• Kurosawa’s Birthday Month, Day 12

    Congratulations to yesterday’s winner, Matthew E. B.! Matthew’s pick for a “desert island” Kurosawa film was Ikiru, and here’s why:

    If this movie is coming to a desert island with me, then I feel it shouldn’t necessarily be my favorite, but rather something that can provide me with the positive human influence that I am left without. This limits the choices, since so many of Kurosawa’s flicks are about swordplay and violence. Dreams would be a nice choice, but with so much surrealism, I’d look to something more based in everyday civilization. Therefore, I would have to select Ikiru because, while it does stand you alongside the downfalls and turmoils of the real world, it also presents you with a character so full of emotion, internal conflict, doubt, and redemption that, before I ever returned to civilization, I would have essentially GAINED experience in living.

    March is Akira Kurosawa month at Criterion. On the twenty-third, the great Japanese filmmaker would have been one hundred years old. For this centennial celebration, we will be posting trivia questions and other contests all month, and giving away a different prize every weekday.

    Today’s prompt:

    Kurosawa was known for his adaptations of Western literature. Which novel or play do you most wish he had adapted?

    Please respond by commenting below, and we’ll choose our favorite tomorrow. You must reside in the U.S. or Canada and leave a valid e-mail address to be eligible for the prize (a DVD box set of Eclipse Series 7: Postwar Kurosawa).

168 comments

  • By Rafiq Uddin
    March 16, 2010
    05:58 PM

    It'd be kind of sweet if Kurosawa did a version of "Canterbury Tales" since there aren't a lot of film adaptations of that.
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  • By Mirkka Kallio
    March 16, 2010
    05:58 PM

    Aleksis Kivi: Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers)
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  • By Luc Bouvrette
    March 16, 2010
    05:59 PM

    Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
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  • By Jorge E. Cuellar
    March 16, 2010
    06:00 PM

    Kurosawa should've adapted Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird. The film deals a lot with the themes of alienation and exclusion, bearing on larger questions of interpersonal relationships, discontent, and the ordering of civil society. It would've been a really powerful film if it were made by Kurosawa as his expertise through working on films from Rashomon to Stray Dog and beyond would complement the heavily layered and visually arresting aspects of Kosinski's narrative.
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  • By Dennis Seine
    March 16, 2010
    06:00 PM

    Herzog, by Saul Bellow.
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  • By Zachary Herrmann
    March 16, 2010
    06:01 PM

    While the idea of a Kurosawa WAR AND PEACE feels almost too perfect in my mind, I would have loved to see Kurosawa scale back into minimalism for a an adaptation of J.G. Ballard's CONCRETE ISLAND. The updated, 1970s-era Robinson Crusoe story would have made for an apt metaphor for post-war Japanese isolation (it is, after all, about an "island" and uncovering the buried remains of an earlier, pre-WW II age) Mifune would have been about the right age (maybe skewing a little older), and it would have taken an actor of his caliber to pull off the largely one-man show that an adaptation of CONCRETE ISLAND would be.
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  • By David Graham
    March 16, 2010
    06:02 PM

    I would have liked to see him adapt Death of A Salesman. Although it might be argued that he came close once or twice, I think the themes isolation, feeling defeated by ones career and the impact that has on family interactions could have been translated to the feudal or samurai societies in a very interesting way.
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  • By Brian Pachinger
    March 16, 2010
    06:02 PM

    Translate Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy from Revisionist Western to Revisionist Samurai film. Could of been a masterpiece.
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  • By Woody
    March 16, 2010
    06:03 PM

    Kurosawa did such amazing work with Shakespeare's tragedies in Throne of Blood (Macbeth) and Ran (King Lear). I think it would have been very interesting to see what he could have done with The Winter's Tale. Even though it is considered one of Shakespeare's "problem plays" for the bizarre happy ending in its third act, I think Kurosawa could have made it work particularly in the utilization of magical realism which he did so well in Dreams. Oh how I would have loved to see the master's interpretation of the famous stage direction, "Exit, pursued by a bear."
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  • By Dan Hess
    March 16, 2010
    06:04 PM

    The Count of Monte Cristo immediately comes to mind. Not only does the classic Dumas tale touch on Kurosawa's eternal themes of good vs. evil and revenge as justice, but the amazing journey that Edmond Dantes takes, from simple young man with love on his mind to a strong-willed, powerful warrior of sorts, is one that Kurosawa would have undoubtedly been able to depict in a magnificent way. Of course, the swordplay already present in the story would just be an added bonus to how great Kurosawa's adaptation could have been...
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  • By John Eddy
    March 16, 2010
    06:04 PM

    Milton's Paradise Lost (Conversely and really wildly, I'd love to see what he could have done *today* with something like Cryptonomicon or Snow Crash)
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  • By frank
    March 16, 2010
    06:05 PM

    Harry Potter.
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  • By Greg Nordlund
    March 16, 2010
    06:06 PM

    Without a doubt, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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  • By edgar rojas
    March 16, 2010
    06:07 PM

    would have loved to see Kurosawa's takes on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World!
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  • By Kevin Longrie
    March 16, 2010
    06:07 PM

    He would've made an excellent adaptation of Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
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  • By Nick Bruno
    March 16, 2010
    06:08 PM

    Personally, I would've loved to see Kurosawa take on the challenge of adapting Carlos Castaneda's "The Teachings of Don Juan." Based on the scenes depicting the witches in "Throne of Blood" alone, I could see Kurosawa having been able to find simple, yet striking ways of expressing the "quests" and encounters described in Castaneda's text.
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  • By Scott Simms
    March 16, 2010
    06:08 PM

    I'd have to say, "The Catcher in the Rye". I would love to see how Kurosawa would handle the teenage, antihero Holden Caulfield, in a conservative Japanese setting.
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  • By Dan
    March 16, 2010
    06:08 PM

    I would have loved to see Kurosawa tackle more of the work of his favourite novelist, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Kurosawa had great affection for D's works, and an intuitive understanding of the man's existential crises and spiritual inclinations. Knowing this, it seems that either Notes from Underground or Crimes and Punishment would have been natural fits to me.
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  • By Matthew Dec
    March 16, 2010
    06:09 PM

    I would have liked to seen what Kurosawa would have done with Charles Dickens' unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
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  • By bryan alexander
    March 16, 2010
    06:10 PM

    Imagine if Akira Kurosawa adapted John Steinbeck's "Of Mice And Men" ? Hmm...now that I think of it, The Hidden Fortress is pretty close.
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  • By Jonathan McLellan
    March 16, 2010
    06:11 PM

    Even though it would be very difficult to film, I think I would want to see a Kurosawa adaptation of a Faulkner novel, probably The Sound of the Fury or As I Lay Dying, moved from the South, post civil war, to Japan of course. I think how Kurosawa presents different point of views in Rashoman would translate well with Faulkner's use of different point of views and unreliable narrators.
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  • By C Tyler Belile
    March 16, 2010
    06:11 PM

    I think it would've been mind-blowing had Kurosawa done an adaptation of any of Tennessee Williams' plays; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof preferably.
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  • By BEN K.
    March 16, 2010
    06:13 PM

    Joseph Conrad "Heart of Darkness"
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  • By Dan Chung
    March 16, 2010
    06:13 PM

    Don Quixote. I feel Kurosawa could've captured this fragile character better than anyone else, as well as brought something additional to the adaptation. It's just such a difficult one to pull off well and no one is/was better suited to do so than Kurosawa.
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  • By peter
    March 16, 2010
    06:14 PM

    I would like to see his take on Dante's Inferno or see what he do with Gullivers Travels
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  • By Mark
    March 16, 2010
    06:14 PM

    Moby Dick
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  • By david wojo
    March 16, 2010
    06:15 PM

    this is rough but...i'm throwing my hat into the Where The Wild Things Are ring...
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  • By Samuel Cunningham
    March 16, 2010
    06:15 PM

    Kurosawa adapted some Shakespeare plays into very interesting Japanese versions of the stories. Of course "Throne of Blood" and "Ran," but one Shakespeare play that he didn't do is "The Tempest." This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Seeing Toshiro Mifune playing Prospero would be amazing, and Prospero is a clever, old, trouble-maker which Mifune is best at. Ariel is another interesting character, usually played by a women. It would be interesting to see Kurosawa deal with a strong female character, which his more popular films usually lack. Adapting to Japanese themes would be interesting. Being stuck on an island, like the many islands of Japan, and dealing with creatures and magic, which is very popular folklore in Japan. Overall I think this would have been a very good Akira Kurosawa film.
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  • By Jeremy
    March 16, 2010
    06:15 PM

    It would have been interesting to see what he could have done with science fiction. Heinlein's "Stranger In a Strange Land" would have been subtle enough to fit his style, I think.
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  • By RYAN MCGLADE
    March 16, 2010
    06:16 PM

    Because of his brilliant Shakespeare adaptations such as Throne of Blood (Macbeth), The Bad Sleep Well (Hamlet), and Ran (King Lear), I would have loved to see Kurosawa create his own version of Shakespeare's other major masterpiece, Romeo and Juliet. I can clearly see Toshiro Mifune and Machiko Kyo in the title roles, as well as Takashi Shimura as Friar Lawrence and Isao Kimura as Tybalt. Kurosawa would definitely be able to do the Bard's tale justice and imbue it with his own signature style, as seen with the aforementioned Shakespeare adaptations. A Romeo and Juliet film would complete the set, but, sadly, it will never be.
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  • By Tony P
    March 16, 2010
    06:16 PM

    Gotta second the Count of Monte Cristo. It seems perfectly suited to Kurosawa in so many ways, and I think it could have also added a touch of good-ol' fashioned adventure to his oeuvre, something with the depth of his later movies with the fun of something like The Hidden Fortress.
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  • By Philip Pangrac
    March 16, 2010
    06:16 PM

    I received the tweet for this day's contest while watching Things to Come, and after a moment's thought I realized I couldn't recall Kurosawa making any science-fiction film (though parts of Dreams approached it). Of the various sub-genres, I think the post-apocalypse story would have provided the most fertile ground. So I wish he had adapted George R. Stewart's Earth Abides. It doesn't seem as widely remembered as War of the Worlds or the Invisible Man, but it was influential for Stephen King's The Stand, dealing with humanity after most of the world is wiped out by a plague. But beyond the focus on a small group of survivors coming together and re-establishing society, there's passages scattered throughout about how nature would reclaim the cities and other structures built by men. A description of a desert burying railroad tracks still stands in my mind. "Slow to give, slow to take back." Humanist and meditative, a Kurosawa adaptation would have been as shocking to those who see him as a simple samurai actioneer as Ikiru or Dreams are.
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  • By Michael Avolio
    March 16, 2010
    06:18 PM

