SRSLY WANT!!!

"AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa on DVD on 12/8/09 (SRP $399, but it's available for pre-order on Amazon for just $299). This extraordinary set will come enclosed in a linen-bound box and will include an illustrated companion book. Released on the 100th anniversary of the legendary Japanese director's birth, the set will include 25 of his films on 25 DVDs - the most complete such set ever released in the U.S. - 4 of which have never been available on the DVD format in this country. Included will be:

The Bad Sleep Well (1960), Dodes'ka-den (1970), Drunken Angel (1948), The Hidden Fortress (1958), High and Low (1963), I Live in Fear (1955), The Idiot (1951), Ikiru (1952), Kagemusha (1980), The Lower Depths (1957), Madadayo (1993), The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945 - new to DVD), The Most Beautiful (1944 - new to DVD), No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), One Wonderful Sunday (1947), Rashomon (1951), Red Beard (1965), Sanjuro (1962), Sanshiro Sugata (1943 - new to DVD), Sanshiro Sugata, Part II (1944 - new to DVD), Scandal (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), Stray Dog (1949), Throne of Blood (1957) and Yojimbo (1961)

Each of these films is presented with a restored digital transfer, with audio in the original Japanese and English subtitles. The companion book features an introduction and notes on each of the films by Stephen Prince (The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa) and a remembrance by Donald Richie (The Films of Akira Kurosawa)."




If you loved me, you'd buy me this.

one wonderful movie

One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki Nichiyōbi)
An early, nearly unknown (in the US) film by Akira Kurosawa. One of the first post-war films of his career, and one of the first that wasn't nationalist pap churned out at the behest of the Japanese film studios. It tells the story of two young lovers spending their weekly Sunday together (the one day a week they get to see each other), with barely 35 yen between them. It's an incredibly simple tale and an incredibly simple movie with some incredibly complex characters and performances.
It's one of the best films I've seen in a number of years; and one of the only films in recent memory that has engaged me enough to make it through in one complete, uninterrupted sitting.

It's not really representative of what Kurosawa would go on to do, and go on to become, with his samurai epics and odd retellings of Shakespeare; but it's definitely a wonderful introduction to the man if you don't know him, and almost necessary viewing by fans and admirers.