Akira Kurosawa
112 connections found
Filmography
Rashomon 1950 
Seven Samurai 1954 
The Hidden Fortress 1958 
Ran 1985 
Yojimbo 1961 
Kagemusha 1980 
The Bad Sleep Well 1960 
Ikiru 1952 
I Live in Fear 1955 
Dodes'ka-den 1970 
The Idiot 1951 
Throne of Blood 1957 
High and Low 1963 
Stray Dog 1949 
Sanjuro 1962 
Sanshiro Sugata 1943 
Dersu Uzala 1975 
Drunken Angel 1948 
Red Beard 1965 
Madadayo 1993 View:
Connections, in both directions
The Last Duel (2021)
Directed by Ridley Scott
influenced by Rashomon (1950), Ran (1985)
Visuals Themes Plot
…using what film buffs would call a Rashomon structure, named after the Japanese film best known for the now-familiar device of replaying the same events from different perspectives.
Ese cartel es, definitivamente, lo contrario a Rashomon.
…by employing a Rashomon-inspired approach to developing the narrative…
While Jager’s book leaves no ambiguity about what befell Marguerite de Carrouges, the film takes a Rashômon–style consideration.
For decades, the gold standard for gory, accurate recreations of Medieval hand-to-hand combat have been Orson Welles’ “Chimes at Midnight,” which inspired Mel Gibson’s even more brutal and bloodier “Braveheart,” and Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran.”
…the film follows a Rashomon/The Handmaiden look at a single event, the rape of Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) by accused attacker Jacques Le Gris (Driver)…
What worked for Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” (1950) doesn’t connect in the same way here.
If you’ve seen Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950), then you have an idea of what Bigelow is aiming for here…
Conceptually A House of Dynamite would appear to have the structure of 21st century realpolitik Rashomon parable: the same story told from such divergent and conflicting perspectives that it suggests a greater truth that remains elusive for one and all.
It isn't a "Rashomon" effect, where we get different interpretations of the same event, but a filling in of background from different angles.
Rather than simply adopt the standard Rashomon template…
A House of Dynamite uses a Rashomon-style structure, showing the same sequence of events from various points of view.
13 Assassins (2010)
Directed by Takashi Miike
influenced by Seven Samurai (1954), Ran (1985), Yojimbo (1961), Throne of Blood (1957)
Plot Themes
This film draws on so many precedents that I can only list a few: Unforgiven for the grim revenge tale with no limits set on that revenge; Seven Samurai for the story of assembling a motley crew in order to achieve a mission; Lone Wolf and Cub for the theme of the few battling the many and for the almost absurd excesses of the final battle; Ran for the attention to period feel and detail; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the theme of people stuck in the ethos of a past era while the world has moved on; and any number of exploitation horror films (the Saw franchise, The Human Centipede) for the grotesque mutilations that are depicted in 13 Assassins.
Film buffs tend to forget, with the half century or more of hoopla surrounding “Seven Samurai” and “Yojimbo,” that samurai pictures were and remain the equivalent of Westerns in Japan — formula films with time-honored motifs, action beats and archetypes.
So it remained a question whether Miike’s over-the-top sensibility could connect with the very rigid forms of samurai cinema, set forth by classic films like “Seven Samurai.”
The plot has received its fair number of comparisons to Kurosawa Akira's legendary Seven Samurai , which I think tells us more about American film critics' relationship with Japanese cinema than it does about 13 Assassins, though I take it as read that Miike was not exempting Kurosawa from his catch-as-catch-can approach.
Those walking into “13 Assassins” expecting something sick and twisted, however, might be surprised to discover that it’s one of Miike’s most reserved films to date – a classic samurai tale that, while very similar to Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” in spirit, is actually a remake of the 1963 film by Eiichi Kudo.
Much more consistent is 13 Assassins , a surprisingly classical epic in the Seven Samurai mode by Japanese bad boy Takashi Miike.