    Mario Puzo's novel THE GODFATHER. Coppola's film version of the novel did for gangster films what SEVEN SAMURAI did for samurai films. Imagine Kurosawa taking the material on as a rich Yakuza epic or another complex samurai film.
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  • By Dustin Meadows
    March 16, 2010
    06:18 PM

    Anything by Harlan Ellison would've been interesting to see Kurosawa adapt for the screen, but I think specifically Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? would've made for one of the most visually interesting and compelling films of Kurosawa's career had he ever been given the chance. While I enjoy Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, I feel like Kurosawa would've remained truer to the book and tackled more of the complex issues that were left out of the film such as the empathy boxes which reduce the humans to an almost machine like state and the almost deity worship level of reverence for living animals. Kurowasa's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep would truly be one of the greatest film adaptations not only of Western literature, but possibly of all time. Mifune would easily excel as the Replicant hunting Rick Deckard, and it wouldn't be hard to fill out the rest of the main cast with some of Kurowasa's other regulars and create one of the most emotionally engaging science fiction films of all time.
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  • By Nick Cerny
    March 16, 2010
    06:18 PM

    The Sound and The Fury, something along the lines of Ran and Rashomon. The Mississippi southern atmosphere has a lot in common with Feudal Japan; dark, split and diluted families, and community conflict. The stream of consciousness would translate very well to screen in the hands of Kurosawa.
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  • By stan wong
    March 16, 2010
    06:21 PM

    There are so many incredible possibilities. Could you imagine Kurosawa's interpretation of William Faulkner? I am thinking in particular...it would be incredible to see Kurosawa's vision of this incredible story and the character Joe Christmas. Oh oh, I just saw Jonathan's post about Faulkner. I agree with him too. The Great Gatsby would be another obvious choice. F Scott Fitzgerald. Actually the Scarlet Letter would offer endless possibilities of human cruelty, hypocrisy, and loyalty! Incredible scenario!
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  • By dan kinem
    March 16, 2010
    06:23 PM

    I would love to see an "Of Mice and Men" adaptation. It could easily be taken and set in Japan and the story basics are so simple that any culture can clearly understand. The difference between life and death and friendship is universal and would have translated very well. If Kurosawa had adapted the novel I could clearly see Mifune as the George Milton character and it would be a toss up for the Lennie Small character. It would have to be someone who is substantially larger than Mifune, but one who can convey a very childlike performance. It would have been a masterpiece to say the least.
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  • By YiFeng You
    March 16, 2010
    06:24 PM

    his Japanese version of the Lord of the Rings would have been spectacular and awe-inspiring =).
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  • By Marissa Rose
    March 16, 2010
    06:25 PM

    I would loved to see Kurosawa direct an adapatation of Raymond Chandler's novel "The Big Sleep". Kurosawa is a perfect choice to bring the hardboiled world that Chandler created to life. The setting would be moved from Los Angeles to Japan but I think that could make it even better. An added bonus would be if Toshiro Mifune or Tatsuya Nakadai would play Phillip Marlowe.
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  • By Tom
    March 16, 2010
    06:25 PM

    An adaptation of Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man": a Japanese man in America between the two World Wars.
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  • By Josh Hornbeck
    March 16, 2010
    06:27 PM

    Since I love the way Kurosawa tackled the emotional depth and resonance of films like "Ikiru," I would have loved to see him take on an adaptation of "The Brothers Karamazov." It would be fascinating to see how he could bring that story of jealousy, corruption, and innocence into Japan. He was a master of the large ensemble (and getting his audience to care about all of the characters - no matter how despicable) that he would be able to really help us empathize with each of the brothers - even when they make choices that hurt others.
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  • By Jessica Schneider
    March 16, 2010
    06:28 PM

    That's an easy one: Ibsen's A Doll's House. I think this would have brilliantly translated over into the Japanese culture, where the subservient woman finds her identity as she comes to learn that her life has been a lie, and that her husband is a stranger. Setsuko Hara has the innocence and could be Nora and Tatsuya Nakadai would make a great Torvald.
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  • By Jessica Schneider
    March 16, 2010
    06:29 PM

    That’s an easy one: Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. I think this would have brilliantly translated over into the Japanese culture, where the subservient woman finds her identity as she comes to learn that her life has been a lie, and that her husband is a stranger. Setsuko Hara has the innocence and could be Nora and Tatsuya Nakadai would make a great Torvald.
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  • By Jeremiah Henriksen
    March 16, 2010
    06:29 PM

    I honestly would really like to see what he would've done with SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS.
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  • By Peter Panacci
    March 16, 2010
    06:30 PM

    I have always wanted to see a film adaptation of Albert Camus' "L'Étranger". The existential malaise of Mersault and his total lack of empathy seems the perfect combination for Kurosawa's heightened attention to detail and character interaction. In particular, the climactic murder scene in the middle of the book, with its surreal qualities and glaring sun seems tailored made for Kurosawa. The existential dilemma and nihilism addressed by Camus are issues shared by both French and Japanese cultures following the devastation of World War II. Even the xenophobia of Algerian immigrants in France can be mirrored by issues with Western influences in Japanese culture. I feel the themes of detachment and 'homelessness' (in the philosophical sense) are themes Kurosawa has grappled with in many of his films, however I feel 'L'Étranger' would provide a much richer and more direct setting for these ideas to be flushed out in true Kurosawa fashion.
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  • By Mario Villalobos
    March 16, 2010
    06:36 PM

    Catch-22. If set during a war between feuding clans in feudal Japan, and casting Toshiro Mifune as Yossarian and Takashi Shimura as Maj. Major Major Major, then you can see how awesome this could've been.
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  • By RYAN MCGLADE
    March 16, 2010
    06:37 PM

    Another Western work which I wish Kurosawa would have adapted would be Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland". As seen in "Dodes'ka-den" and "Dreams", Kurosawa had a talent for bringing depth to the surreal, and especially after seeing Tim Burton's lackluster 3-D version of "Alice", I can only dream of an adaptation of Carroll's novel that not only transports the novel's setting and characters but its heart and whimsy as well. And no one can deny that seeing Toshiro Mifune as the Mad Hatter would be quite an interesting sight.
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  • By Mark Hendrix
    March 16, 2010
    06:38 PM

    I would have loved if he got his hands Ernest Hemingway's work, preferably "The Sun Also Rises." The themes of isolation and loneliness would have been explored masterfully in a way that the Hollywood version was incapable of executing. The novel's simple story of a small group of expatriates traveling to witness a bullfight in Spain would have made for some beautiful cinematic moments that his unique eye could only strengthen. Both he and Hemingway had a way of making something very simple ring with depth and truth. The collision of these two monumental talents could have created truly unforgettable cinema.
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  • By Jordan Ghetler
    March 16, 2010
    06:40 PM

    I think he should he should adapt Homer's The Iliad. Kurosawa does something really well, and that something is films of EPIC proportions. The Iliad is the right story to recreate with his own unique vision.
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  • By Caroline
    March 16, 2010
    06:41 PM

    I would love to have seen Kurosawa do Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Honestly, I think that he is the only filmmaker that could have successfully adapted the very influential Western work. His directing style and writing sensibilities could have brilliantly rendered the paranoia, alienation and fated tragedy of the protagonist. I can just imagine the dark mood, eerie period atmosphere and jarring music that Kurosawa would have used in depicting this story. The chorus would obviously have been done in a really original way and the climax of Oedipus blinding himself and his final exile seems like it was written with Kurosawa in mind. And finally, Toshiro Mifune would have been fantastic in the role.
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  • By Russell Mulvey
    March 16, 2010
    06:43 PM

    "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham.
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  • By Julio J. Peña
    March 16, 2010
    06:44 PM

    Without a doubt, Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" The play touches upon personal failings and the efforts made, unsuccessfully, to right these failings - a theme that is universal in its scope and easily translates through any period of time. No doubt Kurosawa would have used this theme to explore the catharsis of postwar-Japan and deliver, in a way only he could, an entirely humanistic and understanding film about the struggle facing Japan at the time, confronting the struggles of a population facing the consequences and realities of war.
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  • By Mark Kawakami
    March 16, 2010
    06:44 PM

    Let's go crazy with this one: James Ellroy's dark and brilliant "The Black Dahlia". On the surface, this seems like a terrible match. Kurosawa's humanism doesn't square with Ellroy's deep cynicism. But look closer, this is fertile ground for Kurosawa. A tour of a city's hellish underbelly, a protagonist wading through the muck fighting desperately against being sucked into it, a student-mentor relationship driving the narrative and a meditation on what motivates the evil and the selfish. And of course, Kurosawa himself said "I believe the 'hard-boiled' detective novels can also be very instructive." Need more? Consider this: Perhaps if Kurosawa had gotten to "Dahlia" first, we wouldn't have the unfortunate adaptation we ended up with.
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  • By David Gebhard
    March 16, 2010
    06:45 PM

    Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye. I've always felt that High and Low is an underrated Kurosawa classic. It shows his fondness and understanding of the Noir drama. The final chase scene through the heroin addicted slums of Tokyo is almost Wellsian in it's visuals and music. Chandler's novels are not simple whodunnits but a series of events that start spiraling out of control. There is not a completely good character in Chandler and there is not any one who is completely evil. Kurosawa would understand the complexity of Chandler's universe. He wouldn't judge the characters in simple white hat/black hat scenarios. It would have allowed him to demonstrate some of his film noir style that he showed of so beautifully in High and Low.
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  • By Martin
    March 16, 2010
    06:47 PM

    I really think he could have done a great adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. If any director could have tackled a story about vanity, pride and sin it would be Kurosawa. Of course his version would have been vastly different, owing to the culture differences, but I think this would have made the story his to own. Kurosawa was interested in stories dealing with the human psyche and thought provoking pieces. If there's ever a story to make us wonder about morality and beauty, it's The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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  • By Chris Martin
    March 16, 2010
    06:48 PM

    "The Devil Wears Wings" A reckless ronin drunk gets an idea to make a heist from the wealthiest man in town. a poor farmer drunk has recently lost his entire family in a tragic accident. Neither of them realize that the renegade samurai was the one responsible for the loss of the farmer's family. The ronin has stolen a horse he has named "Angel", but is a lousy rider. He stumbles upon the farmer by chance, and learned that he is quite skilled on a horse (as he used to own many back when he could afford to), and is badly in need of money. The ronin aggressively persuades the farmer to take part as the getaway rider in a botched attempt at personal redemption. By the end, the truth about the tragedy reveals itself. This would be a story about tragedy, humanity, forgiveness, and personal growth. This dramatic, comic, and often moving tale with short spurts of action and great depth of drama could most effectively be told by Kurosawa.
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  • By Kim
    March 16, 2010
    06:48 PM

