The Criterion Collection

1657 comments

• By Burt Shapiro
  March 23, 2010
  09:31 AM

  My favorite is the shot (and architecture) of the good and bad in The Bad Sleep Well. Says a lot without words getting in the way.

• By Norman Legault
  March 23, 2010
  09:32 AM

  Trust me, you'll love it...

• By matt hetrick
  March 23, 2010
  09:32 AM

  To my wife: Ikiru is the story of a lonely man who leads a depressing life and dies of cancer; it's like the opposite of Pride and Prejudice only it still has a happy ending.

• By Turner
  March 23, 2010
  09:34 AM

  Kurosawa and I share the same birthday, and since today is my birthday as well, you have to do whatever I say, and I say we're watching Kurosawa.

• By will morris
  March 23, 2010
  09:35 AM

  to my wife who loves her crime shows like NCIS and Criminal Minds... "Without Rashomon changing everything like it did with it's revolutionary story-telling methods, none of your shows would even exist."

• By Gloria Schwarz
  March 23, 2010
  09:36 AM

  If you watch westerns but are not brain-dead, run to watch Ran.

• By eric p
  March 23, 2010
  09:36 AM

  It's like macbeth, witches, upwardly mobile wife, betrayed friends who come back to kill a crazed usurper, except better, because while you don't understand this language either, it's at least subtitled.

• By Zack Handlen
  March 23, 2010
  09:37 AM

  Seven Samurai is three hours long, and you won't blink the entire time.

• By Kyle
  March 23, 2010
  09:39 AM

  Not one, not two, not three, not even four, five or six — SEVEN.

• By Craig Kirby
  March 23, 2010
  09:39 AM

  "Find hungry samurai."

• By Andrea Hibbs
  March 23, 2010
  09:40 AM

  How can you not watch movies by a Japanese guy who is born under the sign of the god of war?

• By Shelly Isaacs
  March 23, 2010
  09:40 AM

  To see and experience Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is to understand how Hollywood created The Magnificent Seven, one of greatest Westerns ever made.

• By Dave B.
  March 23, 2010
  09:41 AM

  You should watch Kurosawa's incredible movies because Kurosawa is the greatest of Japanese filmmakers, and if you don't expand your cultural horizons you're going to end up a conservative Republican.

• By Richard Umali
  March 23, 2010
  09:41 AM

  Watch any of Kurosawa's films and I guarantee you will realize he is the Sensei of the best directors of Hollywood.

• By Nick Pierson
  March 23, 2010
  09:41 AM

  There's a reason why George Lucas, Sergio Leone, Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, Barenaked Ladies are all influenced by Kurosawa.

• By CHRIS OTTO
  March 23, 2010
  09:41 AM

  Kurosawa IS cinema.

• By Matheus Siqueira
  March 23, 2010
  09:41 AM

  The only director that can keep you hours without coffing.

• By Joe
  March 23, 2010
  09:41 AM

  Blockbuster behemoths nowadays pale in comparison to the scope, humor and enrapturing filmmaking of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

• By Jason OBrien
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  If you have never seen a Kurosawa film, you have not experienced the essence of truly great cinema.

• By Timothy Runge
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  Francis Ford Coppola aspired to be like him.

• By Mike White
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  Dude - you have to watch YOJIMBO - it's where all of the Spaghetti Westerns started. Clint Eastwood is great, but he doesn't have anything on Toshiro Mifune.

• By Mike McGranaghan
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  Watch a Kurosawa film - any Kurosawa film - and your life has automatically become richer, more meaningful, and more fun.

• By George Godwin
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  Check out Red Beard and see where George Lucas got the character Jabba the Hut.

• By colin mackenzie
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  Here is the thing, you may think you have seen the best westerns out there, and you may think that Clint Eastwood is the bomb but in fact the master of the genre is the mighty Akira Kurosawa - think samurai swords instead of six shooters and you are there.

• By Rob K
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  Honor, betrayal, death, the perplexing burdens of power and the bloodshed that underlies it. Kind of like the Godfather, but everyone wears a bathrobe and carries a sword.

• By JM
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  2 words: blood geyser

• By Mike Maginot
  March 23, 2010
  09:42 AM

  If you liked The Magnificent Seven and A Fist Full of Dollars, you will be amazed by The Seven Samurai and Yojimbo.

• By Matt Walker
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  Remember that club yr always asking about? The one where me and 5 other guys get together and watch Japanese movies and have matching samurai sword tattoos? Well, we're looking for a seventh...

• By Robert Wiersema
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  It's everything you need to know about film, and about film-making, right there on the screen.

• By Scott
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  Kurasowa will redefine your definition of what a great film is.

• By Jason Azzopardi
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  Because, even though you can beat me up, I'm smarter than you.

• By Mitch
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  Listen, it's a- Yes mom, it's in black and white but- Yes, it's Japanese, but I think you'll really- Just think of it as a live action version of "A Bug's Life."

• By Matheus Siqueira
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  The only director that keeps you hours without coughing.

• By Jason Read
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  Watching Rashomon will completely change the way that you look at rain.

• By James
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  90% of the works you see on TV and in the theaters owe their existence, in one form or another, to Akira Kurosawa and the films he made.

• By Rick Andrade
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  I know how much you love beautiful, life-affirming movies - so give Ikiru a go.

• By Jason Shier
  March 23, 2010
  09:43 AM

  Toshiro Mifune to his fellow actors when he walked on the set of Red Beard : "WE'D BETTER BE GOOD ON THESE SETS"

• By KAAN ARICI
  March 23, 2010
  09:44 AM

  Have you seen and loved the Magnificent Seven; well it is kind of a rip off from Kurosawa.

• By Steve C.
  March 23, 2010
  09:44 AM

  On "Yojimbo": You'll love it - Toshiro Mifune kicks ass even harder than Clint Eastwood.

