This month, in honor of what would be acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa's 100th birthday, TCM is featuring a Kurosawa marathon every Tuesday. It's only halfway through the month and my DVR is already full. I just finished watching Scandal, which was quite good, to try to clear up some room, but I've got a lot of watching ahead of me with all of the classics scheduled for next Tuesday. March 23rd will feature no less than 13 Kurosawa films, including 6 I haven't seen before. If you are even slightly interested in classic cinema, you owe it to yourself to watch at least Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Rashomon. If you're not already aware, Seven Samurai was remade into a western titled The Magnificent Seven, and Yojimbo was remade into the Clint Eastwood film Fistful of Dollars. As it turns out, samurai turn into cowboys pretty well.
Unfortunately I missed the first Tuesday of the month and 2 of my favorite films, Throne of Blood - Kurosawa's translation of MacBeth - and Hidden Fortress - best known for being borrowed heavily from by George Lucas for Star Wars. I recommend renting those, but possibly my favorite Kurosawa film will be airing at the end of the month on th 30th - Ran. It is a retelling of King Lear set in feudal Japan and is a true masterpiece. Watch as many as you can, who knows when an opportunity like this will arise again. I'm going to have to watch a movie a day to keep my DVR from hitting capacity.
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Scott - cool! I'll put some of these on my netflix que. I've only seen his 'Dreams'. Let you know, seems like my style though. -Jesse
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