Cregger dispenses with a 3-act format and chooses instead to tell the story non-linearly from the perspectives of 6 different characters, Rashomon style.
Cregger applies a Rashomon-esque story structure to this suburban sprawl of WiFi doorbells and lite beer.
The art of perspective propels the story as it's framed in a Rashomon-style fashion.
Their points of view don't always line up, and while those Rashomon-like deviations hint at a possibly more interesting film…
The point isn’t a Rashomon-esque rumination on truth…
…but also in the multiple vantage point style established by the seminal 1950 film Rashomon for which the titular psychological effect was named…
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Directed by Rian Johnson
influenced by Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985), Rashomon (1950), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961)
Visuals Characters
Johnson embraces and extends George Lucas’ original Akira Kurosawa fetish, incorporating visual nods to Kagemusha and Ran while borrowing a bit of Rashomon for the most important backstory reveal.
The director takes Luke into territory just about no one saw coming, making him a lone samurai full of heartache and regret more akin to heroes in Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo or Kagemusha than he is the dashing young champion of something like The Hidden Fortress .
A climactic confrontation between the beleaguered Alliance and the First Order boasts a visual splendor that recalls “Kagemusha” and “Ran.”
Johnson embraces and extends George Lucas’ original Akira Kurosawa fetish, incorporating visual nods to Kagemusha and Ran while borrowing a bit of Rashomon for the most important backstory reveal.
A climactic confrontation between the beleaguered Alliance and the First Order boasts a visual splendor that recalls “Kagemusha” and “Ran.”
Writer-director Rian Johnson approaches the franchise with a bold new vision, influenced by everything from Ran to Spaceballs.
Star Wars borrows from numerous sources, but the most obvious inspirations are the serialized adventures of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, Arthurian legends, Greek mythology, and Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress .
Now, add to this myth business the fact that Lucas borrowed his plot for "Star Wars" from Japanese director Akira Kurosawa´s "The Hidden Fortress," 1958, and we can see that his sci-fi epic has more to it than meets the eye.
As I'm sure we're all aware by now, Star Wars is really just a remake of Kurosawa Akira's 1958 jidaigeki adventure The Hidden Fortress , seasoned with elements of the old Flash Gordon serial, but that's in and of itself the dream project of an unapologetic film buff.
When they wander the sandy surfaces of Luke Skywalker's planet, in scenes suggested by the comic wrangles of Minoro Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara in Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress," the movie's special charm is in full gear.
No one ever figured out the plot was stolen from Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" until it didn't matter.
The Last Samurai (2003)
Directed by Edward Zwick
influenced by Seven Samurai (1954), Ran (1985), Rashomon (1950), Yojimbo (1961)
Visuals Plot
Akira Kurosawa was a pioneer of filmmaking who created and directed such film classics as “Seven Samurai”, and “Hidden Fortress” (just to name a few), and Zwick manages to create a love letter and a magnificent homage to the innovative director by paying tribute to the art of the samurai, a dying art that intertwines with the tale of one man’s redemption.
If not quite up to the standard of 1989's "Glory" -- director Edward Zwick's last historical war epic -- the film is nonetheless filled with exhilarating, gruesomely beautiful battle sequences and stylish nods to the great Kurosawa films, especially "Seven Samurai," "Yojimbo" and "Ran."
But again, this is an outsider's story and The Last Samuria has more in common with Dances with Wolves than with Seven Samurai.
Here, the connection is more broad-based, with Ran and Seven Samurai particularly coming to mind.
The top three greatest battle scenes ever filmed belong to Shakespeare adaptations: Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, Akira Kurosawa's Ran and Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, followed by Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.
As such, the movie has its moments, some of which are bold, ripsnorting fun, nicely recalling the hypnotic greatness of Akira Kurosawa’s “The Seven Samurai,” “Ran” and “Rashomon,” while other moments are just plain dumb, heavy-handed and awful.
