Customer Reviews

Remaking Kurosawa: Translations and Permutations in Global Cinema

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Remaking Kurosawa is a very welcome addition to the growing number of English language books discussing Kurosawa and his works. Martinez discusses how, and to some extent why, Kurosawa's films have made the transition from locally made films into the domain of global cinema, and how his films have served as inspiration for other films, both with direct remakes as well as in other less obvious cases. This is a topic that has often been referred to in Kurosawa literature, but never quite explored with the dedication and enthusiasm that Martinez has given it here.

The discussion focuses on four Kurosawa films and their "permutations": Rashomon (80 pages), Seven Samurai (28 pages), Yojimbo (20 pages) and The Hidden Fortress (12 pages). While familiarity with the original Kurosawa films is probably necessary, Martinez does not assume the same in her discussion of the derived works.

In addition to film discussion, Remaking Kurosawa is also a book about social anthropology, and Martinez herself sums up the book in the introduction as being about "the human imagination on a global level". While I am not an anthropologist like Martinez, I feel that the book doesn't perhaps quite achieve the goals that it has set there. However, this is not an issue that would cause me to mark it down.

Another small issue is the number of typographical errors, small factual mistakes and poor editorial choices that appear across the book. Hopefully, these will be corrected for the paperback edition.

If you are interested in Kurosawa's works and especially the way in which the four films discussed in this book have influenced other works, this is definitely worth a read.

[...]