• By Jeremy Harmon
  March 23, 2010
  09:44 AM

  You like Star Wars (you know the first three that didn't suck)...well Lucas completely ripped this guy off.

• By Marc E.
  March 23, 2010
  09:44 AM

  One of his movies ends with a guy getting beheaded and blood literally spewing everywhere and this isn't the movie that partially inspired Star Wars... and those two films are just the beginning!

• By JK
  March 23, 2010
  09:44 AM

  If you think samurais are AWESOME, then you HAVE TO WATCH a film by Kurosawa!!!

• By Dan Jardine
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  Kurosawa is to cinema what Shakespeare is to drama, what Dostoyevsky is to the novel, what Beethoven is to the symphony score, what breath is to live; indispensable.

• By Eric Gregory
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  Kurosawa is indirectly the master behind The Magnificent Seven and Ten Things I Hate About You and is responsible for the success of the Star Wars universe.

• By Bill B
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  Ikiru can give you a reason to live, even if you're dying.

• By Tom F
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  Watch SEVEN SAMURAI with me so you can experience what true honor is; experience what true sacafice is; and experience a true masterpiece of filmaking with an opening score that will pulsate through your soul.

• By Geoffrey Adams
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  I can say with absolute confidence that you will love Kurosawa they way Ninja Turtles love pizza.

• By John N
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  I'll give you 20 bucks if you watch RAN and hate it.

• By Jacob Brinlee
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  If it wasn't for Akira Kurosawa, we wouldn't have had the A Fistful of Dollars, The Magnificent Seven , or STAR WARS!!!!, plus samurais kick ass.

• By Colton Hammond
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  This is just one of those things you gotta see before you die.

• By TJ Wells
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  It's fucking good, watch it.

• By Robert Bell
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 AM

  In watching Kurosawa, you are treated to storytelling beyond its time, unafraid to linger on images without patronizing exposition, which is ameliorated by the magic of making you feel a little bit worse about a world where betrayal and treachery seem inevitable.

• By Ian D
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  Of all the Directors in the world, none have been more influential than Kurosawa; resulting in films such as Star Wars. The Magnificent Seven and the Usual Suspects; and praise from everyone from Fellini to Francis Ford Coppola to Steven Spielberg.

• By Murray Wasylnuk
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  To experience his films is knowing that you've spent time witnessing one of the greatest filmmakers to enter the realm of cinema!

• By Terrence Keenan
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  If you want to see the original badass antihero, then start with Yojimbo and see Toshiro Mifune do it better than anyone.

• By Steve Hubbard
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  I'm telling you, if you don't undertake this journey you will miss out on the great gems of cinema that are the direct seeds of creativity from whence much of the films and genres we now embrace were founded, but more than that you will simply miss out on one of the most amazing men to ever take up the art.

• By Lundon B
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  When you see it, you'll know.

• By Aaron Pinkston
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  He's like Michael Bay, but only with samurai swords and Shakespeare.

• By Christopher Day
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  Seven Samurai is the movie that got a ten-year-old me to start watching foreign films.

• By Stephen Henson
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  You're undying love for "The Magnificent Seven" will finally be bested once you watch "Seven Samurai."

• By Luke Teaford
  March 23, 2010
  09:46 AM

  Rashomon's conflicting truths reshaped cinema and pointed the way for complex, interlocking narratives that would become critical favorites for decades.

• By Rob
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  I've done this... so, I know. All I have to do is say this: "Watch Yojimbo" and if you don't like it... I'll buy you a disc of your choice." I have yet to have anyone hate "Yojimbo".

• By Chris
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  Didn't you know that "Star Wars" was a remake of an Akir Kurosawa film called "The Hidden Fortress"?

• By Roy
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  If you are not hooked in the first five minutes of any one of his films, then you are a Hakuchi!

• By Keenan Novi
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  Akira Kurosawa and his films are probably some of Japan's greatest exports, right up there with their hot dog eating champions.

• By August Russman
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  How can you ignore a director, who inspired everything, from Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns, to modern interpretations of classic theatre, to psychological criminal drama?

• By Ben Jackson
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  It has samurai, it was remade as A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, and it's one of the greatest movies ever made. Note: This sentence actually did convince my friend Jon to buy the Criterion YOJIMBO/SANJURO box without ever having seen either film, or any other Kurosawa film.

• By Lucas Kollauf
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  Seven Samurai helped inspire a lot of your favorite films.

• By Hollis
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  You will be made to weep by an old man on a swing.

• By Stephen Mlinarcik
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  You should watch a Kurosawa film today because, not only will his storytelling surprise you with it's depth and consistent humanity, but he'll reach past your head and wrench at your heart before you can realize that the film has transcended its medium, its genre, and will now be forever lodged in your mind in a place no other film you're likely to see will ever touch.

• By Peter DeMars
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  You must see how Kurosawa accomplished what many think is impossible--making movies stimulating enough for the cinephile yet fun and accesible to the casual viewer.

• By Christian C.
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  Dear friend, You know how you're always trying to convince me that there are two sides to every story? Let's watch a film called "Rashomon", which tells multiple sides to a story, and afterward we can discuss over sake whose side we believe and why. See you then?

• By Jay
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 AM

  There are few joys in cinema as unconstrained and thrilling as a Kurosawa movie; each are immaculately formed stories spanning both the epic and the intensely personal.

• By Bobby Childs
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  Let's just say this - the men behind Star Wars, the Godfather, Taxi Driver & Indiana Jones call Kurosawa one of their biggest influences!

• By Tom S
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  Most directors can hardly control actors; Kurosawa's vision became so powerful that the weather would bend itself to his will, so that every element on screen could be exactly as the film required.

