Tuesday, September 18, 2007
RISING SUN SHOWDOWN
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Akira Kurosawa's
It is Kurosawa's homage to John Ford; mixing the samurai and western genrés.
Starring Toshiro Mifune as an out of work samurai who comes to a civil war torn town, the film refashions many western clichés in traditional Japanese theater/film terms.
The translation illuminates the bits which we have grown used to. Seen in a different light, we get the picture more clearly.
There is the idiot-villain, actually two. Numerous showdowns on the main street. The craven bourgeois who hide in their homes. The impotent bureaucrats who kiss the outlaw's ass. The wily hero who is eventually too smart for his own good and has to crawl back into control. All of it.
It is pretty good.
It would have to be. Kurosawa.
But the story is a bit hard to follow as we struggle with the names and the sometimes shaky plot.
That is not his problem but it is a hurdle for this roundeye.
There is a sequel which we will see tomorrow. Same samurai, different town.
I will give this one a 4 out of Netflix5.
I can't take points off because of my inability to see the difference between some oriental faces and names.
Labels: best films
