Kurosawa Diary, Part 1: The War Films

I embarked on a long and slow journey in late December. I undertook the task of watching all 30 of Akira Kurosawa’s films in chronological order. Those I don’t own, I would rent from Netflix.

For some stupid reason, I didn’t think to include my readers in the experiment. Having seen the error of my ways, I’m playing catch-up.

Before starting this endeavor, I had seen all but four. Some I hadn’t seen in decades, others I’d seen within the year. Some I’d seen recently and hated, but I was still determined to see them again. The point was the follow the creative arc of my favorite filmmaker.

But it soon became obvious that I couldn’t see all of them. Some aren’t available through Netflix, and, unfortunately, they somewhat overlap with the ones I haven’t seen. No real coincidence, there.

So, to catch up, let’s go over his first four films–the ones he made during World War II. One can’t expect much quality here. We’re talking about the work of a very young filmmaker who had to answer to fascist military censors.

Sanshiro Sugata (AKA: Judo Story): His first film isn’t available from Netflix, but I’d seen it relatively recently on the Independent Film Channel (I had seen it before ages ago at the UC Theatre). It’s a fairly conventional martial arts movie, about the arrogant young man with talent, and the old master who must break him before he can train him. It’s well-made, with a couple of amazing sequences. A sign of greater things to come.

The Most Beautiful: This home-front propaganda film has never been released in this country, and was one of the four I had never seen. But Netflix has a region-free Hong Kong DVD. The transfer was horrible, the optional English subtitles were worse, and the movie itself wasn’t much better. It concerned teenage girls working in a optical factory making bombing sights for the brave bomber pilots. Dull and pretty much pointless.

Sanshiro Sugata 2: And you thought numbered sequences were a new idea! Once again, it’s never been released in this country. Only this time, Netflix doesn’t stock the Hong Kong version. So this is still a Kurosawa film that I have not seen.

They Who Step on Tiger’s Tail: Same with this one.

I’ll post another catch-up soon, discussing his first three postwar films.