    Kurosawa was a fan of Russian literature and I would have loved to have seen him adapt one of the greatest pieces of Russian Literature Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. I could see Kurosawa adapting it in either a historical Japanese setting or as a contemporary crime drama. The themes of Crime & Punishment are so universal that it really can fit into any period & place as long as you don't ignore the conditions of the time that Dostoevsky's story takes place in. And since Kurosawa did move his adaptions into different settings this story would have been perfect for him. I would have especially loved to see how Kurosawa would capture Raskolnikov, such a fascinating & complex character.
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  • By Matt Burch
    March 16, 2010
    06:48 PM

    "Le Morte D'Arthur" I think the Arthurian legend (The Knights of the Round Table, Grail Quest, The magical elements of the story) would have been right in his wheelhouse.
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  • By Jared
    March 16, 2010
    06:49 PM

    It would have been incredible if Kurosawa had adapted Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Miserables. Kurosawa would have been able to take that uniquely French tale and find a home for it somewhere in Japan's history. Both the epic sweep of the story and the fantastic emotional arc of the characters would fit in perfectly with the rest of Kurosawa's oeuvre. Certainly, Hugo's focus on the "lower" classes would be nothing new to Kurosawa, who often examined issues of class and poverty. Plus, the student rebellion would have allowed him to also pursue his other speciality: taking battles and making them into poetic, meaningful spectacles. And, most importantly, the humanism at the novel's core would make it an ideal work for Kurosawa to adapt. He had more skill in showing humanity's struggle for redemption, and in finding a redeemable core in even the most unlikely of places, than any director before or since. He would have taken Hugo's novel and made an all time classic, something many directors have failed to do thusfar.
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  • By Alexander Lattanzi
    March 16, 2010
    06:51 PM

    It would have been fascinating to see him to something from the Old Testament. The grandeur of those stories and characters would certainly be fitting of Kurosawa's vision.
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  • By Brett Kessler
    March 16, 2010
    06:53 PM

    With his eye for color and composition, Kurosawa would have been the ideal director for translating the work of Marcel Proust to the screen. Of course, the long and largely plotless In Search of Lost Time would require the hand of a master screenwriter. Kurosawa could have, perhaps, adapted the novel's first volume, Swann's Way (a work which, in my opinion, can function as a standalone piece). His devotion to detail and atmosphere would make him the supreme candidate for bringing Proust's world to life.
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  • By David Koran
    March 16, 2010
    06:53 PM

    How about a take on contemporary lit, such as TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD... Kurosawa really got his actors to emote, I couldn't think of a better parallel world version of a book-to-film...
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  • By Peter Labuza
    March 16, 2010
    06:54 PM

    Kurosawa is best not at adapting literature to fit the dialogue and the emotions of the text, but at capturing his own unique spin visually, by bringing the pieces down to the bare minimum. To go with the first great piece of Western Literature, I would have loved to see what Kurosawa did with "The Iliad." Unlike other adaptations, I'm sure the director would have focused not on the big battle scenes, or the flashy god sequences, but on the bareness of human emotion on display. Think of Toshiro Mifune as Achillies—the pain and anguish. Mifune could capture visually that opening line "Sing Muse of the wrath of Achillies." I think Kurosawa would have thought minimal instead of maximal. He would have used negative space like in "Throne of Blood" and "Stray Dog" to show characters in their movement toward destiny. Kurosawa's films are often about fixed fate and creation of legacy, which is why his "Illiad" adaptation, with a focus on how humans respond to the greater, uncontrollable forces around him, would have been a true masterpiece
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  • By Kevin
    March 16, 2010
    06:55 PM

    I honestly would have loved an Atlas Shrugged adaptation from Kurosawa and his team. That story is so finite, yet on this immense canvas. He would have made that film so thrilling with his touch of sincerity.
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  • By Joseph Parks
    March 16, 2010
    06:56 PM

    Judging from his film Ikiru and his adaptation of The Idiot, I would have loved for him to tackle Kate Chopin's "The Awakening". Kurosawa is one of the few directors that could successfully navigate a film through the complex emotional narrative without losing focus. I believe that the plight of women in the West and in Japan has many similarities and it would have been interesting for Kurosawa to take the story of a western woman's struggle to escape her prescribed societal role and make it 'Japanese'. Pontellier is a strong character in many regards, but her story could easily be reduced to a misogynist thoroughfare if not handled properly. Can you imagine Kurosawa directing Setsuko Hara in the lead role? Perhaps set in the 16th century or in Post-War Japan? The possibilities are endless, but Kurosawa was a master. Gender is a difficult and challenging topic, and I have confidence that his handling of this story and the subject would have been nothing less than magnificent.
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  • By Dustin Nelson
    March 16, 2010
    06:59 PM

    Either Waiting for Godot or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Kurosawa could always throw a little comedy into an existentialist situation like few other directors could. Think Toshiro Mifune in a sort of revision of Waiting for Godot. He'd make it a period piece and Mifune as a sort of tragi-comic character, almost like he is in I Live in Fear. A sort of desperate character whose misfortune is somewhat comic because of it's extreme nature. Kurosawa would have killed either of these (but more so Waiting for Godot).
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  • By Drew Johnson
    March 16, 2010
    07:16 PM

    Given Kurosawa's great rowdy relationship with Shakespeare, I think it's a shame that he never gave us his version of The Winter's Tale. Compared with the other Shakespeare with which he engaged, it's obscure, but I think it's strange mix of pathos and comedy would have found a rare balance. If I may venture a little sacrilege, I think it might have been a better fit for him than Lear. Ran has its moments, but it's too unvaried for Kurosawa--he doesn't feel at home in its relentless darkness. Bonus: there's a made for Mifune part in Autolycus--a kind of satyr figure and since I'm a big fan of Takashi Shimura (who doesn't get enough praise) I can see him playing Leontes, the suddenly jealous king who sets the tragedy in motion. There's a shipwreck scene, a bear (Asiatic Black Bear, anyone?) and a tear-filled reunification scene. Not to mention the prophecy scene...the whole thing cries out for period Japan costumes and Kurosawa direction.
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  • By Robbo
    March 16, 2010
    07:20 PM

    Kurosawa's self-professed love for Russian literature could have led to an adaptation of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (罪および罰) set in post-war Japan... With Mifune in tow, Kurosawa explores Raskolnikov's internal dilemma of justifiable homicide. Mifune, reprising the animalistic fervor from Rashomon mixed with the moral struggle of The Bad Sleep Well, is pitch perfect as Raskolnikov, the unstable and troubled killer. His performance is not only his most nuanced, but also his most mature. Takashi Shimura plays Porfiry, the detective hell-bent to get Raskolnikov's confession. Tatsuya Nakadai, Mifune's nemesis from Yojimbo and Sanjuro, returns to antagonize as Svidrigailov. Kurosawa's Crime and Punishment is his most ambitious to date, seamlessly mixing the crime drama intensity of Stray Dog and the psychological tumult of Throne of Blood with the romanticism of One Wonderful Sunday. Most notable however, is how Crime and Punishment's dream sequences are masterfully woven into the story, making this Kurosawa's first return to the surreal since 1990's Dreams. As with his other films, Kurosawa's message for society is clear. His compassion for morally ambiguous characters shines through both honestly and sincerely, but he also expects his characters to behave decently in a society where people must get along in order to get along. Knowing his deep-seated admiration for Dostoevsky, it may be fair to call this Kurosawa's most personal project. In any case, both his faithfulness to the source material as well as his frictionless adaptation to Japanese culture make Kurosawa's Crime and Punishment (罪および罰) an epic love letter to a revered hero.
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  • By Matt Meisenhelter
    March 16, 2010
    07:27 PM

    The Deptford books by Robertson Davies: Fifth Business, the Manticore and World of Wonders. Each novel follows a person whose life is influenced by a single act in childhood, with the central characters appearing as supporting players in the others' lives. Guilt, saints, magic and psychoanalysis drive the stories to a conclusion in which the three lives, having intertwined throughout each novel dovetail into a collision with their pasts, and a means to make peace with themselves and each other.
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  • By andre
    March 16, 2010
    07:29 PM

    It would have been interesting to see Kurosawa adapt one of the "great American novels," Dreiser's An American Tragedy. The book clearly influenced many American films throughout the decades, but it would have been interesting to see how Kurosawa could have adapted it to Japan, especially since the societal changes Dreiser was depicting in his novel also had their counterparts in Japan. Both societies began shifting over from being rural, farming-based communities to densely populated urban cities in the 1920s, and both saw an accompanying shift in values and mores. For Kurosawa to have set this adaptation in the Japan of the 20s, with their "modern girl/mogas," would have required little modification to the original narrative. But while the story might seem perfectly at home set in the Japan of the 1920s, it would have also been interesting to see how this film, made by a post-WWII Kurosawa, might have resonated with the societal changes of the post-war era. (I also agree with SAMUEL CUNNINGHAM that it would also have been interesting to see his take on The Tempest, set in islands of Japan and drawing on Japanese folklore.)
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  • By Mike McConnell
    March 16, 2010
    07:31 PM

    The Postman Always Rings Twice. Kurosawa already had good cop movies. I'd like to see things from the other side. Set it in developing postwar Japan, the combination of loss and entrapment would perfectly capture Cain's feel. Social conventions would make the official affair even more taboo. In the novel, Nick (the cafe owner) was an immigrant, so in this he could perhaps be a GI who stayed behind in Japan.
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  • By Mikko Lamberg
    March 16, 2010
    07:35 PM

    The Red Badge of Courage. The adaptation doesn't necessarily have to be situated in the American civil war. The story describes experience the war from the point of view of a young soldier and it should be directed by an old director like Kurosawa in his last years, whose humanism is quite unmatched in world cinéma. The actors should all be newcomers and the film should be a more intimate 'crawling in the mud' kind of a production like the Seven Samurai, not a huge and colourful epic like Ran or Kagemusha.
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  • By Brantley Jones
    March 16, 2010
    07:39 PM