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
Directed by Zack Snyder
influenced by Seven Samurai (1954)
Plot
Co-written by Kurt Johnstad ( 300 ) and Shay Hatten ( John Wick: Chapter 4 ), Rebel Moon is obviously borrowing a lot from Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai .
The story is blatantly inspired by Seven Samurai as a group of “space fascists” with wardrobe so clumsily obvious, it’s like a spoof of a satire ( Starship Troopers ), descend upon a farming community on some distant planet and force the locals to give up nearly their entire harvest or be destroyed.
It was a cross between Star Wars and Seven Samurai, where he even originally pitched his idea to Lucasfilm as a standalone Star Wars movie not connected to the Skywalker saga.
If all of that sounds familiar, it’s because Rebel Moon cribs its plot wholesale from Akira Kurosawa’s classic Seven Samurai alongside its heaping helping of Star Wars .
That Rebel Moon is so clearly riffing off of Star Wars and Seven Samurai makes its failure more interesting.
Isle of Dogs (2018)
Directed by Wes Anderson
influenced by High and Low (1963), The Bad Sleep Well (1960), Seven Samurai (1954)
Themes
The setting is the fictional Japanese Megasaki City, 20 years in the future, and Anderson acknowledges one of his key influences as the urban crime and corruption thrillers of Akira Kurosawa, in particular the early 1960s features The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low.
Modeled after Toshiro Mifune’s towering performance in Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” (the first of the film’s many nods to Japan’s most famous director), the villainous bureaucrat suggests relocating every single one of the dogs in Uni Prefecture to a place called Trash Island, starting with his own Short-Haired Oceanic Speckle-Eared Sport Hound, Spots.
The setting is the fictional Japanese Megasaki City, 20 years in the future, and Anderson acknowledges one of his key influences as the urban crime and corruption thrillers of Akira Kurosawa, in particular the early 1960s features The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low.
Nods to Kurosawa are present throughout, notably in the decision to make Mayor Kobayashi (voiced by co-story writer Kunichi Nomura) a dead-ringer for the Seven Samurai director's longtime screen muse Toshiro Mifune, his glowering countenance staring out from billboards and news broadcasts.
I liked the reference in the movie to Kurosawa's samurai saga, "Yojimbo," a film about a warrior who hires himself out (as Costner's character does) and whose English title was literally "The Bodyguard."
Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston have a conversation about Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (whose title means "The Bodyguard") in the middle of Mick Jackson's hilarious camp artifact The Bodyguard, the one where Costner plays a barely-vocal lunk and Houston plays a singer-turned-actress with severe personality flaws.
Even Ikiru, arguably the most internationally lauded Japanese film to fixate upon mortality, swaddles its potentially improper subject matter in humanist ideals; its very title, roughly translated as “to live,” aptly emblemizes the manner in which Akira Kurosawa meant partly to meditate on the concept of will, using the imminent finality of physical life as a mere launching pad.
There are some exhilarating workouts for the hero (on a superfast train, in a battle with ninjas that recalls Kurosawa's Throne of Blood), one or two unexpected turns of events, and formidable femmes fatales in acrobatic samurai Rila Yukushima and slinky Svetlana Khodchenkova, who plays a venomous chemist with her own set of deadly claws.
In one scene, a couple dozen ninjas pinion Logan with arrows of steel strings, until he is as perforated as Toshiro Mifune at the end of Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood.
That said, there are kicks to be had from a dizzying fight atop a bullet train, and, for Kurosawa fans, the sight of the Wolverine, on a snowy night, impaled by a forest of arrows pays stylish—and wholly appropriate—homage to “Throne of Blood.”
But it's puny stuff compared to Kurosawa's "Rashomon," or one of those political mosaics from Francesco Rosi (say, "The Mattei Affair").
