When people mention Akira Kurosawa, they will always associate him with "samurai films", it is true that Akira Kurosawa's most famous films "Seven Samurai", "Rashomon", and "Shadow Samurai" are all related to the samurai theme, but in the life of director Akira Kurosawa, among the 31 Akira Kurosawa films I have seen, more than half of the modern themes are actually more than half, and Akira Kurosawa's modern films often reflect the current situation and ugliness of a certain class, or the contradictions and opposites between classes. Although it is not as grand and romantic as the samurai theme, it is often stitched up and flawed, and it is three points into the wood. Even when a wandering samurai enters the shogunate, he will also be forced by the class to submit to food and clothing.
Below, I will fully recommend (or introduce) the 31 Akira Kurosawa films I've seen, trying to keep them out of the way (Akira Kurosawa has many films as an assistant director or screenwriter, such as Tiger! tiger! tiger! This article will range from the most prestigious "Seven Samurai" to the least known "The Most Beautiful"; from the samurai theme of "Heart Stick" to the modern political theme of "The Desire to Live"; from the adventure theme "Delsu Uzara" filmed in the Soviet Union, to Kurosawa's only documentary "Horse Poem"; from Kurosawa's earliest "Zi Sanshiro" to Kurosawa's last work of the next year, "Sunset Love".
The entire presentation order is from morning to night, the ratings and opinions only represent personal likes and dislikes, if there is a difference, welcome to discuss, if there is an omission, welcome to add.
1. Sanshiro (1943)
Average review score: 8.2
As one of Akira Kurosawa's earliest directing works, Akira Kurosawa's imaging has become very mature, and Jin Fujita, who often appeared in Akira Kurosawa's films in the early days, played The Third Andoro, after training and challenging the final boss. The most attractive thing about this film is its variety of detail shots, closed and open umbrellas, broken shoelaces, drifting clogs, lotus flowers unfolding in the lake late at night, swaying bamboo shadows, and the wild grassy hillsides at the end of the battle, the film is given a sensual flavor in these imagery that blend into the camera.
2. The Most Beautiful (1944)
Average review score: 4.0
This is a Japanese propaganda film during World War II, mainly to promote how hard Japanese women worked to support the soldiers on the front line during World War II, and it has to be said that this film can almost be regarded as a stain that Akira Kurosawa cannot avoid.
Even if we put aside the political elements, this film is too poor as a war propaganda film, and when the heroine works overtime to make military products and can't open her eyes, I am about to fall asleep.
3. "The Collection of Appearance Sanshiro" (1945)
Average review score: 6.5
Sequels, the past because of the first popular sequel of the film is inevitably the curse of quality decline, Kurosawa's sequel is no exception, from the previous part of the neutral and jiu-jitsu to this with foreign boxers on the same stage, has become a little essence of the current "Ip Man" series.
Of course, although the whole film still has occasional highlights, it is far worse than the first one, and the enemy is like a mad dog in the snowy war in the end.
4. The Man Who Stepped on the Tiger's Tail (1945)
Average review score: 6.3
One of Akira Kurosawa's early sketches, probably made when Japan was just defeated, was short in length and the set was simple, and this film made in distress was only released in 1952.
The film tells the story of seven fugitive masters and samurai who have fled all the way, and the film also includes a porter, who is forced by the situation to be caught between the uneasiness of the two factions after learning the truth of the matter, and his comical performance is also interesting. Stepping on the tiger's tail, whether to stay still in the hope that the tiger did not find out or quickly pull its feet and flee, this should make people think about it.
5. "I Have No Regrets about Youth" (1946)
Average review score: 6.7
This is an anti-war film, yes, you read it right, after the 1944 war propaganda film "The Most Beautiful", in 1946 immediately made an anti-war film, the whole film celebrates a woman who opposed war, she experienced war, experienced the chaos after the war, and slowly found herself and became a free woman in the new era.