    With Throne Of Blood, Kurosawa proved that he could render, in all its noxious detail, the power of guilt and paranoia over the mind of a murderer. Apart from Macbeth, who else in the Western canon wallowed so deeply in the muck of his own transgression? Dostoevsky gives us a qualified candidate in Raskolnikov, the central character in his hypnotically suspenseful Crime & Punishment'. What's exceptional about this story, is that Dostoevsky uses the murder not as a climax, but rather as a jumping off point. We observe the corrosive damage of Raskolnikov's anxieties and suspicions. Much like the aging warlord in Kurosawa's Ran, Raskolnikov spends a lot of his time writhing about in fits of madness, even fainting out of fear that surely now he has finally been caught. Who else could better capture the fevered tone of the nightmares that punctuate Raskolnikov's decent into insanity? Who else could better re-imagine the squalor and hopelessness of Dostoevsky's dismal St. Petersburg? Who else could, in the end, sell us Raskolnikov's transformation and the saving grace of love without a note of it feeling false?
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  • By Jason Davis
    March 16, 2010
    07:39 PM

    Frank Herbert's DUNE. Kurosawa was comfortable balancing the big picture of warring aristocratic houses with the intimate struggle of a individual trying to realize his own potential within his society. All the building blocks for a phenomenal adaptation are clearly illustrated throughout Kurosawa's oeuvre and though there are merits to both David Lynch's feature film version and John Harrison's Sci Fi Channel mini-series, neither writer-director had advanced sufficiently in his craft to pull off a film with the appropriate density. Kurosawa would have been more than ripe for riding the sandworm after his 1980s epics.
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  • By Mark Bowers
    March 16, 2010
    07:40 PM

    Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Kurosawa's films have inspired virtually every American western since. I would like to see what he in turn would have done with possibly the greatest American western novel. Had the novel been published earlier, Mifune would have been fascinating in any of the main roles. How he would adapt a story about a cattle drive to Japan I don't know, but being the master he was I know he would have come up with an amazing, breathtaking epic. This is by no means intended as criticism of the miniseries or Robert Duvall.
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  • By Thomas Williams
    March 16, 2010
    07:40 PM

    For all of his adaptations of Shakespeare and pulp in medieval and contemporary settings, I would have liked to have seen Kurosawa work outside his comfort zone and adapt Ray Bradbury's novel "The Martian Chronicles." Imagine: a picaresque American work of fantasy by way of Japanese universalisms, Kurosawa's lens (in the stately 1.85:1 aspect ratio of his later epics) probing the depths of the human condition as it confronts the esoteric, jealous husband of Ylla, the psychedelic Martian insane asylum - and perhaps most exciting would have been Kurosawa's reimagining of Usher II (Kurosawa+(Poe/Bradbury)=mindboggling). And that's half the excitement: SEEING a totally alien civilization as Kurosawa would have crafted it!
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  • By Michael Medina
    March 16, 2010
    07:41 PM

    Oscar Wilde's- The Picture of Dorian Gray Kurosawa could have shown the portrait as a traditional Japanese print. Some of Vincent Van Gogh's work was inspired by the Art Prints of Japan, and in The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Dorian dies young and tortured (Van Gogh also took his own life at a young age). The parallels would have been erie, I think.
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  • By Charlie Riccardelli
    March 16, 2010
    07:47 PM

    The novel that immediately comes to mind is William Kennedy's Ironweed. I can easily imagine Toshiro Mifune as a version of the alcoholic vagrant Francis, plagued by the spirits of the deceased (his infant son, two men he killed), returning to a town that houses bad memories, and confronting a family he abandoned during his long decline into alcoholism. It could have been an interesting take on Mifune's lone wanderer as well as a challenging story for Kurosawa's post-war filmography.
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  • By James
    March 16, 2010
    07:54 PM

    Robinson Crusoe. Kurosawa was cinema's master at portraying the weight of civilization on individual protagonists; I would love to see what he would do with the Crusoe scenario in which society is stripped away from one such hero only for him to reconstruct it, piece by piece, in miniature, on a desert island. What would Kurosawa's Japanese civilization-in-miniature look like? We can only imagine.
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  • By Patrick
    March 16, 2010
    07:58 PM

    Kafka's "The Trial." After viewing Welles' somewhat ill-conceived film telling of Franz Kafka's most recognized longer work, I could not help but brainstorm about what directors would have best tackled the tale. Kurosawa was, and still is, my top choice for this dream scenario. Whether adapted into a feudal period piece or translated to fit in (then) modern day Japan, Kurosawa's delicate touch and mannered presence seem a perfect fit for this story of frustration and conformity. Furthering the strength of this pairing, it is hard not to feel giddy while thinking about Josef being portrayed by a mid-career Mifune. Man, I wish that this project existed outside of my imagination, though maybe it would have been too perfect to be true.
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  • By CJ Marsicano
    March 16, 2010
    08:03 PM

    Since he was such a huge Shakespeare fan, I think he would have had a ball putting his own unique spin on Julius Caesar.
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  • By Jason Whiton
    March 16, 2010
    08:05 PM

    Kurosawa's explored themes of aging, madness, hubris, memory, and human frailty through a number of his films. Characters from Ikiru, Dodesukaden, Madadayo, and Dreams come to mind. Imagine if the director had adapted Don Quixote to explore an elderly Samurai, obsolete in either the early Tokugawa or Meiji periods, struggling through the dangerous quests of his imagination as he tries to reconcile the changes in himself, society, and to understand his own meaning in a changed world. This would have been amazing to see in Kurosawa's early 1960s period, in black and white with a traditional Japanese music/Jazz hybrid score. Toshiro Mifune's eyes alight with madness and confusion as the windmill-attacking Samuari! Though the classic novel has been ill-fated for some of our fave auteurs, I would love to have seen Kurosawa finish the job.
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  • By Craig Verity
    March 16, 2010
    08:06 PM

    I would love to have seen Kurosawa do Stephen Kings The Stand. A true epic with a Kurosawa touch. The Shining would have been a first choice if Kubrick hadn't done it already.
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  • By pannonica
    March 16, 2010
    08:07 PM

    Many of the suggestions are interesting, some tantalizing as to what might have been, but I think the majority of them would, despite Kurosawa's talent, be instances of "the operation being a success although the patient died." Bocaccio's Decameron, however, would be a natural choice, playing to the great director's strengths and dovetailing with many of his sensibilities. No sense elaborating, synopsizing the story, fantasizing about casting choices, scenes, or even whether it should be placed against a medieval backdrop or in a contemporary setting; either one understands and appreciates this suggestion and trusts Kurosawa's prowess or one doesn't.
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  • By pannonica
    March 16, 2010
    08:08 PM

    [That's Boccaccio, with a total of four c's.]
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  • By Marc Mayo
    March 16, 2010
    08:11 PM

    I would love to have seen Kurosawa's hand at portraying a dystopian future. George Orwell's 1984 might have looked fantastic as seen through Kurosawa's eye and I can imagine he would have brought great poetry to the heartbreaking struggle of Winston Smith...a lone figure beating against a totalitarian leviathan.
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  • By Bobby Childs
    March 16, 2010
    08:18 PM

    Hmmm, that's a toughie. The "Great Gatsby" would have been great for a Kurosawa twist...
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  • By Gery Brownholtz
    March 16, 2010
    08:19 PM

    Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. While Coppola adapted it in Apocalypse Now, I feel Kurosawa could've done wonders with the story. The Congo would serve as a beautiful setting to work with a the themes of man's inner savagery would be right at home with Kurosawa, and maybe even Toshiro Mifune with him.
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  • By Narukami
    March 16, 2010
    08:31 PM

    This is a tough one -- so many possibilities. Science Fiction was one genre Kurosawa did not venture into (except for the one segment in his film Dreams) and it would have been fun to see his take on any number of SF classics from Philip K Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? has been mentioned ) or Asimov (I, Robot) or Heinlein (Starship Troopers). Likewise his take on that Japanese classic Kanadehon Chushingura would have been illuminating. Although he resisted doing a film adaptation of Kanjincho (for a number of reasons both political and artistic) his film of that play (Those Who Tread On The Tiger's Tail) is one of the best and most refreshing takes on that oft told tale. However... The task here is to name a Western play or novel, and with that in mind I would loved to have seen his version of T H White's The Once And Future King. Although adapted into a famous musical, that film was less than satisfactory, and while Excalibur has some great moments it does not, and indeed never intended to, capture the spirit or the story of White's novel. No film has, but I think Kurosawa could have.
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  • By Dan E
    March 16, 2010
    08:40 PM

    Considering how he fashioned Yojimbo, one of my favorite films of all time, from two lesser Dashiell Hammett stories, I would love to see what Kurosawa could do with my favorite Hammett story, The Big Knockover. With so many colorful characters, it would simply be a gloriously fun adventure. Add in Mifune reprising his role as Yojimbo/The Continental Op and you have the perfect formula for another Kurosawa masterpiece.
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  • By Tom Helberg
    March 16, 2010
    08:42 PM

    Slaughterhouse Five. Imagine Kurosawa directing a time-jumping sci-fi war epic. It'd be fantastic.
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  • By JB
    March 16, 2010
    08:44 PM

    Given that Kurosawa himself was so fond of the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, particularly "Solaris," I would have loved to see him do an equally expressionistic science fiction film of his own. His version of either Robert Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters" would have been an extremely terrifying and powerful look at identity and the worth of humanity. More than that, however, a work of serious science fiction with name Akira Kurosawa attached to it may have given the genre a validity which it struggles for with audiences to this day.
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  • By Dominic DeSantis
    March 16, 2010
    08:46 PM

    Without hesitation Akira Kurosawa could have rendered many of the great novels if not all into worthy cinematic companions. A tricky one for him and as well unusual choice would be "The Great Gatsby". Arguably one of the great American novels interpreted by a giant of Japanese cinema. A potent mix and sadly not to be.
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  • By Matthew Orr
    March 16, 2010
    08:49 PM

    Imagine, for a moment, Toshiro Mifune shambling through the forest, angry, grunting, feverishly trying to make sense of all of the emotions that he's feeling. Imagine Takashi Shimura grappling with the guilt he feels for creating some... creature... that is both the result of his dreams and the cause of his nightmares. Imagine, in stark black and white, torrential rains and winds whipping our characters around as the director explores that "single man versus the ways of society" theme that provided some of his best stories. In other words, imagine Akira Kurosawa directing Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Now if we could just bring them back to life somehow, so they could do it...
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  • By Marc
    March 16, 2010
    08:55 PM

    No director has confronted honor and vengeance with more nuance than Akira Kurosawa. What better vehicle to examine these themes than "The Oresteia" by Aeschylus? Envision this: the epic story of a son consumed by the need to avenge his father's death, reimagined in feudal Japan; the ancient Greek principle of honor illuminates the ethos of the samurai. Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter. Orestes' tortured mind as his bloody quest unfolds. The ultimate judgment of his soul. These elements clamor for the intensity of Kurosawa's vision.
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  • By Scout Tafoya
    March 16, 2010
    08:57 PM

