1. Rashomon
Rashomon is a film made up of four parts about the same event, each of which consists of a different character narrating his own sightings from a subjective standpoint, and the situations presented by these four people are merged into another self-contained story, which is not necessarily related to the central event depicted in the four fragments. Due to the complexity of the structure, we will find that the mood of each paragraph changes almost every time. Akira Kurosawa has achieved structural variability without making his style seem fragmented. The style of cinematography reflects the director's keen sense of unity throughout.
The film also made director Akira Kurosawa famous in the international film industry, and was nominated for an Oscar.
2. The Seven Samurai
"Seven Samurai" changes the routine and production method of traditional Japanese samurai films. Instead of filming a traditional story about how samurai were loyal, Kurosawa defended an era with the stories of seven ronin who were not actually samurai at all, and he asked these people to martyr a path and fight a meaningless war, and the result was that most of the seven people died and got nothing, thus staging an absurd drama of life.
The Seven Samurai. The characters in the whole film are colorful, the plot is meandering, the action scenes are still shocking, and the afterglow of the final drama (more than 200 minutes) is still around. In the second half of the century after the appearance of "Seven Samurai", it is still unique, and it can be said that there is no successor; and the samurai films and kendo films before "Seven Samurai" cannot be said to be completely unencumbered by Kurosawa Akira, but none of them can be said to be able to reach.
3. Spider's Nest City
In a film in the fifties, the adaptation of Shakespeare's famous story was probably the best done by Akira Kurosawa. Undoubtedly, he is a master of atmosphere, and can even be said to be the originator, in the black and white images, he brings us a series of human struggles such as desire and demons, etc., you will be involuntarily pulled into the movie, followed by confusion, sigh together, this is Kurosawa Akira. The performances of Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamamoto portray the two characters perfectly, and the whole film shows the characteristics of human nature with inner anxiety, without any superfluous depiction, which is a classic.
4. "Red Beard"
"RedBeard" (1965) is undoubtedly also a masterpiece, and the humanitarianism of this film is very natural thanks to the plot development, otherwise it is easy to be preachy in such a high-information film. "Red Beard" has a rich plot, a lively plot, and a very high observability. I remember that the late Taiwanese novelist Wang Zhenhe had seen this film more than ten times and was very respectful. Probably the masterpiece in my mind also comes from the familiarity with the film.
5. "Stick with Heart"
"Heart Stick" is a sketch work released by Akira Kurosawa in 1961, infused with the spiritual core of the film is an oriental spirit of ranger, familiar with the martial arts culture of chinese viewers are not unfamiliar with this, even from the perspective of film history, from the Shanghai gods and monsters of the 20s and 30s, to the subsequent development of Hong Kong martial arts films, to the Shaw era martial arts films dominated the film industry, becoming a fashion, can be described as consistent.
6. "The Desire to Be Born"
Although "The Desire to Live" also describes the chaos of post-war Japanese society, the whole film is different in theme and form. The film tells the story of an old official who usually shirks his responsibilities and does not really serve the people. It had been since he learned that he was terminally ill that he suddenly thought about how to spend his dying years. He tried several different lifestyles, including drinking and dancing, and finally decided to build a corner of the sewer area into a children's park for the benefit of the local citizens. The storytelling style in the film is very special, the protagonist is dead in the middle of the film, and what he did on his deathbed, how to successfully build a park, etc., are narrated, explained and recalled by other characters while guarding the spirit. "The Desire to Live" is a very good work in terms of content and form.
7. "Tram Mania"
"Trolley Mania" is Emperor Kurosawa's first color film (using traditional screen proportions), the composition and color clearly follow the European tradition of modern realistic oil painting, and pay special attention to the surface details of specific things, close to sketching.
8. Kingdom of Heaven and Hell
At the home of Toshiro Mifune, a board meeting on the national footwear industry was held to discuss the quality of the new shoes. Kwon Teng's opinion was impassioned, and he felt that he should not only focus on reducing costs and increasing profits, but ignore the quality of the shoes themselves. The remarks were clearly very different from the others' philosophy of quick success, so others conspired to depose him from the board and replace him with an obedient puppet. That night, the son of Quan Teng's driver was suddenly kidnapped, and the kidnappers thought that he was Quan Teng's son, so they extorted a ransom of 30 million yuan from Quan Teng. Faced with the persuasion of his wife (Kyoko Kagawa Kagawa), the beleaguered Kwon-teng is forced to obey, and as a result, the prisoner uses a blindfold to avoid the eyes and ears of the inspector (Tatsuya Nakadai Nakadai) and successfully withdraws the cash without leaving any trace. The money-breaking Quan Teng also faces the double threat of the company and the creditor. The police found a couple of lovers who died of drug use at the kidnapping site. However, this is only the beginning of the criminal conspiracy...
9. "Warring States Heroes"
During the Sengoku period, the Akizuki family was defeated and fell, and the brave general (Toshiro Mifune) led the princess Yukihime (Mizo Uehara) to escape to a deserted land, trying to cross the enemy line with gold to the allies. Coincidentally, they meet the greedy poor people A (Played by Chiaki Shi) and Poor People B (played by Fujiwara Kazushi), and the two gag and joke constantly, and under the threat and inducement of the general, the two also start the heavy responsibility of protecting the princess. However, the enemy general (Played by Joe Shimura) is in hot pursuit, and the princess and the general will face a life-and-death decision in times of crisis.
The film was george lucas's main inspiration for Star Wars and has been recognized as one of Akira Kurosawa's most outstanding works since its release.
10. Shadow Samurai
Takeda Shingen (Nakashiro Tatsuya), the head of Japan's Sengoku period, is known as the "Tiger of Kai". His creed was "as fast as the wind, as xu as the forest, as aggression as fire, and as immovable as a mountain." When Takeda Shingen besieged Noda Castle of the Tokugawa Army and was about to take Kyoto to complete his hegemony, he was hit by the enemy's sniper cold gun and was seriously wounded and dying. Before his death, he left a last word to his subordinates to hide his death for three years. The stand-in (Nakayo Tatsuya) found by his younger brother Takeda Shinryō (Yamazaki Nobu) is a thief whose appearance resembles Shingen, what the Japanese call a "shadow samurai", and who takes on a heavy responsibility. In this way, with the support of Takeda Noburen, the shadow samurai went from being a thief to being moved by the takeda family's righteous deeds and performing his duties to the best of his ability, convincing the Takeda family and his enemies that he was Shingen himself. However, three years later, an unexpected thing happens, the Shadow Samurai is revealed, he is driven away, and the Takeda family's qi will be exhausted...
The film was awarded the Palme d'Or in the main competition section of the film at the 33rd Cannes Film Festival.