• By Ben Pinneo
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  Even if no single Kurosawa film encapsulates the entirety of "the meaning of life," you walk away from every Kurosawa film understanding at least one key reason for living.

• By Rich
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  He likes rain. A lot of rain.

• By Dan Chung
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  There are times in one's life, usually several within close proximity to one another (ever hear of the rule of threes?), wherein one is confronted very closely with their mortality and with the possible absence of any rules or overriding justice, with the incredibly despairing thoughts that we are simply born into and die out of this world leaving little behind apart from a puff of smoke or a dirty pine box (it's really enough to make you want to rip out your hair in handfuls); well, it is during these times that it not only helps, but is life-savingly (just made up a word) essential to feel a kinship to mankind, to one's own surroundings, to loved ones, to art and its soul-excavating powers, to anything at all besides the dark void which seemingly encompasses us all - and because there are no greater tools for confronting that void than a prepared, educated, rigorous, open mind and heart, that, my friend, is why you should watch Akira Kurosawa.

• By Nick B
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  I promise that if you fall asleep at all during the three and a half hours I will do the dishes for a week.

• By Robert Pirkola
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  If I gave you $5 to watch one of his films, at the end, you'd give me a $10.

• By Jason Knapp
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  Until you do, you'll never quite appreciate that delicate balance between the grand gestures of history you read about in books and the tiny tremblings of doubt and desire at the heart of the people who lived it.

• By Scott Pelath
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  "Watch this film and you'll change the way you judge all other movies you see forever."

• By Fred Savard
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 AM

  All great aspiring samurai first has to follow the precious teachings of the Master. Kurosawa is the the Master and you are cinephile samurai in the making.

• By P. F. Hawkins
  March 23, 2010
  09:49 AM

  You can either spend three hours watching a plodding remake of King Kong or you can spend three hours watching humanity at its finest in Seven Samurai; and remember, life is short.

• By Rob Cotto
  March 23, 2010
  09:49 AM

  Thanks to Kurasowa, John Belushi was inspired by Toshiro Mifune to create his famed Samurai character during his SNL audition.

• By Matthew Frederick
  March 23, 2010
  09:49 AM

  Warning....the work of this director may forever change the way you look at movies.

• By Dante
  March 23, 2010
  09:49 AM

  Star Wars, Spaghetti Westerns, and Shakespeare -- but with super-awesome Samurais.

• By Chris
  March 23, 2010
  09:49 AM

  The man invented modern cinema....and Star Wars, trust me, you don't even know what a movie can do until you see his.

• By Matthew
  March 23, 2010
  09:49 AM

  Those movies you love with the furry monster, robots, and light-up swords were based on this guy's films, so you should definitely watch them.

• By Brad Dorfman
  March 23, 2010
  09:49 AM

  Kurosawa's films are simultaneously paintings and mirrors: you can admire the incredible artistry as well as see yourself clearly in them.

• By Sue
  March 23, 2010
  09:50 AM

  His films are so vivid, you can practically walk right into them! Once, in fact, I was watching a Kurosawa film and I suddenly found myself in a medieval wood near Kyoto and a man who but a moment before had been on screen, speaking in Japanese, turned to me and spoke to me in English about the shining mysteries of man and nature.

• By Rusty
  March 23, 2010
  09:50 AM

  Life is too short to NOT experience the delicate beauty, masterful artistry, stylistic storytelling, and uplifting humanism evident in every one of Kurosawa's films.

• By Paul Stephen Lim
  March 23, 2010
  09:50 AM

  Watching "High and Low" is like taking uppers and downers combined.

• By Spencer Smith
  March 23, 2010
  09:50 AM

  To my girlfriend: Just watch the first twenty minutes of Yojimbo, and if you aren't hooked into the story then we should get your eyes and ears checked.

• By Bill Billions
  March 23, 2010
  09:51 AM

  From Clint Eastwood's Spaghetti Westerns to Steve McQueen's The Magnificent Seven to Star Wars, you will see in Akira Kurosawa, at its highest and most beautiful level, all that is human and everything you love about the movies: the struggle of the soul, epic conquests, sweeping action, the search for love, humor and pathos, triumph and tragedy.

• By Eugene Golbin
  March 23, 2010
  09:51 AM

  Akira Kurosawa is recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists and 5 out of 5 legendary film directors.

• By Marc Mayo
  March 23, 2010
  09:52 AM

  The films of Akira Kuroswa define the aspirations of all great art by persuading you to evaluate your life, your desires and your humanity.

• By Richard LaRue
  March 23, 2010
  09:52 AM

  You'll have to throw away all misconceptions you may have of Kurosawa's work because the film, 'Ran,' has one of the most epic battles ever filmed with thousands of soldiers on the screen.

• By Stian
  March 23, 2010
  09:53 AM

  Look, perspective is a funny thing - let's learn this important lesson together by watching Kurosawa's Rashomon.

• By Michael Collins
  March 23, 2010
  09:53 AM

  Watching Kurosawa will make you appreciate all facets of directing.

• By James Mason
  March 23, 2010
  09:53 AM

  What Russ Meyer is to American cinema, Kurosawa is to Japan's.

• By Brian
  March 23, 2010
  09:53 AM

  If you like Fistful of Dollars do yourself a favor and watch the original, Yojimbo!

• By Greg DeSantis
  March 23, 2010
  09:53 AM

  If you've never met a samurai you didn't like, you've got a soulmate in Akira Kurosawa, and everyone agrees, regardless of their perspective (you'll get that reference later) that he's one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.

• By Michael Morowitz
  March 23, 2010
  09:53 AM

  Every filmmaker who has ever made a cool movie should thank Mr. Kurosawa in the credits.

• By Joseph Parks
  March 23, 2010
  09:53 AM

  It's better than an orgasm.