However, Kurosawa's attitude towards war, although he has made countless anti-war films since then, his understanding of this "anti-war" always seems to be different from mine, he is praising a female image of opposing war, but it must be known that the war was not started or ended by her, and did not focus on the big pattern only focusing on the transformation of personal thoughts or the trauma of war, then such "anti-war" is absolutely one-sided.
Naturally, two films with very different views were made in two years, and Akira Kurosawa's attitude toward war was probably very easy to change.
6. "Good Sunday" (1947)
Average review score: 7.1
The film, which depicts how a poor couple spent their "good" Sundays after the war, is a bit of an inspirational film, because the two people are so poor that they are almost penniless, but even in such a situation, they have to achieve a moment and a half of happiness through beautiful imagination and vision of the future.
The camera scheduling of the film is still very good, and the bridge section of the café and the movie theater in the first half is still interesting, but from the middle of the film, many scenes have become protracted, and the undulating emotions of the male protagonist also make me think that his poverty is not all from the collapse of society, and his own unsociable may have caused him such a dilemma to a large extent.
7. The Drunken Angel (1948)
Average review score: 8.7
A very beautiful early work of Akira Kurosawa, the first cooperation between Toshiro Mifune and Joe Shimura and Akira Kurosawa burst out such a wonderful spark, compared with Akira Kurosawa's previous works, it is new, humorous and profound, Toshiro Mifune played a rogue who people love and hate, it is said that the film was originally based on The doctor of Joe Shimura, but Mifune is too bright, almost noisy.
Rogues are hopeless, but that doesn't stop people from coming to their aid or fantasizing about a better future.
8. The Duel of Silent Night (1949)
Average review score: 8.3
This film revolves around doctors and post-World War II society, a doctor who is infected by negligence, unable to marry his fiancée, and in the face of the patient who once infected him, the anger in his heart and the duty of being a doctor are pulling at each other.
When I watched this movie, it happened that the injury incident occurred, and I felt even more about why doctors should endure these unfair things, because they have a conscience as doctors. Unfortunately, many people do not have such a doctor's conscience, and even more, they even have a conscience as a human being.
9. Stray Dogs (1949)
Average review score: 9.0
The loss of a pistol makes the protagonist, a policeman, have to go deep into the darkest part of the city to search, and during the journey to find the gun, the underclass of post-war Japan is revealed.
The same gun in the hands of different people will do very different things, like people, may have experienced similar encounters, but whether to become a hero or degenerate into a wild dog, ultimately depends on personal choice.
A movie with very depth.
10. The Scandal (1950)
Average review score: 6.9
A painter and singer are maliciously slandered by paparazzi, magazines and newspapers are full of nonsense for the sake of front-page headlines, and even defense lawyers will have two hearts because of money and embarrassment.
This movie actually has a very good idea, the portrayal of unscrupulous media into the wood, until more than 70 years later today is still very similar to today's media, but the film in the second half of the lawyer's trial began to go downhill to the end of the collapse, a lawyer who did nothing actually made the male and female protagonists believe that the heart is big enough, and the final forced big happy ending also highlights Kurosawa's shallow idealization tendency at that time.
11. Rashomon (1950)
Average review score: 8.5
One of the best films of Akira Kurosawa's first half, and Kurosawa's first attempt at the samurai genre, is a story told by a robber, told by a wife, told by a dead husband, and told by a bystander, all of which are told very differently.
In the eyes of the robber, he is a thief with high martial arts and a good manner; in the eyes of his wife, he is a strong and virtuous thief; in the eyes of his wife, he is a strong and chaste, but he is forced to be humiliated, unable to resist the woman who has to be silently hurt; in the eyes of the husband, he is a man who has exhausted his life because of his wife's humiliation and hatred; in the eyes of the woodcutter, he is just a bystander who does not hold any distractions and is just.
But everyone is lying, because everyone has selfish intentions, even ghosts.
12. The Idiot (1951)
Average review score: 6.0
It is said that it has been cut a lot, so in fact, the perception is very poor, I can hardly understand the main plot line and the connection between the characters or the emotional changes, probably only know the story of an honest man who mistakenly entered the shura field.
