Toshiro Mifune, a fellow who awakenend women's interest in oriental men during the 1940-50s. Much of the acting hinged on the language of the eyes, and the profound nodding of the head. Mifune played some of the goofy roles well and quite a contrast to his serious Samurai characters of later years.
Good movies like good novels withstand the test of time and engage us as human beings with the struggles of the characters on the page or the screen. We need more stuff with substance.
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