The Good, the Bad, and the Japanese (a Reflection on Akira Kurosawa)
I love Akira Kurosawa. Two of my all time Top 10 movies are his, Rashomon (mentioned prominently in this article) and Ran. Few American film directors have ever been able to plumb the depths of sophistication he does. He was a master who could transfer Shakespearre to Shogun era Japan and could set the stage for the "Spaghetti Westerns" of Sergio Leone. Watch those two films (along with Kagemusha, Throne of Blood, and, of course, the Seven Samurai) and see probably the best Director of the last century.
The linked article examines the moral amibiguity he so skillfully plays with in his films. I find it interesting that often it is hard to know what is "right" vs what is "wrong." Naturally, it is now cliche to be relativistic (and I fear we too often get sucked into that black hole of relativism and forget to recognize good and evil as the still necessary categories that they are), but he was able to be so in a way that is much more meaningful than in today's cinema of constant irony masquerading as profundity.
Another thing about Kurosawa are the last shots in his films. I have never seen three more lingering images than the those at the end of Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, and Ran. They are long movies, but in that one shot, everything that came before is worth it. Very powerful stuff. By the way Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas (of Godfather and Star Wars fame) helped him produce Kagemusha because of their admiration of his work. Not often that a director can be so honored.
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