However, the original festival is still very beautiful.
13. The Desire to Be Born (1952)
Average review score: 9.4
This is the best of Kurosawa's realistic works, the film begins with stomach cancer playing the head of the civic section, Shimura Joe, through the discussion of the meaning of life, the satire of political difficulties and the attack on the dark side of human nature, a government official who has been dead for thirty years will be reborn because of a terminal illness, and those who continue to do nothing, although they look energetic, are already no different from dead people.
In this film, Akira Kurosawa cleverly uses several narrative techniques, such as using omniscient narration to rivet the structure and tone of the story, and boldly skipping the plot that many viewers think is "important" to achieve the blank effect, and then restoring the truth through the memories and discussions of the crowd.
14. The Seven Samurai (1954)
As one of Akira Kurosawa's most famous works, "Seven Samurai" almost perfectly shows Akira Kurosawa's control of a work, and the three-and-a-half-hour-long film, accompanied by the abundant plot volume and the addition of light or romantic elements, makes the audience not feel lengthy and boring. On this basis, seven samurai, several villagers, each sketched a vivid figure with a white brush.
Although the plot is nothing more than a group of villagers, seven samurai and dozens of mountain thieves against each other, the momentum is by no means inferior to the war scenes of Kurosawa's later period.
15. The Record of the Living (1955)
Average review score: 7.7
Akira Kurosawa's film that speaks out for nuclear fear, but unlike the "August Rhapsody" in his later years, this "fear" in this film is an almost empty delusion, so it involves less politics and can make people care more about this "fear" itself. The old man wants to emigrate with his family because of his fear of nuclear war, but this behavior that will deplete the family's wealth undoubtedly makes his children dissatisfied (there are also children's covetous plots for the property of their elders in "The Desire for Life"), and after the old man burns down the factory, he is finally sent to a mental hospital.
For me, the old man is not only afraid of a nuclear bomb or fear itself, but of no one to share his worries, and that he has no ability or freedom to make any changes, which is the most fatal, and he cannot interfere with this established ending when he sees the coming of death.
Of course, the whole film's shots, the performances are beautiful, the shot of two people facing the sun at the end, and the shot of one person going upstairs and one person going downstairs later, are all breathtakingly beautiful.
16. Spider's Nest City (1957)
A youkai made a prophecy, and the two samurai scoffed at it, but found that it was confirmed one by one, however, the prophecy will eventually be fulfilled by the human heart, the original sin and ugliness aroused by the desires of the human heart, the greed of Mifune's wife, and finally let the forest approach the castle, and the city was destroyed.
The fog cleared, leaving only the empty monument.
17. The Lower Levels (1957)
Average review score: 6.8
Adapted from Gorky's work of the same name, the film tells the story of several people alternately staged in a dilapidated place, the laziness and meanness derived from poverty and hardship make people feel breathless, Kurosawa seems to be telling a very deep story, the camera and character performances are also very tense, some words and concepts are also wonderful enough, but overall it is still slightly chaotic, and the abrupt stop after the singing and dancing at the end is exquisite.
18. Warring States Heroes (1958)
Average review score: 8.6
Although this is a samurai film by Akira Kurosawa, the real protagonists of this movie are two peasants, the samurai played by Mifune takes the princess to try to pass through the enemy camp, and the two poor and lazy peasants become their guides, although Mifune has a highlight moment against the shogun, the princess's cool and heroic posture is also very attractive, but the two villagers who are forced by the temptation and the bad brains have become the real focus of the story.
The hero is finally still a hero, the villain is always a villain, not that the hero is not malicious or the villain will not be kind, but the class is different, the pattern and vision are very different, so the mouse can only see the cheese in front of him, the hero can raise his head, see the world, see the life.
19. Sweet Dreams of the Evil Man (1960)
Average review score: 8.4
This is the most fierce of Kurosawa's realistic themes, whether it is the official or the business world, everyone is intrigued, filling their daily lives with revenge and sin, when I watch this movie, it happens to be relevant to the current events of the time, and I don't know if it is really a coincidence or the complex connotations that this movie has can be perfectly embedded in the dark side of each era.