• By Jesse Bedwell
  March 23, 2010
  09:54 AM

  It's got Samurais.

• By Angela Harvey
  March 23, 2010
  09:54 AM

  Kurosawa's work is the full expression of cinema as art.

• By Mike Maginot
  March 23, 2010
  09:54 AM

  Correction: If you liked The Magnificent Seven and A Fistful of Dollars, you will be amazed by The Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. ( I hadn't had my coffee yet. )

• By John T
  March 23, 2010
  09:54 AM

  "In a mad world [of sane Hollywood pictures], only the mad [AK/100 黒澤 明 Happy Birthday Akira Kurosawa] are the sane!" - Akira Kurosawa's RAN 乱

• By Matt Miller
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 AM

  If you watch Seven Samurai, and if you don't like it, you should probably stick to still pictures--movies just aren't for you.

• By Courtney Simpson
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 AM

  It's not just a Throne; it's a Throne OF BLOOD.

• By Timothy Stack
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 AM

  Watch "The Hidden Fortress" before you watch Star Wars and realize how much of the story was straight ripped-off from Kurosawa. Same thing with Yojimbo/Sanjuro and the Spaghetti Westerns. If you don't know Kurosawa, you don't know film, jack!

• By Bob Kretz
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 AM

  Kurosawa changed the face of the Western when Toshiro Mifune drew his first Samurai sword; he shot rain and sunlit forests with a majesty and beauty that Bergman would later pay tribute to; with Rashomon he created a new cinematic language of fractured narrative and subjective truth; with the same film he taught American audiences not to fear subtitles; and he filmed epic battle and perfect stillness with equal grace, intelligence, and poetry.

• By Mark Mowls
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 AM

  You owe it to yourself to spend a mere two-to-three hours' time with Kurasawa, during which you will experience all of the passions and motivations inherent to the human condition masterfully distilled into (sometimes literally) Shakespearean dialogue and structures, all draped with an uncannily realistic yet symbolic visual and tonal sensibility -- timeless.

• By BRENT SALLAY
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 AM

  Here, my friend, is a prize I just won; these films speak for themselves.

• By Luke Walker
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  Where most directors have one two two true masterpieces, Kurosawa has at least eight.

• By Daniel Lewis
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  Simply, Akira Kurosawa's films will enable you to better understand the joys and the despair of life.

• By javiSalinas
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  "you say there are no good movies to watch? here--take Rashomon, High and Low and Red Beard---and if you don't like them I will buy you 2012 on Blu-ray, if you do like them I will buy you AK 100--deal?"

• By Pal Anders Dramstad
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  Seven Samurai is one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, and is one of a select few Japanese films to become widely known in the West for an extended period of time.

• By James Masaki Ryan
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  You will certainly watch films in a new light after watching anything by Kurosawa.

• By n. maynard
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  It's the movie that gave birth to the "Rashomon Effect."

• By Rich
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  John Lennon wrote: "Living is easy with eyes shut" ... Kurosawa will open yours.

• By Christopher Schiller
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  If you have watched any great movie in the past fifty years, been inspired by fantastic, tragic drama, epic scope, or heart-wrenching pathos, been stirred to tears or excited beyond measure for good to win out over evil, then it is likely you have already seen a Kurosawa-inspired film so you might as well, finally, and with reverence, see a true original.

• By Scott Martindale
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 AM

  I envy you, friend, for you can still discover these treasures for the first time.

• By Sean Ferriero
  March 23, 2010
  09:57 AM

  I feel like you should watch these films with me, as time and again I have heard of the greatness of Mr. Kurosawa's work, but have yet to experience it myself.

• By Cody
  March 23, 2010
  09:57 AM

  Shakespeare + Samurai's = Kurosawa

• By Vincent Grippi
  March 23, 2010
  09:57 AM

  "Tell me your favorite movie and I can show you AT LEAST ONE THING it borrowed from the Seven Samurai!"

• By Nicholas Hatziyiannis
  March 23, 2010
  09:57 AM

  As i am of Greek descent and the Greek equivalent of Kurosawa's Japanese sagas and opuses are what are known - in a humorous way - as ''fasoli'' (beans - a cheap meal for Ottoman-occupied Greeks) westerns, i would tell him that watching one of Kurosawa's films would add staccato, durability, seriousness, wit, REAL blood, REAL honor and finally, depth to the otherwise inadequate and justifiably underrated Greek genre that was at its peak during the 60s and early 70s, but famous to the younger generation , due to its cult status (for fun, that is !) !

• By Melanie Addington
  March 23, 2010
  09:58 AM

  If you really love me, movies, yourself, or mankind, you would watch all of Kurosawa's films right now.

• By Brian Lasley
  March 23, 2010
  09:58 AM

  I had to do this with my girlfirend, who loves theatre and has never really gotten into moveis and was bias against "samurai" films, i simply stated (then of course put in sanjuro): His movies have it all, comedy, tragedy, romance, action, wisdom, compassion, they make you think about the humanity and or the lack of humanity in us all, while showcasing some of the best theatrical elements ever to grace cinema.

• By Adan Torres
  March 23, 2010
  09:58 AM

  Watch and be mesmerized my darling.

• By Willance G
  March 23, 2010
  09:58 AM

  You think everything's going pretty well and then a guy gets sliced in half.

• By Richard Bass
  March 23, 2010
  09:58 AM

  Hit the pause button at any time while watching Kagemusha and you will discover a prize-winning still photograph.

• By Jacob Hanania
  March 23, 2010
  09:58 AM

  If you have never seen a Kurosawa film, the farmers have won.

• By SARA HUGHES
  March 23, 2010
  09:58 AM

  You need to watch Kurosawa because he is one of the most influential and important filmmakers of ALL TIME.

