acoolsha
Akira Kurosawa
Ran 2 January 05
Section: kurosawa
Categories: Film / dvd
As the battle scenes increase, red paint for blood covers walls, floors, costumes and skin. The emblematic colors of the three brothers contending for power were primary red, yellow and blue. The film was shot in summer fields and mountains of mostly pastel greens, many transition shots between scenes were of the sky with powerful, vertical cloud formations.
This is such a visually stunning film, based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, that I first felt like putting it in my painting section instead of the Kurosawa section. Kurosawa did in fact study to be a painter before turning to cinema.
Title: Ran
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Hisashi Igawa, Masuyuki Yui, Kazuo Kato, Norio Matsui_
Writing credits: Masato Ide, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni
Based on: King Lear by William Shakespeare
Year: 1985
- Title: Ran
Dersu Uzala 26 December 04
Section: kurosawa
Categories: Film / dvd-mine
Viewed this powerful film with friends.
I’ve seen it at least five or six times, and each time I see a bit more in the sparse and finely honed dialogue. I own the version with English subtitles, but for this film I prefer the version with German subtitles, which I’ve seen in a cinema. German has some advantages in conveying Dersu’s basic Russian: Dersu doesn’t use the “I” pronoun, in the English version he uses “me” whereas in the German he often uses “meine Leute,” which translates as “my people” and wouldn’t work well as such in English, but it does in the German. When Dersu speaks of animals in the forest, and the forces of nature, such as air, fire and water, he refers to them each as “Mensch” in the German and the English is rendered as “men.” “Mensch” can really only be translated in English as “human being,” which also wouldn’t work in the English, but is beautiful in the German.
Dersu!
Title: Dersu Uzala
A film by: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Maksim Munzuk, Yuri Solomin, M. Bichkov, V. Khrulev
Year: 1975
- Title: Dersu Uzala
Permalink :: kurosawa/281/Dersu Uzala
Dersu Uzala 18 October 04
Section: kurosawa
Categories: Film / dvd-mine
This DVD is a special gift (thank you!). One thing I have noticed about having my own DVD of such beautiful films is that I sometimes take a few longer breaks in watching the film, and one reason is to prolong the pleasure, to not reach the end too quickly. This is not fair to the filmmaker.
It reminds me of my first reading of Irving Stone’s novel about Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Agony and the Ecstasy, when I was a kid. I found it so moving then that as I was finishing the novel I slowed to a pace of one page per sitting because I didn’t want it to end.
Title: Dersu Uzala
A film by: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Maksim Munzuk, Yuri Solomin, M. Bichkov, V. Khrulev
Year: 1975
- Title: Dersu Uzala
Permalink :: kurosawa/257/Dersu Uzala
Shichinin no Samurai 22 August 04
Section: kurosawa
Categories: Film / dvd-mine
The DVD of this wonderful film was a very special gift.
Thank you.
Title: The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai)
A Film by: Akira Kurosawa
With: Takashi Shimura, Toshirô Mifune, Yoshio Inaba, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Katô, Isao Kimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Yoshio Kosugi, Bokuzen Hidari, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kokuten Kodo, Jiro Kumagai
Year: 1954
- Title: Shichinin no Samurai
Permalink :: kurosawa/239/Shichinin no Samurai