Solving the problem is always much simpler than solving the problem.
20. "Stick of hearts" (1961)
Average review score: 9.6
Three years later, "Red Dead Redemption" almost completely reproduced the setting and plot synopsis of "Heart Stick", but it has to be said that "Heart Stick" was really good-looking, and the wind and bone of the movie cannot be learned by copying and imitating.
Sanshiro comes to the town, faces the entangled evil forces of the two sides, survives in the cracks and constantly stirs up dissension, the humorous plot, the strong drum beat, the perfect depth of field of the lens and the arrangement of light and shadow, all bring the audience a unique sense of impact.
In addition, Fujita's cameo as a fleeing samurai is also very interesting, Fujita jin escaped, and Toshiro Mifune took over the courage of the samurai.
21.Sanjuro Tsubaki (1962)
Average review score: 8.8
"Tsubaki Sanshirō" can be called the sister article of "Heart Stick", using a more humorous tone to tell the story of Tsubaki Sanshiro, but this time is different, Sanshilang is not purely alone, but there is a group of little brothers who do not listen to discipline need to be brought, these little guys are not good at business, gossip and suspicion can not be a lot, so Thirty Lang this time internal and external difficulties, like with a bunch of pig teammates but also carry the whole field, I think he must be crying and laughing in his heart.
22. Heaven and Hell (1963)
This film depicts a kidnapping incident for the children of big entrepreneurs, the first half of which is all an indoor scene that takes place in a scene, only through the phone, the description of the characters and the position, creating a tense texture of the pull between the kidnapping and the ransom, and the second half turns to the criminal detective case, and involves a hell looking at the hatred of heaven.
As soon as I saw the title and the first half of the film, I thought it was about a man who fell from a rich paradise to a poor hell, but as the film developed into a solid crime film, it wasn't until the moment when the criminal borrowed fire from the unsuspecting Mifune and watched him leave, that I realized that the film talked so much about, but in fact, it was just to show a person who thought he lived in hell, and for the people who lived in heaven in their eyes, pure malice.
The film is also Fujita's last cameo appearance in Akira Kurosawa's film.
23. Red Beard (1965)
Average review score: 7.2
After "The Duel of Quiet Night", Kurosawa Akira's work is another work with the theme of doctors, and it is also the last work of Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa.
Overall, the level of filming and performance is very high, but the structure is somewhat scattered, and the three-hour long content of the whole film is not closely linked, but like several unit dramas: crazy women, dying good people, young girls who wipe the floor, and teenagers who steal porridge. Overall, it shows the benevolent feelings of the healer, but there is also some preaching flavor.
By the way, the child of "Tram Mania" after Akira Kurosawa has appeared in this film, and this child is really skeletal and can be recognized at a glance.
24. "The Trammania" (1970)
Average review score: 7.8
This is a work by Akira Kurosawa, but in fact, the meaning is very far-reaching, to tell me, this film is very similar to Akira Kurosawa's 1957 "Lower Layer", but the rhythm between the plots is better, like an upgraded version of "Lower Layer" after Akira Kurosawa has been condensed over the years. Eight stories that are largely unrelated to each other share a dilapidated illusion, people's delusions, intertwined emotions, and the brilliance of humanity that still flashes in times of distress, mixed together intricate ways. Looking all the way down, looking in, these stories are secondary, and I taste a taste of surprise and emptiness.
25. The Poem of the Horse (1971)
This is probably Akira Kurosawa's only documentary that tells the story of horses. The focus of the story is on the plot of being born from a horse, growing up, being trained and then winning the top spot in the horse racing conference, because it is a documentary film, so there is a lack of twists in the viewing process, and the theme of horses cannot make people substitute too much emotion, so it looks slightly boring. Akira Kurosawa chose an old man and a young man as the narrator, trying to add some childlike elements to the film from the perspective of a child, but the effect was not good, and the child's narration sometimes even appeared noisy.
