Best Kurusawa samarai DVDs? (1 Viewer)

[chris larralde]

I've already got Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Ran.

What others would you pick up? How's Hidden Fortress or Throne of Blood?

chris

 

[Jean-Michel]

Throne of Blood isn't out on DVD (at least in R1) so that's pretty much ruled out.
That leaves just Sanjuro and The Hidden Fortress. This is probably the minority opinion but I prefer Sanjuro -- it's just over-the-top fun (love that arterial spray) whereas The Hidden Fortress is more epic in scope and quite frankly got pretty "draggy" at times. Unfortunately the Sanjuro DVD leaves something to be desired, but since you have the current edition of Ran you probably won't think it too bad

 

[Martin G]

Sanjuro is one of his best. Its a companion piece to Yojimbo. I found it highly entertaininng and very enjoyable. In fact it is my fav of the kurosawa samurai movies.

Hidden fortress is very good as is Throne of Blood. (a remake of macbeth) Kagemusha was also a great movie, but it doesn't quite live up to some of his earlier samurai works.

 

[Jim Rankin]

I love both of these films - but I thought Hidden Fortress had much more comic relief in it - the two low lifes that Toshiro Mifune keeps tricking into helping him were hilarious!

 

[SteveGon]

All of Kurosawa's samurai films are at least very good. Definitely pick up The Hidden Fortress and Sanjuro. Throne of Blood and Kagemusha are must-haves as well. Why these aren't out on DVD is beyond me...

 

[Jim_K]

I'll agree with most here that Hidden Fortress & Sanjuro are must haves. Just good ol Samurai fun IMO
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the just released and excellent Rashomon. While it technically is a Samurai film it leans more toward being a pure Drama vs his other Action/Adventure type Samurai films. Highly recommended though.
Of the other Kurosawa Samurai films not released yet Throne of Blood ranks right up there with his best. I can't wait for a Criterion release. I'm a little lukewarm on Kagemusha though mainly because the version I saw a few years ago was P&S and an edited version at that. I'll give this another view when it gets released to DVD.
One more recommendation would be Hiroshi Inagaki's fantastic Samurai Trilogy. While its obviously not by Kurosawa it ranks up there with Seven Samurai, Ran & Yojimbo IMO.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Just for the record, it's KurOsawa

 

[Brian E]

You might want to consider Red Beard. It comes out from Criterion July 16th.

 

[Martin G]

I would also have to second the samurai trilogy. Its about as good as a non Kurosawa samurai film can be. In many ways I found it more enjoyable then Yojimbo and The Hidden Fortress.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Kagemuska is released next month in the UK R2

 

[Jeff Kleist]

That would be KagemusHa We have to wait for Fox to deem R1 worthy :frowning: