:
Takashi Shimura,
Yoko Yaguchi,
Susumu Fujita,
more...
:
Akira Kurosawa,
Akira Kurosawa,
Akira Kurosawa
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: Not Rated
: Criterion
: Action, Foreign, Japan, Martial Arts, Criterion Collection, Adventure, Wilderness & Nature, War, WWII
: Japanese
: English
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Eclipse Series 23 - The First Films of Akira Kurosawa: Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
Years before Akira Kurosawa changed the face of cinema with such iconic works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, he made his start in the Japanese film industry with four popular and exceptional works, created as World War II raged. All gripping dramas, those rare first films-Sanshiro Sugata; The Most Beautiful; Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two; and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail-are collected here and include a two-part martial arts saga, a portrait of female volunteers helping the war effort, and a kabuki-derived tale of deception. These captivating films are a glorious introduction to a peerless career.
This first effort by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa was originally released as Sanshiro Sugata . The film, made under reasonably smooth conditions despite the war, is based on a best-selling novel about the creation of Judo. Most of the film explores the relationship between the creator of this form of self-defense and his faithful protege. In addition to establishing the reputation of Kurosawa, the film made a popular star of Susumu Fujita. Sanshiro Sugata was remade by Shigeo Tanaka in 1955 and again by Seiichuro Uchikawa ten years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Eclipse Series 23 - The First Films of Akira Kurosawa: Sanshiro Sugata II (1945)
This 1945 Japanese film by renowned director Akira Kurosawa, is a sequel to its better known predecessor, Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Both concern the relationship between Shogoro Yano (Denjiro Okochi), the founder of the martial arts discipline of Judo, and Sanshiro Sugata (Susumu Fujita), one of his principal students. Like many such relationships, this one is shown to be a blend of the spiritual and the intimately personal. As the film was made during World War II, it not surprisingly contains vignettes in which Europeans are made to appear extraordinarily piggish and vulgar. This film was re-released in a slightly shorter, re-edited and subtitled version in 1981 and was first seen in the U.S. at the Film Forum in New York City in 1989. It is of interest both as a tightly-crafted martial arts master-and-student film, and as an early example of Kurosawa's mature style. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Eclipse Series 23 - The First Films of Akira Kurosawa: The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945)
Akira Kurosawa's Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail was put together at the last minute when Kurosawa's plan to direct a costume picture called Doko Kono Yari fell through (the producer couldn't get any horses!) Utilizing the costumes, sets and actors already commissioned, Kurosawa spent one long evening writing a screenplay based on the old Kabuki piece Kanjincho. The central character, a dimwitted porter who almost causes the film's plot to go awry, was played by Enoken, a stage actor and longtime personal favorite of Kurosawa's. Originally titled Tora no o o fumu Otokotachi, Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail was impressive enough for English-filmmaker Michael Powell to request permission to remake it on a larger scale (he never did). Completed in 1945, the film was not generally released until 1952. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Eclipse Series 23 - The First Films of Akira Kurosawa: The Most Beautiful (1944)
This portrait of female volunteer workers at an optics plant during World War II, shot on location at the Nippon Kogaku factory, was created with a patriotic agenda. Yet thanks to Akira Kurosawa's groundbreaking semidocumentary approach, The Most Beautiful is a revealing look at Japanese women of the era and anticipates the aesthetics of Japanese cinema's postwar social realism.
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| Eclipse Series 23 - The First Films of Akira Kurosawa: Sanshiro Sugata II (1945) |
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| Eclipse Series 23 - The First Films of Akira Kurosawa: The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945) |
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| forgettable
by RMorris
April 18, 2007 - 10:02 PM PDT
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| Even fans of Kurosawa will be disappointed, although the most extreme fans will want to see it once for completeness. No depth in character development, a single story theme told in a propagantistic style (enduring emotional hardship while singing and be productive) To top it off, the quality of the print was bad and the English subtitles were mostly not coherent. |
| best in native tongue
by greengaruda
June 24, 2004 - 11:51 AM PDT
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4 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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| This film is very interesting for it's glimpse of the emerging master, Kurosawa. But the subtitles are so exceptionally bad that it's almost unwatchable. It's a great oppourtunity for Japanese and English speakers to rewrite the subtitles - the film could shine in a way that it never has for English language speakers. I really wish someone would take this on as a project and perhaps approach Criterion with it as they do a lot to preserve and restore and republish classics. |
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| Akira Kurosawa |
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Coming soon: Seven Samurai 3-Disc SE, remasters of Sanjuro and Yojimbo. Wish list: Criterion editions of Dodes'ka-den, The Idiot, I Live in Fear, and Scandal, and an anamorphic remaster of High and Low. |
Eoliano
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