• By Peter Rinaldi
  March 23, 2010
  09:59 AM

  For all the suffering that Hollywood has put upon our eyes, intellect and emotions, this is what God has given us as reward.

• By JHW
  March 23, 2010
  09:59 AM

  I could say a lot of fancy favorable things about Kurosawa, but in the end I wouldn't tell the friend anything, I would just invite them over to see a Kurosawa film so they can experience the greatness first hand.

• By Carl J Armbruster
  March 23, 2010
  09:59 AM

  I wouldn't talk, I'd plan. When I go to hang out with some friends, we all bring movies for a marathon, eaching showing something, no questions asked, and I'll slowly indoctrinate them to the High Art of Cinema with a CC edition of a Kurosawa when my turn comes.

• By Rich
  March 23, 2010
  09:59 AM

  (oops revision) John Lennon wrote: "Living is easy with eyes closed." ... Kurosawa will open yours.

• By james richardson
  March 23, 2010
  09:59 AM

  kurosawa's films are influential in the western world today. without them, we would not have some of our modern directors and modern storytelling styles. to know kurosawa is to know how spielberg, tarantino, and many of our modern directors come from

• By Omer M. Mozaffar
  March 23, 2010
  09:59 AM

  Kurosawa films can be so amazing that in my late teen years one night I randomly started watching a PBS screening of a Kurosawa movie and I was so taken, so enchanted, that I decided to change my career toward cinema.

• By Alex
  March 23, 2010
  09:59 AM

  There's a reason the Barenaked Ladies saw fit to mention him in the same stanza of the same song that also mentions life-affirming cultural aspects like Snickers bars and "The X-Files."

• By Michael Martelli Jr
  March 23, 2010
  10:00 AM

  If you are a fan of Leone’s fantastic Spaghetti Westerns, Lucas’s Star Wars (original trilogy), Coppola’s Godfather, Spielberg, Bergman, Fellini, Peckinpah, Polanski, Scorsese or many of the best movies and directors of all time, see where it all began: watch an Akira Kurosawa movie (or more than one).

• By Tommy Acuff
  March 23, 2010
  10:00 AM

  The Gunslinger, Han Solo, Indiana Jones and especially the Man with No Name all owe their existence to Yojimbo; let's watch the flick that did it best, first....

• By craig F. Boone
  March 23, 2010
  10:00 AM

  yo, himbo! Here's your chance to sit and watch the most influential film maker on US film making in the past century. Copolla, George Lucas, and Speilberg all worship this guy: join their club.

• By J.M. Kwong
  March 23, 2010
  10:00 AM

  From crazy warriors in Tokugawa-era samurai regalia and heroic ronin protecting the innocent to creepy spirits haunting beautiful courtesans, there's nothing as awe-inspiring as a Kurosawa film!

• By Jonathan Sykes
  March 23, 2010
  10:00 AM

  In watching Ikiru, you'll have the great pleasure of witnessing one of the most luridly cinematic and symbolically charged portrayals of man's descent into depression ever filmed.

• By Dave Brandt
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 AM

  Kurosawa is like an aged basalmic vinegar; once you've tasted him you'll never want another.

• By Patrick Carr
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 AM

  Plot, performance, and sheer filmmaking excitement will almost make you forget that your way of seeing has changed forever.

• By Richard Franklin
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 AM

  He's simply the greatest film director of all time.

• By cody
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 AM

  A monk asked Kurosawa, "What is the meaning of cinema?" Drawing his samurai sword, he hacked the camera to pieces. "If you meet cinema, kill it."

• By pjowens75
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 AM

  To learn how to make an entertaining, thought provoking movie, you can either spend six months in a film study course, or you can spend a couple of hours watching either SEVEN SAMURAI or YOJIMBO by Kurosawa.

• By Andy L
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 AM

  Even people who hate foreign films forget they are reading subtitles.

• By Tyler Weber
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 AM

  "What's the use of worrying about your beard when your head's about to be taken?"

• By Michael Lennick
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 AM

  PRE-SCREENING: Dersu Uzala is a little-seen masterpiece about a soldier who travels far from home to a stunningly-beautiful and dangerous world, where he's saved and befriended by a wise and resourceful, ten-foot-tall blue sage. POST-SCREENING: Okay, you got me. No blue folks. You're right, I lied. No, really... first time ever, and only in the noblest cause. But you were utterly hooked all the way through, weren't you? Honey...? Sweetie...? Oh come on, at least leave me the dog!

• By Ian
  March 23, 2010
  10:02 AM

  Look, they're mostly samurai films and they spawned everything from westerns to star wars to anime - what's not to like?

• By Dan Serwan
  March 23, 2010
  10:02 AM

  You told me you like cutting edge movies; well this guy was fifty years ahead of his time and more awesome than a thousand modern blockbusters put together, true story.

• By Andrew Erickson
  March 23, 2010
  10:02 AM

  My cat is named, Akira -- nuff said.

• By Matthew P
  March 23, 2010
  10:02 AM

  WIth Kurosawa, you will discover the true meaning of cinema, and just how high it can go.

• By Allen Hanania
  March 23, 2010
  10:02 AM

  Jenny, you've got two choices: watch Seven Samurai with me after dinner, or sign these divorce papers.

• By Robert Fletcher
  March 23, 2010
  10:03 AM

  You do not believe that film is art--do you believe in illumination and divine inspiration through a medium in which you have so little faith?

• By Kaleb Temple
  March 23, 2010
  10:03 AM

  No, not the one with Dustin Hoffman, though that one was great too, but this one, its so awesome, is about a Japanese detective who's gun gets stolen and then he has to delve down into the seedy underworld of Japan in order to get it back; kinda like Dante and the inferno, Orpheus going after his Eurydice or Paul Hackett's crazed night on the streets of New York City but in an beautifully Kurosawa type of way.