26. Delsu Uzara (1975)
This film is a film of an adventurous and exploratory nature made by Akira Kurosawa against the backdrop of the Soviet Union, as a comeback of Akira Kurosawa after many years of rest, the style and theme of this film belong to a very unique kind in Akira Kurosawa's works, a Soviet survey officer with his hands to draw the local terrain, under the leadership of the hunter Delsu of the Hezhe tribe, the expedition team successfully completed the task, and the captain Yasenieev Yu del Su formed a deep friendship...
Although the film begins with a tragic story, but in the first expedition the overall tone is very sunny, Delsu's skills are also amazing, of course, after the beginning of the unveiling of Del Su's fate, the second expedition has a vague melancholy, Del Su is no longer the most sensitive hunter in the forest, and the Soviet officer's idea of bringing him back to the human city for retirement is not effective, so Del Su was born in the jungle, should also return to the jungle, died in the jungle, The film's exploration of the relationship between man and nature is particularly fascinating, accompanied by a relaxed plot.
27. Kagemusha (1980)
The entry point of the film is interesting, as the shadow of the protagonist's stand-in, pretending to be the protagonist for three years after the death of the protagonist. The tone of the film is generally very sad, although the stand-in occasionally laughs when replacing the protagonist, but the plot is still constantly downward, so that it finally completes the fatalistic tragic ending.
This film actually has a lot of similarities with Akira Kurosawa's "Chaos" a few years later, the same disappearance of the old lord (dead or crazy), the same with a one-sided big war as the end of fatalism, just like my criticism of the war scene of "Chaos", although the war scene in front of "Shadow Warrior" is obviously better than "Chaos", but it is still difficult for me to accept the war behavior of forcibly demotion and forced suicide for the defeat of fate.
(Joe Shimura played a small role in it, which was his last collaboration with Akira Kurosawa.)
28. "Chaos" (1985)
Although others have a high rating, but I did not get a movie, in my opinion, the first half is quite wonderful, but many places are too close to "Spider's Nest City" to be so amazing. In the middle of the movie, the old protagonist crazy demon began, the rhythm and narrative of the whole film seemed to be falling off a cliff, although the level of photography still maintained a consistently high level, but the emotions could not be substituted. Not to mention the stupidity of the last war, which in the present view, even some fatalistic bets will fail.
29. "Dreams" (1990)
Average review score: 7.9
Some of the 8 dreams that are not related to each other but are isolated are ghosts in culture; some are ghosts returning from the battlefield; some are paintings that are bright to unreal, and some are people's life, old age, illness and death.
It's beautiful, it's beautiful, but I'm not touched by anything, because it's Akira Kurosawa's dream, not my dream.
30. Rhapsody in August (1991)
Average review score: 6.2
Akira Kurosawa's seemingly "anti-war" film, in which several children and grandmothers in the ordinary daily life of a hot summer day, implicate the story of finding their former brothers and recalling the nightmares left by the nuclear bomb.
When the children asked Grandma if she remembered hating Americans, Grandma said, "War is the root of everything." ”
"War is to blame" sounds very good, but when the American in the plot comes to apologize to the person who has been traumatized by the war, I know that Akira Kurosawa's "anti-war" is only because he does not want the people to be hurt by the "anti-war defeat", he never really reflects on the causes of the war, but blindly writes about his war trauma and nuclear fear to win sympathy.
It is not the Americans who need to apologize, nor the war, but the people who started the war.
31. "Sunset Love" (1993)
Average review score: 8.0
Akira Kurosawa's last work tells the story of an old teacher and student. In this part, Akira Kurosawa retracts his obsession with the trauma of war, using it only as a small background, and the focus of the plot is on the birthday party and the cat slave, which has a sense of lead washing away. Even if we can't understand what kind of truth from the daily life of the old man, the enviable feelings between teachers and students and this interesting old man will leave a deep impression on the audience.