    Kurosawa's early career saw him tackle dark subject matter in wonderfully claustrophobic ways. King's Ransom and Macbeth became unrelenting exercises in tension that drag you into worlds so hideous that you are shocked but can't look away. Though by the time the novel was published Kurosawa's style had altered dramatically I wish he had tried his hand at something unflinchingly terrible and more importantly, something that would have produced a genre film. Kurosawa made crime films, sure, but they were always secondary to his period pieces. What the minor horrific tangents of Throne of Blood or Kagemusha hint at is that if the master had ever tried his hand at straight horror, he could have done something really excellent and terrifying. So while it's tempting to give him the horror equivalent of The Idiot or King Lear (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Raven, etc.) what I desperately would have liked to see was his completing the cycle started by Hiroshi Teshigahara and adapting Kobo Abe's Secret Rendezvous. If we consider the style of The Bad Sleep Well or Drunken Angel, the corridors and frothing lakes of filth surrounding characters doomed by rotting bodies and festering souls, it becomes slightly easier to picture. I would have loved to see how the eternal optimist would have treated the monstrous Horse man or the novel's bleak and frankly horrific subject matter. It's tempting too to think of the Takashi Shimura of The Bad Sleep Well as the young girl's father or of a self-important Toshiro Mifune as the befuddled protagonist, playing opposite a coolly sinister Tatsuya Nakadai as the horse. It is a stretch for Kurosawa (far too graphic and taboo) but I would have killed to see him do a horror or sci-fi film and I can think of nothing more challenging to his sensibility than Abe's insane prose and pitch black narrative. It would have been tough, but the best films are.
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  • By Cory
    March 16, 2010
    08:59 PM

    I would love to have seen what Kurosawa could do with Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. He has worked with the idea of a lone voice fighting against a sea of ignorance and corruption in other works, but I feel that this adaptation would be particularly powerful. Kurosawa's adaptation would likely serve as almost a counterpoint to Ikiru where due to his situation, the lone crusader was successful. The other film that I would have loved to see would be an adaptation of a distopian novel, particularly Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I am not sure how he would work with the technology in it, but the willful ignorance of an entire society would prove fascinating in the hands of Kurosawa.
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  • By Mike Tripicco
    March 16, 2010
    09:04 PM

    As the director who so expertly adapted Lear in 'Ran' I think AK would have been been the only one who could have done justice to _Ulysses_. Joyce's masterpiece is generally considered unfilmable but if anybody could have captured on celluloid the internal struggles that comprise Bloomsday it would have been Kurosawa.
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  • By Devin Rambo
    March 16, 2010
    09:04 PM

    I'm really enjoying the many ideas that everyone is coming up with here. I'd loved to have seen what Kurosawa would have done with any number of Charles Dickens' novels. Someone else already mentioned Edwin Drood, but I think more than anything I'd be curious to see what he'd have done with the combination of epic scope and intimate character study that makes up David Copperfield.
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  • By Alexandra E.
    March 16, 2010
    09:11 PM

    I'm cheating here, and stretching the definition of "Western literature," but I would have loved for Kurosawa to have adapted Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart." While that book is rooted in Nigerian culture, seeing the themes of honor and the influence of invaders would have translated with Kurosawa's help. I think he would have done a marvelous job.
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  • By Joseph
    March 16, 2010
    09:16 PM

    With the emotional depth and characterization that Kurosawa brought to his canon, I would have loved to see him take on one of Bertolt Brecht's plays, preferably Mother Courage. Although he shows the darker sides of combat and loss in many of his movies, it would be interesting to see how he would portray the tale of a war profiteer and her downfalls. If not Mother Courage, Brecht's Galileo would also make for an interesting film, with no physical conflict and a protagonist who ultimately concedes to the dominant forces.
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  • By Gene G.
    March 16, 2010
    09:19 PM

    Kurosawa made several films dealing with the idea of doppelgangers and things-not-as-they-seem and so I expect I would have liked his take on H. P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Perhaps it's a bit more science-fiction than Kurosawa was ever interested in, but I think there is a certain level of introspection and intrigue that would have fit well alongside his other works.
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  • By BRANDON
    March 16, 2010
    09:22 PM

    Would've loved if Kurosawa tackled The Thin Red Line by James Jones. I'd be interested to see how a Japanese director would tackle the American soldier perspective on the battle of the Guadalcanal.
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  • By Jim Williamson
    March 16, 2010
    09:37 PM

    "The Man in the High Castle," Philip K. Dick's alternate history/science fiction novel. I would have loved to have seen Kurosawa's deft handling of PKDs parallel plots, and especially his development of the character Nobusuke Tagomi, the devout Buddhist acting in a world of a competing totalitarian dictatorships that arises after the defeat of the United States and the Allies in World War II.
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  • By CHARLES DECKERT
    March 16, 2010
    09:41 PM

    If Kurosawa were more rampant in the 1980s or 1990s with his filmmaking, I think it would have been pretty interesting for him to adapt something by Bret Easton Ellis, such as Less Than Zero or The Rules of Attraction. Even a Japanese version of American Psycho would have been quite entertaining, although I think that would be better suited to someone like Oshima. Or maybe even something by James Ellroy or Jim Thompson, since Kurosawa was so very proficient in putting a Japanese spin on American crime and noir stories. Perhaps he could have made a countering piece to his own Stray Dog by adapting the late Edward Bunker's classic novel No Beast So Fierce, a book which in America has sadly remained out of print for over two decades. These writers I mention for the reason of Akira Kurosawa's ability to see the lines between what is just and what is corrupt, what is balanced and what is imbalanced, what is real and what is unreal, and how these lines become blurred nearly to the point of noexistence, beyond ambiguity and to a whole new level of understanding which dualism cannot grasp. That being said, I think there is only one novel by one writer that the late Kurosawa could have adapted into an undisputed masterpiece, and that would be The Man in the High Castle by the late Philip K. Dick. Kurosawa's Westeren understandings as well as his own take on his native Japan (along with having been alive during the Second World War and thus having the experience of its Imperialism) would have proved not only inimical to such a feat of adapting this book, it would have made him perhaps one of a few men on earth justifiably qualified to do so. I think if men like Schrader, Bertolucci and Scorsese could have handled productions overreaching their own native countries, why not Kurosawa? Unfortunately, he is not around for us to see such a feat get carried out.
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  • By Ralph Lawson
    March 16, 2010
    09:54 PM

    I wish Kurosawa had adapted Don Quixote to be set in Japan. The idea of a man devoting his life to the ideals of a more formal and honorable time (as a wandering ronin instead of a Spanish knight) would have been particularly timely to postwar Japan, which was thrust very quickly into adapting to a more Western worldview. In addition, Kurosawa is on a very short list of directors who I feel could capture the novel's unique combination of action, romance, drama, and humor.
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  • By TD Lansdale
    March 16, 2010
    09:55 PM

    On the Road.....Mifune as manic Moriarty? Question is: Can it be translated to Samurai times or keep it in the 50's?
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  • By Timothy
    March 16, 2010
    10:32 PM

    I think that Seneca's Thyestes would be excellent source material for a Kurosawa jidaigeki adaptation. Atreus gets revenge for his brother Thyestes' crimes by murdering his children and serving them to him as dinner. I imagine kinetic Mifune as the vengeful Atreus, consumed with wrath for his brother Thyestes's betrayal. Maybe Tatsuya Nakadai as a brooding, suspicious Thyestes. These two actors could enact the brothers with the combination of exaggeration and subtlety that many of Kurosawa's leads exhibit. Throne of Blood provides an obvious parallel to many of the themes and images of Seneca's play--ghosts (the play opens with the spirit of Tantalus, grandfather to Atreus and Thyestes, foreshadowing the upcoming tragedy, unwilling but unable to prevent it), murder. Seneca's description of the actual murder is quite graphic, but just as in many examples of ancient drama this action could take place off-screen, with Kurosawa showing us the main players before and after, and the actual "meal" could be filmed with sharp angles and cut shots to imply what's happening. Seneca also uses weather to great symbolic effect, something Kurosawa has also done (rain in Seven Samurai and Rashomon, for example). The story, while gruesome, is a dark morality play, perfectly suited to Kurosawa's combination of broad, intense visuals (the "feast" of Thyestes' children) and more subtle, introspective depiction of character. Seneca's play features the character of one of Atreus' ministers, who (merging with the "messenger", a stock character in ancient drama) could provide the human connection to the audience that the two main, larger than life leads might lack. I imagine Takashi Shimura in this role, whose wonderful portrayals of heartbroken human beings (i.e., Ikiru, Rashomon) would convey just how horror and awesomeness of Atreus' revenge, spiraling out of control. The minister/messenger would also describe the off-screen murder--Mifune's lambasting of the samurai's hypocrisy in Seven Samurai is a good example of this sort of extended speech, though obviously Shimura's minister would not be so viciously emotional. Overall, I think that Kurosawa could make a dynamic, moral, thrilling adaptation of Seneca's revenge drama.
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  • By Brad Gills
    March 16, 2010
    10:52 PM

    Maybe it's a bit too obvious, but since no one else has suggested it I will: My immediate thought was _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ by Solzhenitzyn. I can imagine a dozen different times and/or places he could move the story to, and how he could make it his own - as he always did. He, above anyone I can think of, would figure out a way to humanize a story of dehumanization and make the story of oppression transcend the limited boundaries of the original story.
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  • By nathan
    March 16, 2010
    11:01 PM

    Miss Lonelyhearts / Nathanael West I ca, just imagine Takashi Shimura playing Miss Lonelyhearts, a man who has been given the burden of all of humanities sorrows,
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  • By Yancy Garrido
    March 16, 2010
    11:09 PM

    I've always admired kurosawa's ability to Incorporate humor and irony into his work and his ability to evoke these emotions out of his actors, breathing new life into classic tales and demonstrating the universality and beauty of everyday experiences; but on a grand scale. I think he would have done some amazing things with mark twain's stories, especially Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.
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  • By Michael
    March 16, 2010
    11:11 PM

    I would want to see something that plays to what's best in Kurosawa while providing for something new, something I've never seen him do before. My mind leapt to Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five." In "Throne of Blood," Kurosawa asks questions about fatalism and the existence of free will, something that Vonnegut's novel grapples with playfully with its time-jumping multifaceted narrative (elements of "Rashomon"?) and cipher of a narrator. Also, the novel's central focus, the bombing of Dresden, would obviously have resonance with someone who lived in post-war Japan and lend itself to the setting change. But SH5 would present unique challenges to Kurosawa as well. I would love to see Kurosawa, a humanist through and through who has nothing but compassion for his characters, step up to the challenge of Vonnegut's deep cynicism... and come out on the other side unscathed. Mifune for Billy Pilgrim!
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  • By Zach
    March 16, 2010
    11:13 PM

