Rashomon

"Kanji Watanabi is a quiet, melancholy man who has spent all his life behind his office desk doing sweet eff-all. When he is diagnosed with stomach cancer he realizes that he has been petty much dead his whole life, and searches desperately for away to live again.

This is Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, yes, even better than Rashomon and The Seven Samauri. It is a perfect true story of everybody's life- how we don't even realize we have it until we know it will be over in a short while. Watanabi's quest for self-discovery is one of the greatest from any motion picture ever made. The all-too-true paradox is one to end all paradoxes- that Watanabi is dead, and had been all his life, until he realized he was sick, which is when he began living for the first time. Takashi Shimura, the actor best known for his role as the wise, bald-headed Samauri in The Seven Samauri, and the professor out of the early Godzilla films, plays Watanabi perfectly- in my mind, it's one of the greatest film performances of all time.

Not everyone will love this movie. It was made a long time ago, the main character is an old fogey, it has subtitles, and it's pretty long. Many people today, especially young kids, would find it boring. Well, let 'em. There's no need to worry about them, they'll always have Pirates of the Carribbean, they'll always have The Matrix. Leave Ikiru and films like it to the true lovers of cinema."--IMDb review by Brave Sir Robin.

More at IMDb...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044741/

Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiru

Rashomon

Rashomon . Kurosawa A rape and murder in medieval Japan are recounted in four flashback sequences, as seen through the eyes of the three people involved and a witness to the incident.
Each version differs from the others, leaving viewers to draw their own conclusions on what actually transpired.
Akira Kurosawa's breakthrough drama stars Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo.

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Minoru Jingo, Masaichi Nagata
Production Company: Daiei
Audio/Visual: sound, black & white
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Keywords: Crime; Drama; Mystery; Thriller; Akira Kurosawa
Contact Information: www.k-otic.com

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Reviewer: manavkaushik -

- April 20, 2007
Subject: A Great Masterpiece

Most Japanese critics called the film a failure: it failed in "visualizing the style of the original stories," was "too complicated," "too monotonous," and contained "too much cursing."

When it received positive responses in the West and won a Golden Lion Award at the 1951 Venice Film Festival , Japanese critics were baffled. A few critics decided that it was only admired there because it was "exotic", others that it succeeded because it was more "Western" than most Japanese films.

The film’s concept has influenced an extensive variety of subsequent works, such as the films Courage Under Fire, The Usual Suspects, One Night at McCool's and Hoodwinked, the television series Boomtown [9] and episodes of television programs such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, A Different World, CSI, My Name Is Earl, Veronica Mars, Good Times, The X-Files, Happy Days, Carter Country, and Farscape.

The film depicts a rape and murder through the widely differing accounts of four witnesses, including the perpetrator and, through a medium (Fumiko Honma), the murder victim.

Enjoy!!

Reviewer: BigDaddyFraze -

- April 5, 2007
Subject: Great film

Kurosawa has never disapointed me and this movie is no exception. A truly great film with a flavor that many Tarantino fans will recognize.

Reviewer: Elisha Cook III -

- February 12, 2007
Subject: One of the Best Movies Ever

Everything about this film is superb- the acting, the cinematography, the direction, and most importantly- the script. Dozens of films and TV shows have been inspired by Kurosawa's brilliant examination of perspective and truth. If you can find the Criterion DVD of this film buy it.

Reviewer: moxey -

- February 5, 2007
Subject: Akira Kurosawa

After you watch this film...i dare you to see a few of his other films..Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Ran, Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, Kagemusha ..Etc

Great great films.You'll be hooked.

Also by another Director look for two films called 'Harakiri' and 'Samurai Rebellion'

Akira KurosawaIkiru[1952]

Rashomon

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