After I was underwhelmed by The Usual Suspects , I decided to call it Rashomon Dogs, mocking the filmmakers' desire to fool around with unreliable narrative, a la Akira Kurosawa's great Rashomon, in the context of a scruffy, Tarantino-mode crime thriller.
Akira Kurosawa toyed with the same notion in "Rashomon," the classic examination of shifting realities and self-serving motives.
Playing with time from a storytelling perspective is a rare but certainly not novel cinematic trick, but it's usually found in the rewind or multiple character perspective-based films such as "Run, Lola, Run" and "Go!" and "Courage Under Fire" and "Rashomon" respectively.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Directed by Sergio Leone
influenced by Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962)
Plot Characters
Of course, Leone's inspiration was Akira Kurosawa's ''Yojimbo.''
Having invented the spaghetti-western a few years prior by virtually copying Akira Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo” frame by frame as “A Fistful of Dollars” to such a degree that Toho sued him, Leone used the spaghetti-western as a form to attack the, in Leone’s opinion, dominating morality of American Puritanism.
His character was based on an amoral samurai bodyguard created by Toshiro Mifune in Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
Leone saw the world through movies ( A Fistful of Dollars , let us not forget, was a deliberate transposition of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo ), but at a certain point he moved beyond that purview, to a place where movies were merely the conduit to a higher level of engagement with the world at large.
Leone took his original cue from Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Sanjuro films, which starred Toshiro Mifune as a wandering ronin who looks out only for himself.
With A Fistful Of Dollars , a 1964 remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo , Leone and Eastwood introduced their iconic "Man With No Name," a drifter of few words who's heroic only by contrast to those around him, and who isn't above double-crossing those intent on cheating him anyway.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Directed by Peter Jackson
influenced by Ran (1985)
Visuals
If the Smaug havoc recalls Fritz Lang’s fantastical Die Nibelungen diptych, this grandiose blitzkrieg seems like a riff on Akira Kurosawa’s Ran with its symmetrical attack formations, stirring forward charges, and sobering body count.
Akira Kurosawa once told me that when he designed the color-coded armies in Ran , he used ideas he’d developed for an aborted adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death.”
Like George Lucas before him, Jackson has unmistakably brushed up on his Kurosawa, and there is at least one image here — of elf warriors leaping over the backs of dwarves and into a head-on orc charge — that could pass as an outtake from “Ran.”
Few films these days are entirely original and there's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other sources - the only person who complained about A Fistful Of Dollars being a rip-off of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo was Akira Kurosawa.
The Nameless Order combine a level of superhuman discipline and acrobatic combat acumen comparable to Peter Jackson’s elves with flamboyant color coordination by division, reminiscent of the color-coded armies in Akira Kurosawa’s Ran .
Determined to have his revenge, Rambo dives into its complex preparations with an almost demented thoroughness, coming up with endless awful ways for the bad guys to die, mixing in everything from a reference to Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood” to a truly grisly Grand Guignol horror conclusion.
The director, Mel Gibson crony Adrian Grunberg, stages the action with reasonable efficiency, although the gore and dismemberment quotient goes way over the top to the point of camp; one heavy gets the Toshiro Mifune treatment from the end of Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood .
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Directed by Travis Knight
influenced by Rashomon (1950), Yojimbo (1961), Seven Samurai (1954)
Themes Visuals
In this way, as well as in its nods to legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, Kubo is a Rashomon for the whole family: a tale that examines its own multiplicity and gently reminds us that every story looks different depending on who’s telling it.
Adding a historical context to Kubo and the Two Strings is that it draws heavily upon the great films from Japan, namely Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, both directed by Akira Kurosawa (who I consider to be the best director of all time).
Adding a historical context to Kubo and the Two Strings is that it draws heavily upon the great films from Japan, namely Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, both directed by Akira Kurosawa (who I consider to be the best director of all time).
She's a combination of Goneril, Regan, and Lady Macbeth, with a little bit of Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson from ''Double Indemnity.''