I’ve been a horrible blogger.  I’ve spent the last few weeks paying more attention to my writings for http://www.thefilmstage.com and I’ve forgot all about my marathon posts (and even viewings).  However, fret not I will not abandon this crash course in film education.  I will complete this marathon; however I think I’m going to change how I handle these Marathon posts.  From now on I will make 1 post each week where I will discuss two, or how many, films that I watched that week in my marathon.

Anyways, this past week in my Kurosawa Marathon I watched:

Bad Sleep Well (1960)

A revenge tale about how a young man marries the daughter of a corrupt business man so to find out more and expose him for the crook he is.

I found myself enjoying this film while not exactly loving it.  Toshirô Mifune reminds me week by week why he’s been cast in so many of Kurosawa’s films.  He is brilliant as this undercover cop, which he basically is playing in this film.  He knows how to stare down the barrel of the gun and laugh, which is exactly what people need to be able to do here.

What I particularly enjoyed, more than the intrigue of the first hour or so of who is this mystery man causing all this trouble for the company, was the second half of the film when we were watching Kôichi Nishi [Toshirô Mifune] after he was ousted and had to work with what he had at hand, which happened to be a high ranking member of the corporation.

If you’re a fan of films like The Departed then this is a must watch.  Not the greatest Kurosawa film out there but definitely a good one.

Rating: 7.0/10

Yojimbo (1961)

Here is the original tale of the wanderer coming into the town separated by the two big mob powers.  The film has been remade enough times that you must have seen it already.  Some of the remakes of this that you may have seen are: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Last Man Standing (1996) and Sukiyaki Western Django (2007).

I think this is without a question the best version of this story that I’ve ever seen.  I used to think that Clint Eastwood as the man with no name was the best you could get, but I guess it isn’t a stretch of the imagination that one of my now favourite actors of all time Mifune would better him as the wandering samurai with no name.  I would even go so far as to say that the comparison of technology in this film (gun vs. sword) is a done much better than in A Fistful of Dollars (pistol vs. rifle).

You find it hilarious, serious and action packed.  The one thing I’ve yet to see Kurosawa do is make an action film and now I’m willing to agree with the film community that this man is one of the greatest directors around.

If you haven’t seen it and you’re worried about being spoiled since you’ve probably seen one of the numerous remakes do not fret.  This film is timeless and a classic that everyone should see at least once.

Rating: 10/10

Remaining in the Marathon: High and Low (1963), Stray Dog (1949) and Seven Samurai (1954)