• By José A Rivas G.
  March 23, 2010
  10:03 AM

  Watch Rashômon, you'll find yourself 'in a grove' of a story told from three different perspectives where yours for cinema will be changed forever.

• By Pedro Félix
  March 23, 2010
  10:04 AM

  Almost anything you can imagine in a picture. Almost anything you can aspire to see in a choreography is in those moving pictures. Almost anything you dream of light is in his films... Please, don't waste time listening to me, go see his films.

• By Stephen Steele
  March 23, 2010
  10:04 AM

  I remember as a teen seeing "Seven Samurai" for the first time and gasping for air during the final battle scene, never before was I drawn into the life of a film.

• By Dylan Levine
  March 23, 2010
  10:04 AM

  Watch one of the masterpieces by a man were we without, cinema wouldn't be the same today: they're all about love, passion and pride and what lengths one goes through to secure them.

• By Jeff
  March 23, 2010
  10:04 AM

  His use of light will make you forget it's in black and white, and his storytelling will make you forget you're reading subtitles.

• By Jared
  March 23, 2010
  10:04 AM

  Re: Yojimbo - "Look, if I actually have to SELL you on watching a movie about a cynical renegade samurai who destroys two rival gangs by playing them against each other... then I'm not really sure we're friends, after all!"

• By Jeffrey Canino
  March 23, 2010
  10:04 AM

  HIGH AND LOW: You will never see a wealthy man mow his lawn with more sadness.

• By Ben Cossum
  March 23, 2010
  10:05 AM

  SAMURAI SHAKESPEARE!

• By Dan Sessoms
  March 23, 2010
  10:05 AM

  Name a present day filmmaker. They were inspired by Kurosawa.

• By Patrick Bull
  March 23, 2010
  10:05 AM

  When you're a kid and someone tells you that one film is "the greatest of all time" you imagine this perfect relationship of action, comedy, drama and beauty, only to grow up a disappointed cinephile when you cannot find this El Dorado of the silver screen; "Seven Samurai" is that film.

• By Wayne Nichols
  March 23, 2010
  10:05 AM

  A Krosawa film should come with the warning: Beware, watching this will change the way you experience movies.

• By andohbytheway
  March 23, 2010
  10:06 AM

  when you are lying on your deathbed reviewing all the wonders, pleasures, and mysteries of your long life, you might indeed recall a Kurosawa film or two.

• By Trey Lawson
  March 23, 2010
  10:06 AM

  I could try to pursuade you to watch Kurosawa's films because of the action or the humor, or perhaps draw you in with suspense or romance, but ultimately no words of mine could describe the euphoria of experiencing Kurosawa for the first time because after you witness the master at work, no matter what genre or period the film is set in, you will never look at cinema the same way again.

• By Justin Miller
  March 23, 2010
  10:06 AM

  Me - "Hey Bob you should watch Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai." Bob - "Why would I do that? Never heard of it or him." Me - "'Cause" Bob - "Cause why?" Me - "Cause you know ALL those other movies you like?" Bob - "Yea" Me - "Well without him those movies wouldn't be anything." Bob - "Ohhhhhh!" Me - "Word."

• By Jessica Sabo
  March 23, 2010
  10:06 AM

  Rashomon is a really great film -- but you may perceive it completely differently.

• By marcus
  March 23, 2010
  10:06 AM

  Kurosawa is the bedrock foundation that great movie making is built upon.

• By ELEANOR STEWART
  March 23, 2010
  10:06 AM

  Even though these movies are in black and white and Japanese, you'll recognize so many elements of your favorite modern films in Kurosawa's work, and the original has rarely been surpassed by his imitators.

• By Rob Kozlowski
  March 23, 2010
  10:07 AM

  Watch a Kurosawa film and you will emerge proud to be a human being.

• By Maureen S.
  March 23, 2010
  10:07 AM

  You need to watch "Rashomon" because it will change your view when listening to every story you'll be told afterward; you will take it at face falue and imagine every other involved party's perspective.

• By Jamie Hawkins-Gaar
  March 23, 2010
  10:07 AM

  Friend, tonight we could offer ourselves to Kurosawa, to allow ourselves to watch, nay, experience a moving portrait of feudal Japan and the selflessness and sacrifice of seven heroes in what is *the* touchstone of Japanese and world cinema, to devote two-hundred and seven minutes -- on this very TV, in this very living room -- to an artist's masterpiece and a triumph of movie-making... or we could watch this Law & Order: SVU rerun.

• By Brian
  March 23, 2010
  10:07 AM

  "It's King Lear with samurai swords"

• By Weston
  March 23, 2010
  10:07 AM

  Take everything you love about anime, isolate it and remove all of the bad parts of it, make it serious art, and you have Kurosawa.

• By Larry
  March 23, 2010
  10:08 AM

  I dont think I have any friends left who are unfamiliar with Kurosawa. if there are I would say " There is something for any movie lover in AK's repitoire - from war to romance, samurais to family drama, comedy to tragedy - this box represents the human condition spanning centuries." And then I give them my new box set to behold.

• By Josh
  March 23, 2010
  10:08 AM

  Hundreds of passionate people are writing a single sentence in efforts to win a collection of 25 films by a man who would've been 100 years old today....an eternal legacy that you need to be part of.

• By Chris B
  March 23, 2010
  10:09 AM

  I think Fellini sums it up..."He is the greatest example of what an author of the cinema should be."

• By William Speruzzi
  March 23, 2010
  10:09 AM

  Throne of Blood is visceral and real. Watch it for the "arrow" scene alone.

• By Joe A.
  March 23, 2010
  10:09 AM

  If you consider yourself even remotely interested in movies, then you must watch the films of a director whose body of work is so vast, so rich, and has defined genres, archetypes and the expression of the human condition for any film that has come after.