    I would have to go with Crime and Punishment as it was not only by his favorite writer but also a novel he could have really done well. The Idiot is my favorite Kurosawa film because he captures the novel perfectly. This film often switches from rapidly in tone even within a scene from terror to pathos to comedy. His version retains the spirit of the novel, the actors are perfect and I cannot imagine anyone else in the parts, and his transposition from Russia to Hokkaido in winter was inspiring. I think he would have captured the essence of Crime and Punishment similarly and this would be the definitive version. Plus I can easily imagine Mifune as a wonderful Rashkolnikov.
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  • By Eric Vilhelmsen
    March 16, 2010
    11:17 PM

    My favorite novel is Moby-Dick and I would love to finally see a truly great adaptation of it by a director I adore. Given the history of whaling in Japan, it would be a natural cultural fit and a grizzled Toshiro Mifune as Ahab would be very compelling. Beyond the monomaniacal force that is Ahab, there is a wealth of great characters for an ensemble cast like the one on display in Seven Samurai. I want to see what Kurosawa would do with Ishmael, Stubb, Flask, Tashtego, Daggoo and Queequeg. And, while the characters are some of the best in the history of literature, the story has it all: suspense, action, comedy, cetology. Just imagine a bearded Mifune at his most intense, spear in hand, yelling, "from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee" as he prepares to launch his harpoon at the white whale.
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  • By julie pagitt
    March 16, 2010
    11:20 PM

    What would have been interesting to see is what he would have made an adaptation of Philip Dick's The Man in the High Castle.
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  • By Pete Bublitz
    March 16, 2010
    11:23 PM

    Alighieri's Inferno immediately comes to mind, mainly because you can see parallels in the "Weeping Demon" segment of Dreams. Going back and watching that scene made me wonder how Kurosawa would've extended on such a concept and approach the physical and thematic layout of each level of Hell. It would probably be less challenging for him because the nature of confronting the sinner with gratuitous judgement over his misdeeds in life is something Kurosawa explored throughout his career. Situations where characters are called out for their iniquities in claustrophobic, at times downtrodden settings can be seen in High and Low, the Bad Sleep Well, even Seven Samurai (when Kikuchiyo calls out the Ronin and reveals his past). Even in regards to the physical landscaping of Hell, you'd think that Kurosawa would've gained influence from peers who established mood through barren, desolate nature, the way Teshigahara somewhat did. As for the graphic content of Hell's toils and punishments, who knows how willing Kurosawa would have been to reflect more heavily on what else he saw after the Kanto earthquake. What can be guessed is that if he ever expressed interest in such an adaptation, such memories would likely be the greatest influence on the project's visual display even if he still tried to suppress most of them.
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  • By Aric
    March 16, 2010
    11:29 PM

    I would have loved for Kurosawa to do an adaptation of Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game". I think Kurosawa would have done an excellent job capturing the savage emotion of the characters. It would have been fairly easy to change the setting of the story to feudal Japan. Instead of Zaroff being a Russian general he would have been a power-hungry clan leader and Rainsford would have been a wandering samurai. The story could have also been easily adapted to the chaos of post-WWII Japan. No matter what he did, I'm sure he would have created a beautiful and exciting film.
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  • By Jeff
    March 16, 2010
    11:30 PM

    Two of the first films I first saw by Kurosawa were Ran and Throne of Blood, so I really enjoy his Shakespeare adaptations. I can imagine the Tempest making a nice film.
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  • By Bret Bynum
    March 16, 2010
    11:32 PM

    I think it would very interesting if he did a film adaptation of 1984. He would probably make it about samurai's so it would be very interesting to see the two put together.
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  • By Kevin
    March 16, 2010
    11:39 PM

    Moby-Dick, for a couple (or three) reasons. First, Kurosawa seems to have had an affinity for seeking out the elements of human behavior that work at cross-purposes, especially in the literary works he brought to the screen. That's why I love Throne of Blood so much and consider it the very best screen adaptation of Macbeth, because K. emphasizes the tragedy in Washizu's story--his fierce loyalty overcome by his fierce ambition after he happens upon the witches. Ahab would have provided another such contradictory character--an able, strong-willed, charismatic captain who's focus and talents get warped and redirected by his happenstance (first) encounter with the white whale. Of course, Mifune would have given an excellent performance as an Ahab-type character! Second, it would've been great to see a Kurosawa movie set (mostly) at sea. In addition, Japan has a looong history of whaling, and the characters and culture of the sea-faring Nantucketers would have been fascinating to see translated into a Japanese context. There probably would've been many points of contact between the two, and this universality of human experience (it seems to me as a viewer) is something that Kurosawa seemed to especially emphasize in his adaptations. Finally, it just would've been cool to be able to compare and contrast what Kurosawa might have done with this story to what John Huston (with Ray Bradbury), another great movie writer/director and avid literary adaptor, did with it (much like we can do with Kurosawa's and Renoir's "The Lower Depths"). It would've been fascinating to see the differences (and similarities) in their points of emphasis in both narrative and character, not to mention image. I love the Huston movie, and I'm sure I would've throughly enjoyed Kurosawa's take on this Western classic.
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  • By james parsons
    March 16, 2010
    11:40 PM

    sir walter scott! kurosawa could have translated ivanhoe into a spectacular evocation of japanese feudal society!
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  • By marcus
    March 16, 2010
    11:45 PM

    Mark Twain's "Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn." Great characters, locations, and a story that transcends through the ages.
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  • By Daniel
    March 16, 2010
    11:45 PM

    William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury". Even though most people say this story doesn't translate well to screen, I believe Kurosawa would have combined all his passions as a filmmaker into translating this story to screen. This would have be heaven,-Kurosawa and Faulkner.
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  • By dan
    March 16, 2010
    11:47 PM

    If there is any director that has ever been able to take isolation and silence and make it engrossing, it's Kurosawa. For that reason I think he may have been able to make an adaptation of Henry David Thoreau's Walden and make it good. Like Ikiru there would be a lot of silent contemplation, like his later color movies he could take advantage of a beautiful serene setting. I also believe that the nature of Walden is equally accessible to a Japanese audience as an American one (maybe even more so).
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  • By Andrew Collins
    March 16, 2010
    11:48 PM

    This one comes as rather obvious, but is obvious because it is perfect. Having already done the two best Shakespeare adaptations on film, Kurosawa at one point should have adapted Hamlet. Shakespeare's existential themes and well laid out plot would have been matched perfectly by Kurosawa's masterful composition and lean narrative drive. Sure, the movie would have been in Japanese thus losing Shakespeare's main strength: his peerless use of language. But film is a visual medium and what Shakespeare did for words Kurosawa has always done for images. He would have hit every big scene out of the park. It wouId have been made in around 1959-60, right before High and Low? Starring Mifune as Hamlet, of course. I can't even begin to imagine what kind of set pieces he would conjure up for each of Hamlet's famous scenes. How he would distill to be or not to be to a few iconic images that would sum it what i means to be human. What kind of Gothic absurdism would Kurosawa make of the Yorick soliloquy? As many times and this story has been told on film, and done well (Brannagh and Olivier spring to mind), no one could match Kurosawa in sheer ability to render powerful images. His version would make all others seemed just like filmed versions of a play. And , it would make a wonderful Criterion box set with Ran and Throne of Blood, "Kurosawa's Shakespeare Trilogy."
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  • By Yana Saito
    March 16, 2010
    11:50 PM

    Gabriel Garcia Marquez' 'One Hundred Years of Solitude,' please.
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  • By Dannel Zerbian
    March 17, 2010
    12:08 AM

    Having not ever been much of a big book reader in my short 20-years of life, it's kinda hard for me to say. But I think I'll go with John Steinbeck's "The Pearl." That book just sort of strikes me as something I could have seen him adapting. Beowulf would have been a pretty interesting samurai epic too.
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  • By Sean C.
    March 17, 2010
    12:14 AM

    Milan Kundera's work would have played into classic Kurosawa sensibilities wonderfully. While the majority of the Czech author's more popular literature deals predominantly with the USSR invasion (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) or the Czechoslavian shift to a Communist country, (The Joke) Kundera's touch of humanistic values woven through multi-faceted narratives in such a subtle manner leads me to question if the two aren't related in one of the world's greatest cover-ups. The question then becomes, 'Which piece of this talented writer's oeuvre would I have most wanted to see Kurosawa take on?' I struggled with this one. I remember it was said that The Unbearable Lightness of Being was the "unfilmable book" before Philip Kaufman so eagerly tackled the challenge and delivered an undeniable masterpiece. It would have been a treat to see Kurosawa's take on the mammoth novel, and I do feel if any other director were up to the task it would have been him. Much like his treatment of Shakespeare's work, bits of the setting and some major plot points would have been tweaked, as Being's heart and soul rests in its context in Czechoslavian history and culture. This would leave Kurosawa with the true meat of Kundera's work; the layered characters, the blurred moralities, the multiple plots and view points unfolding over pages and pages of masterful storytelling. That being said, and with Kaufman's rendition of Being already far too embedded in my psyche to be reimagined, I feel I would have most enjoyed a Kurosawa adaptation of The Farewell Waltz. The comedic tragedy unfolds over five days in a spa resort, with each passing day offering drier laughs and tension built so high it threatens to snap at the turn of a page. With each character's motive so well defined, and iconic juxtapositions of theme and mood very typical of Kundera's work, it was an easy choice for me to finally settle on. Kurosawa would have had no difficulty juggling the genre-bending work on all emotional levels, pulling our heart chords then slapping us silly before leaving us panting and breathless, aching for more.
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  • By Carman Tse
    March 17, 2010
    12:19 AM

    Kurosawa doing Crane's The Red Badge of Courage would've been great. It's the perfect combination of epic battles combined with a human story of heroism and fear of death. I'm sure the part where the protagonist abandons his battalion would've been handled with perfect comic effect by Kurosawa.
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  • By Alex Watkins
    March 17, 2010
    12:20 AM

    I would have loved to seen Kurosawa tackle Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. It's a very intimate, personal tale, but it combines that subtle touch with a melodramatic flourish that is present in Kurosawa films such as Red Beard and Ikiru, that, instead of cheapening the material, make it more immediate and viscerally powerful. I have no doubt Kurosawa could have expertly adapted Wuthering Heights into a feature film.
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  • By Greg Werlich
    March 17, 2010
    12:21 AM

