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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Rather wonderful...fifteen years ago., February 27, 2006
This review is from: The Films of Akira Kurosawa, Third Edition, Expanded and Updated: With a New Epilogue (Paperback)
When I was a teenager this was my bible. I was fixated on Kurosawa's films ever since my father forced me to sit through "The Seven Samurai" when I was a child. This book was valuable to me for the simple reason that a good number of Kurosawa's films were hard for me to find on video (as far as a good revival showing, forget it). I found the essays to be informative and at times insightful, and, if nothing else, Richie is always good for an anecdote. However, the book takes a strange turn down a darker path in the final half-dozen chapters or so. I've always had the feeling that Kurosawa must have somehow personally offended or insulted Richie, since the tone becomes one of dismissal and personal attack. Some of the essays aren't even by Richie himself, as if he won't deign to review Kurosawa's little movies. He tells us that Kurosawa was essentially a pathetic man with no life outside of film making (how many other artists could one say that about?). He even makes fun of the poor man's musical tastes. Films like "Kagemusha" and "Ran" are dismissed with a wave of the hand, even the awe inspiring "Dodes 'kaden" comes in for something of a drubbing. Kurosawa's final films are "overly sentimental". In fact, in the recent Alex Cox documentary on Kurosawa, "The Last Emperor", Richie's cliched "sentimental" attack on Kurosawa is itself attacked by the narrator of the film! Richie's weird (seemingly) personal vendetta on Kurosawa comes across as slightly amusing, bringing to mind the old crack about film critics being the impotent man at the orgy, or, to put it another way, Richie is the Hanslick to Kurosawa's Wagner. While flawed, Kurosawa's final films are hardly sentimental treacle, and certainly don't deserve one and a half page dismissals in a book devoted to their creator. With so much interesting Japanese film studies floating around, I'm not sure Richie's bitter book is worth much now.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coffeetable Kurosawa, April 17, 2002
This review is from: The Films of Akira Kurosawa, Third Edition, Expanded and Updated: With a New Epilogue (Paperback)
"The Films of Akira Kurosawa" is a great introduction to Kurosawa. In both physical size and length, it is an unintimidating invitation to those seeking to learn more about a director whose films they enjoy. It is the most visual of Kurosawa studies, which is nice considering that films are a visual medium. There are both candid on-set shots as well as film stills. The book is designed for browsing, and does not need to be read front to back. A reader can easily skip around to the films that they are interested in. The writing is casual, and reads easy. Too many Kurosawa books read like college texts, and Donald Richie fills a niche by supplying a book for the casual reader. The only drawback to "The Films of Akira Kurosawa" is that your interest will be sparked for many films that are not readily available. You will embark on a treasure hunt, seeking out rare gems such as "Drunken Angel," "The Bad Sleep Well" and "Throne of Blood." To add to the author's credentials, Donald Richie supplies the commentary track on the Criterion Collection DVD of "Roshomon."
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Does a genius justice, January 21, 2000
This review is from: The Films of Akira Kurosawa, Third Edition, Expanded and Updated: With a New Epilogue (Paperback)
My mother took me to the first Kurosawa film I can remember ("Ikiru") when I was probably about five. I was not in a position to appreciate it then, of course, but a couple of images stuck with me forever. I saw a few more Kurosawas in high school, fortunately -- the earlier, butchered "Seven Samurai," "Yojimbo," possibly one or two more -- and many others when I got to college in Boston. Kurosawa was one of the true artistic geniuses of the twentieth century. His career as a screenwriter began during the Second World War and as a director shortly after it. Despite the strange culture and often historic settings of his stories, Kurosawa is perhaps the most "Western" of Japanese film directors up to the 1970s. The plots have a clarity, and the action (Samurai sword battles, for instance) a vibrancy, that grip a viewer in a way lesser filmmakers on both sides of the Pacific cannot hope to match. His work has probably influenced more other filmmakers than any director in or out of the US. Other reviewers have named names; as to specific works, "Rashomon" was remade as "The Outrage," "Seven Samurai" turned into "The Magnificent Seven," "Yojimbo" became "A Fistful of Dollars," and "The Hidden Fortress" inspired "Star Wars." In turn, Kurosawa made films based on the plots of "Macbeth," "King Lear," Dostoevsky's "The Idiot," and Gorky's "The Lower Depths." Richie's book does this incredible writer and director's work full justice. His discussion of plotting, acting, editing technique, and all the other aspects of this great artist's work only deepen one's appreciation for what already loves on screen. I have an original hardcover copy as well as the third revised edition in paperback.
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