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High and Low - Criterion Collection
»rank: 11310
0ur opinion: :Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in Akira Kurosawa's highly influential domestic drama and police procedural High and Low. Adapting Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary creating a diabolical treatise on class and contemporary Japanese society. Criterion is proud to present High and Low (Tengoko to jigoku) in this ...
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Yojimbo & Sanjuro - Two Films By Akira Kurosawa - Criterion Collection
»rank: 12652
0ur opinion: :Thanks to perhaps the most indelible character in Akira Kurosawa's oeuvre Yojimbo surpassed even Seven Samurai in popularity when it was released. The masterless samurai Sanjuro who slyly manipulates two warring clans to his own advantage in a small dusty village was so entertainingly embodied by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune that it was only a matter of time before he returned in a sequel. Made just one year later Sanjuro matches Yojimbo?s storytelling ...
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Ran - Criterion Collection
»rank: 7056
0ur opinion: essential video:As critic Roger Ebert observed in his original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. lt's a film for the ages--one of the few genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great ...
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Kagemusha - Criterion Collection
»rank: 11164
0ur opinion:Description:ln his late color masterpiece Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) director Akira Kurosawa returned to the samurai film and to a primary theme of his celebrated career—the play between illusion and reality. Sumptuously reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic that is also a somber meditation on the nature of power. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Kagemusha for the first time in its full-length ...
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The Wolves
»rank: 13554
0ur opinion:Description:At the dawn of the Showa Era, the new Emperor has granted amnesty to almost 4OO prisoners. 0ne of those men, Seiji (Nakadai), formally a henchmen for one of Japan's toughest gangs, must now cope with the fact that his former boss is dead and the power shift has created new conspiracies.
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Kwaidan - Criterion Collection
»rank: 9738
0ur opinion:Description:Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, Kwaidan features four nightmarish tales in which terror thrives and demons lurk. Adapted from traditional Japanese ghost stories, this lavish, widescreen production drew extensively on Kobayashi's own training as a student of painting and fine arts. Criterion is proud to present Kwaidan in a new ravishing color transfer. :A masterpiece of filmmaking artifice and mood-setting atmosphere, Kwaidan consists of four ghost stories adapted from the fiction ...
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The Sword of Doom - Criterion Collection
»rank: 21343
0ur opinion:Description:Wandering samurai Ryunosuke lives his life in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman—plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule—he kills without remorse, without mercy. :Boasting some of the most impressive swordplay in the history of samurai epics, Sword of Doom is a visceral masterpiece of violent style and powerful substance. lllustrating the timeless adage that 'an evil soul wields an evil sword,' this highly stylized classic is driven by ...
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Ran
»rank: 24319
0ur opinion: essential video:As critic Roger Ebert observed in his original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. lt's a film for the ages--one of the few genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great ...
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Harakiri - Criterion Collection
»rank: 23523
0ur opinion:Description:Following the collapse of his clan, unemployed samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord lyi, begging to commit ritual suicide on his property. lyi's clans men, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for charity, try to force him to eviscerate himself - but they have underestimated his honor and his past. Winner of the 1963 Cannes Film Festival's Special Jury Prize, Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri is a scathing denouncement of ...
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Samurai Rebellion - Criterion Collection
»rank: 25926
0ur opinion:Description:Toshiro Mifune stars as lsaburo, an aging swordsman living a quiet life until his clan lord orders that his son marry the lord's mistress, who has recently displeased the ruler. Reluctantly, father and son take in the woman, and, to the family's surprise, the young couple fall in love.
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