    I would have loved to have seen an adaptation of Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front". Kurosawa wasn't known for modern war movies but I think that All Quiet is just the kind of work he'd excel at adapting. For one thing, the trench warfare in France during WWI shared a lot of similarities with the Pacific campaign waged by Japan during WWII that a number of his actors would have been intimately familiar with. All Quiet is also very heavy on two themes that Kurosawa presented in many of his best movies: the end of innocence (Seven Samurai, Stray Dog, The Idiot...), and the senselessness of warfare (Seven Samurai, Ran...). As a book All Quiet is nearly the perfect study of a traumatic moment of history and the people involved, I can't think of a more enticing subject for Kurosawa to tackle.
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  • By Thomas Baughman
    March 17, 2010
    12:21 AM

    I really would have liked for Kurosawa to have directed an adaptation of Thomas Bernhard's novel Gargoyles
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  • By joshua jordon
    March 17, 2010
    12:31 AM

    We all say that the Hidden Fortress gave us Star Wars. So I would love to see what Kurosawa would have done with Sci-fi. I specifically would have loved to seen what he would have done with Frank Herbert's Dune. I think what Lynch did was spectacular, and if the budget had existed it could have been perfect. As it stands, his was the closest I think anyone will ever come to allowing us to see what Herbert saw. If Kurosawa had tackled it, or re-interpreted it, I believe it would have been a sublime thing of beauty, and would now be in a double disc set along with the Lynch version, ala the Lower Depths.
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  • By Michael Suarez
    March 17, 2010
    12:31 AM

    James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" or John Steinbeck's "East of Eden."
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  • By Joel Newman
    March 17, 2010
    12:33 AM

    Can you imagine a Kurosawa take on Candide? His work dealt so much with how people choose to view the actions of humanity (most famously, the men under the gate in Rashomon) that Voltaire's scathing take on the pitfalls of optimism would be a perfect fit. And despite the satire, the novel ends with a message I feel Kurosawa could get behind: No matter how bad life gets and no matter how awful people are, we must continue to carry on and tend our gardens. Candide has everything that makes Kurosawa great: humor, heartbreak, amazing scope, and sweeping cultural commentary. It is as quick-paced and entertaining as The Hidden Fortress and as morally compelling as Ikiru. Plus, to see the hardships Kurosawa would heap upon the characters in feudal Japan would be worth the adaptation alone.
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  • By Paul Stanton
    March 17, 2010
    12:42 AM

    I would have love to have seen his take on McCarthy's 'The Road'. The post-apocalyptic scenes in Dreams show that he had thought about it. Many of his films dealt with wandering characters facing their mortality and this would have been a fitting end-cap to his career. I could even see it being done in black and white. Picture the harsh road and dark, burnt skies he woould have filmed. And the blanket of dirty snow. While I'm in a fantasy world to begin with, imagine Takeshi Shimura as the father. This could have been his moder-day version of Lone Wolf & Cub.
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  • By TYLER JACKSON
    March 17, 2010
    12:43 AM

    "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," by Tom Stoppard. A lot of Kurosawa's samurai films are either Shakespeare adaptations or grand, sweeping epics with strong, brave characters. I think it would've been interesting to see the same kind of world depicted in those movies, but turned on its head. The same attention to detail given to minor characters that inhabit those same worlds. What about two of the lesser bandits, bickering and frightened while the Seven Samurai were chopping through their horde of nameless brethren? Two thieves unsure of why exactly everyone is trusting this "Yojimbo" guy...
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  • By John Leonhard
    March 17, 2010
    01:29 AM

    If Kurasowa had structured a film of James Clavell's novel "Shogun," this would have provided an opportunity for an interesting three dimensional aspect to the comparisons of disparate cultures. The book deserved a deeper treatment than the thin and underdeveloped one it got with the TV mini-series.
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  • By Ross McClintock
    March 17, 2010
    02:13 AM

    Kurosawa tackled all sorts of material in his day from poverty stricken slums to Shakespearean adaptations. While creating his movies he also managed to create characters that can run the gamut of human emotions from happiness, to despair, from imagination to cynicism. His works spoke on a level to every person who has seen his movies. After all who wasn't choking up while at the end of High And Low we sense the kidnappers desperation? Who wasn't laughing when Kikuchiyo was making fun of Yohei? Kurosawa has always astounded us whether visually like in Ran or Kagemusha or in reminding us of the emotions we always feel like in Ikiru. Which is why I would have loved to have seen Kurosawa do a movie about one of America's iconic characters, Calvin. I know it sounds ludicrous to suggest a Calvin and Hobbes movie directed by Akira Kurosawa, but upon closer inspection of the comic it makes more sense. Calvin is the child we once were or wish we had. He thrives on his impulsiveness which appeals to our basic emotions. Calvin and his alter ego Hobbes represent every men. They had their triumphs and their insecurities. We could emote with Calvin as he pondered the death of a helpless raccoon and we felt great when he "got back" at his bully. The best part of adapting the comic is that the feelings he displays aren't just American, they are Universal. Every boy that age has probably pretended to be a dinosaur and refused their baths. It doesn't matter if the child is Japanese, American, or citizen of any country, the truth is imagination exists in all of us. The best part is that a few strips like the stories of Rosalyn or the transmorgifier could be translated to a film full length with the right amount of imagination. Kurosawa had imagination in spades, as did a little child named Calvin
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  • By Andy Johnson
    March 17, 2010
    02:22 AM

    After plenty of thinking I think the best I can think of is the short story 'The Most Dangerous Game'. Since its a short story Kurosawa could have have more control over embelishment to the story. What would be very interesting is a period piece based on it, like Ran or Thone of Blood. Most Dangerous Game has been adapted to film in the past, I believe, but so were many of Dostoeveky and Shakespear's works, and look what wonders Kurosawa worked over them. The suspence and base telling of man's potential cruelty as well as his will to survive in Dangerous Game would be wonderfully potrayed by Kurosawa, whether through the lens of a period piece or as a contemporary film.
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  • By Jordan Wilson
    March 17, 2010
    02:48 AM

    For some reason I keep thinking of Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," though I'm not sure it counts as "western literature," and I can't quite think of how it could be done. Removing it from its African setting would require it to be a very loose adaptation. I guess it could be done as a period drama (Jidaigeki?) with an extremely strict samurai, a son he's ashamed of, and the westernization, modernization, and just overall changes to life during the Meiji era. Also, thinking about it, I can see Tennessee William's "The Glass Menagerie" easily translating to Kurosawa's style.
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  • By s.a.
    March 17, 2010
    02:54 AM

    I'd like to have seen him tackle some Greek mythology. The House of Atreus and the family curse that was inherited and passed down is one of the most dramatic and tragic stories that the Greeks have told through various authors. I'm quite partial to Aeschylus' version of the Oresteia. From the moment I read Agammemnon I could completely visualize it. In particular, the retelling of the way Iphegenia was sacrificed by her father and how she pleaded to be set free. This is a complete revenge tragedy that Kurosawa could have easily adapted to a Japanese setting, with characters filled with passion and set to pursue their desires because they wanted to and were fated to.
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  • By Barry Levitt
    March 17, 2010
    03:36 AM

    I think it would have been wonderful to see Kurosawa adapt the musical Rent. Kurosawa has expressed an incredibly power knowledge of people and their lives through his films, and I would love to see his take on a group of New Yorkers struggling with money, AIDS and other social issues.
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  • By Benjamin B
    March 17, 2010
    04:16 AM

    I would have like to see him tackle Glengarry Glen Ross. When I think about it though it would be kinda dope to see what he would have done with the M.A.S.H. novel by H. Richard Hornberger. Or how about something in the sci-fi realm like Total Recall. That would have been interesting. Or wait here is my answer. I would have liked to see him adapt The Long Walk by Richard Bachman to the screen.
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  • By Danny Crocker
    March 17, 2010
    06:48 AM

    Kurosawa's vision and imagination are so amply displayed, it's hard to find a work of any quality which would not be thrilling for him to adapt. But among the works I've wished strongly to be adapted to film, in part to see if it can be done, is Karel Capek's epic satire of cruelty and buffoonery, War with the Newts. Furthering his experimentation with metafiction and enhancing the techniques he developed of presenting multiple conflicting points of view, whenever the film version is made, it will have Kurosawa's fingerprints all over it. Similarly, the Kurosawa version of 1984 would be absolutely astonishing, and make more sense for Hollywood to produce, although it would likely not be as funny, and is more likely to question and upset some of the book's more vocal fans.
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  • By AUGUST PESTONJI
    March 17, 2010
    07:26 AM

    It would have been wonderful to have seen a Kurosawa adaptation of The Gospel (any one). An eastern view of the story. Kurosawa's eye telling the life of Jesus Christ through an outsider's POV, would be just an interesting as Pasolini's or Scorsese's, I would imagine. That said, you can imagine all the great different directions that the film would have turned!
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  • By Alexander Bucsis
    March 17, 2010
    07:49 AM

    Given his penchant for Russian literature, I would have loved to see Kurosawa tackle the two towering works of the Russian canon: Tolstoy's War And Peace and Dostoyevsky's Crime And Punishment. Both exist in pre-established Kurosawa territory. War And Peace with its lush battle scenes and aristocracy. Crime And Punishment with its fraught moral tension and mental anguish. Kurosawa has handled many of these themes before, but making a definitive filmic version of each text would be an arduous yet incredible exercise even for a filmmaker of his stature. While remaining true to the base material, there is no reason why he couldn't alter the narrative, tailoring it to his specific vision, much like the liberties he took in Throne of Blood––to this day considered by major literary critics (Harold Bloom among them) to be the definitive adaptation of Macbeth. In adapting these works, I'm sure Kurosawa could produce a work both formidable and thrilling, like only he can––not to mention the wonders Toshiro Mifune could do with the role of Raskolnikov.
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  • By Arnold Simon
    March 17, 2010
    08:26 AM

    While Kurosawa’s re-imaginings of works by Shakespeare (Throne of Blood, Ran) and other esteemed writers are inspired, I love his handling of pulp material like Ed McBain’s “King’s Ransom” (High and Low) where he transforms gritty crime narratives into lofty meditations on morality. I would love to see a James M. Cain book like “Double Indemnity” in Kurosawa’s directorial hands.
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  • By Matthew Velez
    March 17, 2010
    08:27 AM