• By Andrew
  March 23, 2010
  10:09 AM

  Kurosawa is Japanese for #@$%#@^#%@^#%@!

• By Drew
  March 23, 2010
  10:09 AM

  Hey Action Fan Friend, every movie you have ever loved owes everything you love about it to Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

• By Charles Elmore
  March 23, 2010
  10:09 AM

  There is practically no modern film, today, that doesn't bear the influence of Kurosawa's masterful touch; hidden fortress, yojimbo/sanjuro even seven samurai, so why not start with the wellspring of films that so many masters have drunk from years after.

• By Seth I
  March 23, 2010
  10:09 AM

  Every action movie you've ever seen takes something inspiration-wise or stylistically from Seven Samurai.

• By Mike O'Mealy
  March 23, 2010
  10:10 AM

  The greatest gift I can give you is discovering a Kurosawa film for the first time; the greatest gift you can give me is Criterion's AK 100.

• By Pierre Pinard
  March 23, 2010
  10:10 AM

  If you see one of his films, you'll never forget his name, and that, my friend, will be your secret weapon for Scrabble.

• By bill r.
  March 23, 2010
  10:11 AM

  RAN is one of the most gorgeous films you will ever see, full of blood and thunder and tragedy -- it makes Shakespeare as accessible as he was always meant to be, and finishes with one of the most haunting final shots in film history.

• By Matthew Klein
  March 23, 2010
  10:11 AM

  Watching a Kurosawa movie is like eating a multicourse-meal: a little of this, a little of that, sometimes befuddling, sometimes exquisite, but always memorable and always leaving you with the desire to return another time for more.

• By Cody Mulcahy
  March 23, 2010
  10:11 AM

  SAM, I learned composition from this man. Seven Samurai officially changed my life for the better, as it will yours.

• By Luke Petach
  March 23, 2010
  10:11 AM

  To my ex-girlfriend: "Kurosawa can satisfy me in ways you never could."

• By Zack Elerick
  March 23, 2010
  10:11 AM

  A Kurosawa film is a textbook on the art of film, a mastery of sound, light, and storytelling, and a true feast for the eyes.

• By S. MARTÍ
  March 23, 2010
  10:11 AM

  Pussycat, pussycat, I've got flowers and some of the greatest movies of all time to share with you.

• By Jesse
  March 23, 2010
  10:12 AM

  All those action movies that you love so much, Kurosawa is the director that they're all imitating; he's the original auteur.

• By Seth Talley
  March 23, 2010
  10:12 AM

  You say you like all of these samurai movies when you have never seen the best ones, have a seat and I'll show you Seven Samurai.

• By James Rodgers
  March 23, 2010
  10:12 AM

  Not only will I promise you'll love the movie, but I'll buy the beer and pizza.

• By Justin Alvarez
  March 23, 2010
  10:12 AM

  Watching Kurosawa will completely change the way you look at humanity: the preciousness of each single moment, that not only is it the principal elements in our lives that alter our destinies but also the seemingly insignificant moments that can define us as human beings.

• By Dave R
  March 23, 2010
  10:13 AM

  I put off watching Seven Samurai for a long time because I thought, like other lengthy films, that I had to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate it; the truth is that there is no wrong time to start this movie - it's just so...perfect, that it PUTS you in the right frame of mind, right from the beginning.

• By Terry Carpenter
  March 23, 2010
  10:13 AM

  Be prepared to one of the most breath taking, mind changing, and soul seeking films of your lifetime.

• By John Bean
  March 23, 2010
  10:13 AM

  Listen, I know that you think that Tarantino is the greatest director ever, but you have got to see Rashomon - it's like Jackie Brown, but with ghosts, monks and samurai!

• By Jake Vanalm
  March 23, 2010
  10:13 AM

  This is film as literature, a worn paperback with underlined passages and notes in the margins.

• By Jon
  March 23, 2010
  10:13 AM

  Imagine if the Magnificent Seven wasn't hindered by every lead actor trying to be the "cool one".

• By Dwight
  March 23, 2010
  10:13 AM

  No matter how far removed the subjects might seem to you -- samurais, feudal kings, or even a shoe magnate in a high tower -- Kurosawa makes you see yourself in his characters due to their overwhelming humanity.

• By Michael Hughes
  March 23, 2010
  10:13 AM

  Unless you want to lose the slap fight to end all slap fights, you'll watch this movie with me.

• By Dave Miller
  March 23, 2010
  10:14 AM

  Kurosawa is to film what Shakespeare is to literature; perhaps not always 100% original but definitively covering the complete spectrum of life, to the point that everything else, from the Godfather to Star Wars to the 400 Blows, looks like mere imitation - add to that heavy doses of samurai violence and what's not to love?

• By Christopher Beer
  March 23, 2010
  10:14 AM

  Your first Kurosawa is like a first lover; it will excite the little hairs on the back of your neck, it will make you nervously chew your lip, and it will never leave your mind.

• By ZACH
  March 23, 2010
  10:14 AM

  I actually just said one to my friend at work the other day. See, he has this habit of coming in to work and asking me "So what do you think of [insert name of shitty upcoming Hollywood remake]?" My response was: "Just once, instead of asking me about upcoming Hollywood tripe, I want you to come in and ask 'So what do you think of Throne of Blood?'; is that really so much to ask?"

• By ollie sloan jr.
  March 23, 2010
  10:14 AM

  Razor edged honor, tempered in the fires of compassion and justice and seasoned with a pinch of humor makes Kurosawa's Seven Samurai a must see!

• By BOB O'BRIEN
  March 23, 2010
  10:14 AM

  Since Kurosawa's films are practically the forest from which all other cinematic art was grown, you might enjoy his work more than the newest reality TV show.