    Akira Kurosawa should have adapted Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." Kurosawa did an incredible job adapting Shakespeare's plays! With Julius Caesar's plot of conspiracy, Kurosawa would carefully reveal each detail at a time to reveal a climax like no other. In terms of time period it would probably be a lot like Ran; really focusing on Feudal Lords. Just thinking about it makes me shiver!
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  • By Albert Baier
    March 17, 2010
    08:43 AM

    I would have liked to see Akira Kurosawa adapt a contemporary comedy. Something from Neil Simon perhaps. I almost thought about Odd Couple but then the play "I Ought to Be in Pictures" came in mind. It would have not only been a funny movie but an insight to the Japanese film industry (rather than just Hollywood) or at least Kurosawa's perceptive of working in the film industry and the idea of success. Also one of the leads is a young female which we could have seen more of in his films. It wouldn't have been a huge hit but it could have been something of value like Martin Scorsese's "the King of Comedy".
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  • By Andrew Gilbert
    March 17, 2010
    08:47 AM

    Our Man In Havana by Graham Greene. Why? Because it's so much fun.
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  • By James Chow
    March 17, 2010
    08:56 AM

    I think it would have been neat to see Kurosawa direct a series of short adaptations of Aesop's fables. Instead of anthropomorphous animals, he could transcribe their qualities into people and have them act out the stories.
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  • By Ben Middleton
    March 17, 2010
    09:26 AM

    Kurosawa should have adapted Beowulf. The end product probably would have been very similar to The Seven Samurai, but still totally awesome!
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  • By Andrew Crossley
    March 17, 2010
    10:01 AM

    I think a perfect piece of literature that I would've loved Kurosawa tackle is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It seems to me that this novella is ripe with themes that Kurosawa was a master at handling. I think it would've been interesting to see Kurosawa handle the psychological aspects of the story. Is the governess really seeing these ghosts? Or is her psychological state something to be doubted? I would've loved to see his masterful eye tell us of the pains of these two kids suddenly thrust into this psychological whirlpool, and not to mention, he would completely own that ending.. I'm actually sad this didn't happen.
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  • By Eugene Golbin
    March 17, 2010
    10:04 AM

    I think that an intriguing, yet difficult, adaptation would have been Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls." This is my favorite of Hemingway's works because it shows the many facts of what defines a man, which I think is similar, to the group dynamic of the Seven Samurai. For Kurosawa's adaptation, I think this would be most effective as a Jidaigeki with the same overarching plot; during a time of war, a man is charged with destroying a bridge. I think that subdued Mifune would make an absolutely ideal Robert Jordan. The rest of the characters could be pulled from Kurosawa's regulars but I have to give special mention for Daisuke Katō as Pablo. Hemingway constantly describes Pablo as "pig-faced" and Katō played "the wild pig" Inokichi in Yojimbo so really, it's fate.
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  • By Hana Quon
    March 17, 2010
    10:12 AM

    Given his love of Dostoevsky, I think Kurosawa would have done well with an adaptation of Brothers Karamazov. I think that the theme of dualism is already present in many of Kurosawa's and Dostoevsky's novel is the ultimate work of this philosophical theory. In addition, I think that by setting the film in Japan, whether it be a period piece or in a contemporary setting, would give the novel's central conflict (patricide) significantly more meaning because of the cultural context. And who wouldn't want to see Toshiro Mifune play the miserable, joyous, violent, and gentle force of nature that is Dmitry?
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  • By Avi Cooper
    March 17, 2010
    10:24 AM

    I think Kurosawa would have found great material/inspiration in Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, or now that I think of it, Melville's Moby Dick.
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  • By Sam Moyerman
    March 17, 2010
    10:30 AM

    Someone above mentioned Ivanhoe and if we're sticking with normal recommendations that and Sabatini's Scaramouche would fall right in line with his work. Scaramouche would be almost perfect for him with a conflicted hero, different locales, and a transcendent fight scene at the end (which would have crushed the over heralded one in the Stewart Granger film). But the more I think about it, since this is just a pipe dream, the one thing I would have loved to see Kurosawa do would be a musical adaptation. Stuff like Pal Joey and Can Can would provide really interesting results but even in this pipe dream I'll be more realistic in choice. Therefore my choice would have to be: Brecht's 3 Penny Opera Mifune would absolutely kill it as Mackie Messers. It would be the role of a lifetime. There's plenty of political overtones in the play to work off of. And who wouldn't love to hear "Mack the Knife" in Japanese?
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  • By Michel Blemur
    March 17, 2010
    10:36 AM

    I'm pretty sure it doesn't constitute "western literature" but I think Kurosawa could have done an amazing job adapting "the famished road" by Ben Okri. It is the story of a spirit child that wants to remain in our physical dimension. I salivate to think of what the movie could be like. He maybe would have chosen to be faithful to its nigerian setting . But this story could just as easily be transposed in feudal Japan. I'm not too aware of their mythical traditions but still I feel like it could work all the same. But to pick a western novel, Beloved by Toni Morrison could be a very interesting adaptation. Another story that could also be transposed to early feudal Japan. Oh to think , what could be done with all the lyricism and the surreal imagery of the book...
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  • By Keith Dillon
    March 17, 2010
    11:09 AM

    How about Fyodor Dostoyesky's Crime and Punishment. I think he and his colllaborators (because despite the exigencies of the auteur theory, film is a collaborative artform) could've easily adapted the themes in Dostoyvsky's novel to the world of the Samurai. Since he and his collaborators did so much Shakespeake, how about the Henry V plays; he could've covered the evolution of Henry V in the same way that Orson Welles covered the evolution of Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight. The Tempest also comes tyo mind. Imagine The Tempest as a kind of combination of Kagemusha and Dodes Ka'den, with a healthy dose of Rashomon.
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  • By Jonathan Buck
    March 17, 2010
    11:55 AM

    The genius of these western adaptations has always been how seamlessly Kurosawa was able to to blend the bravado and grandeur of these stories with the culture and aesthetics of Japan. He was also able to accentuate the emotional subtleties which were often glazed over. While I know his greatest interest in Russian literature was Dostoyevsky, I think he could have done beautiful things with Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. I can only imagine Mifune as Bazarov and the ease with which Kurosawa could have rendered the complex emotional struggle at the heart of the novel. While Fathers and Sons was very much about the Russian political climate of the 1830's, Kurosawa could have beautifully transposed the rift between nihilists and liberals within the Japanese sphere. Many of Turgenev's themes were ones Kurosawa had already familiarized himself with in his work and I truly believe an adaptation of Fathers and Sons could have been a defining film for Kurosawa.
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  • By Sarah Hamilton
    March 17, 2010
    12:08 PM

    I personally would have loved to see what Kurosawa could have done with Kazuo Ishiguro's 1989 novel The Remains Of The Day. Truly one of my favorite novels of all time, and as most of us probably know, already made into a film in 1993 by Merchant Ivory, this story would have been a perfect one for Kurosawa to tell as he approached the end of his life. The Remains Of The Day is the story of an English butler, Stevens, looking back over his life as he sets out on a car trip through the English countryside; his relationship to his lifelong job as a butler and to his employer, his relationship with his father and his relationship with another fellow domestic servant, Miss Kenton, the love of his life and "the one who got away"... As this novel was released only 9 years before Kurosawa died, the timing would have been perfect for him to imbue the film with his own feelings of regret and the despair of missed chances. I can only imagine the intense emotional current that would have charged this film. Of course the novel deals with many themes Kurosawa had already been exploring for decades in his own films -- dignity, responsibility, truth, class structure, love, loss, politics, ultimately, the nature of the human soul.
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  • By Patrick Carr
    March 17, 2010
    12:13 PM

    Joyce's "Ulysses." While people seem to look for some work that Kurosawa could have set in feudal Japan, I think something more modern, but that still dealt heavily in myth and dreams would have had him working in all his areas of strength. The connection between Bloom and his society is there, as are the endless layers of allusion Kurosawa could have visualized with a free hand. And for the record, I don't think he would've seen the need to transfer it to Japan, but would have illuminated the lives of Joyce's Dubliners very nicely.
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  • By David Still
    March 17, 2010
    12:44 PM

    Glengarry Glen Ross !
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  • By Michael Hammond
    March 17, 2010
    01:19 PM

    I can only dream of the savage beauty with which Kurosawa would have conjured Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" on the big screen. McCarthy's dark rendering of the American West would have integrated magically with the uncompromising vision of human folly and depravity which marked so many of Kurosawa's greatest films. McCarthy's work was little known during The Emperor's lifetime, but such a hypothetical project is ferociously tantalizing in the imagination.
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  • By Henry Dykstal
    March 17, 2010
    01:33 PM

    While not technically a work of "western" literature, Haruki Murakami's 'The Wind Up Bird Chronicle' would be, without a doubt, a film unlike any other. Both Kurosawa and Murakami got criticized for being 'too western' in their approach to their work, and Murakami's surrealism wouldn't hinder Kurosawa (look at how well he did with 'Dreams') Combine all of this with a first class story, a look at postwar Japan, and the haunting part of the novel that speaks about the war crimes committed by Japan in Manchuria, this would have been spectacular. Kurosawa and Murakami, it's a match made in heaven.
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  • By Drew Peterson
    March 17, 2010
    01:44 PM

    Kurosawa had many movies based on the struggle for understanding, and especially in Dreams, where many of the "Dreams" seem like existential quests to understand the fundamental question of "why?". Also, in movies like Throne of Blood, Ran, Doestevsky's The Idiot, Gorky's The Lower Depths, we can see that Kurosawa was fond of adapting Western literature to appeal to his Japanese audience by incorporating various elements of Japanese culture, which always made for an interesting combination. If I was going to wish for a piece of literature that Kurosawa was going to interject not only his unique Japanese existentialism, but also the elements of medieval Japanese society, I would wish for an adaptation of Franz Kafka's THE CASTLE. Not only does the novel contain vague theological references, but it most importantly contains a metaphorical quest for man's meaning in life. This book adapted to be set among the hills of medieval Japan would be a work of awe, and capitalize on the themes Kurosawa knows only too well.
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  • By Robert Weiss
    March 17, 2010
    02:22 PM

    I think Charles Dickens' second novel, "Oliver Twist" would have made a wonderful Kurosawa film adaptation. I can imagine this being set either in post war era Japan or during the Edo samurai period, as people were desperately poor in both times. Dickens' was known for his depiction of the hardships of the working class poor and unromantic portrayals of criminals and their sordid lives. Kurosawa also covered similar themes in films like "The Lower Depths" and "Drunken Angel". It's also a story of good versus evil, with evil continually trying to corrupt and exploit good, but good winning out in the end. That alone would make it a rich source for Kurosawa to adapt to his own unique vision.
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