• By Dan L.
  March 23, 2010
  10:14 AM

  Kurosawa not only made rich, beautiful and power films, but his impact as a director and story teller has forever altered the landscape of cinema.

• By Larry F
  March 23, 2010
  10:15 AM

  If only Kurosawa's Ikiru was required viewing for all public officials and politicians, this world would be a better place.

• By Tom Friedman
  March 23, 2010
  10:15 AM

  My friend, Kurosawa allows you into his world, contemplative, violent place, where you are free contemplate basic truths if you will.

• By Lorenzo
  March 23, 2010
  10:15 AM

  Love, watch this Kurosawa film with me and I'll take you to Paris for the weekend x

• By Deborah
  March 23, 2010
  10:15 AM

  Today's Kurosawa's birthday, he would have been 100 years old; want another reason?

• By Taylor Carlson
  March 23, 2010
  10:15 AM

  If it weren't for Akira Kurosawa, there would be no Lucas, no Coppola, and no Spielberg.

• By Charles Phillips
  March 23, 2010
  10:15 AM

  To watch Seven Samurai is to experience a masterpiece, to miss it is a tragedy.

• By Dan Giacobbe
  March 23, 2010
  10:15 AM

  Hey buddy, want to see a movie that you'll never forget, in a good way?

• By Eric Rice
  March 23, 2010
  10:16 AM

  I hope you don't expect to get me in to bed tonight without watching at least one Kurosawa film first!

• By Tony
  March 23, 2010
  10:16 AM

  Simply put, Kurosawa revolutionized Cinema and influenced others more than any else could ever dream of.

• By Sam
  March 23, 2010
  10:16 AM

  There's before seeing RED BEARD and there's after seeing RED BEARD--actually seeing RED BEARD is not a cinematic experience, it's an existential rupture.

• By David Christenson
  March 23, 2010
  10:17 AM

  High and Low is the thematic predecessor of Heat & The Dark Knight; just watch it.

• By Doug Tilley
  March 23, 2010
  10:17 AM

  Watching Akira Kurosawa films gives you the ability to fly, everlasting life, and will make all of your dreams come true.

• By Patrick Williams
  March 23, 2010
  10:17 AM

  This is where modern Hollywood begins, all of it, before the marketing execs and focus groups, this is it!

• By Brittany Roush
  March 23, 2010
  10:17 AM

  Akira Kurosawa is not only the director that influenced the likes of George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino and Sergio Leoni, which allowed for the creation of Star Wars, Spaghetti Westerns and well, pretty much any Tarantino film, but he single-handedly detailed the evolution of Japanese culture through its tumultuous history with his breathtaking films.

• By michael
  March 23, 2010
  10:17 AM

  "It's imperative that you watch either The Seven Samurai, Ran, Throne of Blood, Rashomon, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Dreams...What?...Yes, I'm getting to the point"

• By Michael Charboneau
  March 23, 2010
  10:17 AM

  If you love movies and ever plan on being a director, you can practically attend a film school just by watching Ikiru and the extra features on the disc.

• By Mark
  March 23, 2010
  10:18 AM

  Kurosawa is a direct inspiration for or influence of Star Wars, Magnificent Seven, Hero, Fistful of Dollars, Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Sergio Leone, Scorsese, and dozens of others, discover the roots of the movies you love.

• By erick fernandez
  March 23, 2010
  10:18 AM

  To a friend...Do you know that Samurai 7 anime you love so much? Well it's based on Seven Samurai and its better than the anime!

• By trevor
  March 23, 2010
  10:18 AM

  Kurosawa's tales are that of the human condition. All the pain. All the despair. All the hope. He is the Shakespeare of Samurai.

• By Alessandro Debellegarde
  March 23, 2010
  10:18 AM

  Be enriched by Akira Kurosawa, because it is wonderful to create!

• By Clarissa
  March 23, 2010
  10:18 AM

  Stephanie C It is time to turn off the over hyped Hollywood movies of today and watch what real film making is about.

• By Matt Hardeman
  March 23, 2010
  10:19 AM

  If you are serious about cinema, not just as an art form but also as an affecting experience, then look no further than a Kurosawa film.

• By John
  March 23, 2010
  10:19 AM

  What I do with this Katana samurai sword I'm holding against the soft skin of your neck depends on what you want me to do with the Blu-Ray of Yojimbo I'm using as a sword guard.

• By David S.
  March 23, 2010
  10:19 AM

  If you enjoyed great movies like Star Wars, A Fistful of Dollars, and the Magnificent Seven, then you should see the amazing director who started it all, no, really, he even does Shakespeare justice.

• By JORDAN BENEDICT
  March 23, 2010
  10:20 AM

  Kurosawa is to Japanese filmmaking as Ford is to American filmmaking, genuises with unique points of view that inspire, delight, thrill and transport the audience to times and places that are journeys never to be forgotten.

• By Steven Mueller
  March 23, 2010
  10:20 AM

  Only Akira Kurosawa can take Shakesperian plays, throw them into feudal Japan, insert Samurai swords and make it more interesting and compelling than the source material.

• By Ben
  March 23, 2010
  10:20 AM

  He has already directed your favorite movie.

• By Jason
  March 23, 2010
  10:20 AM

  Philistines don't like "Ran" (also known as the greatest adaptation of King Lear EVER), and you're not a philistine, right?

• By Kyleshaw
  March 23, 2010
  10:20 AM

  If you like a lot of todays films like star Wars or Last Man standing, and are interested in what inspired them, then you need to check out some of this dudes films!

• By Brad Kremer
  March 23, 2010
  10:21 AM

  If you love cinema, then you must watch Kurosawa films.

• By Harry Eisel
  March 23, 2010
  10:21 AM

  Without Kurosawa there would be no Clint Eastwood, period.

• By RICHARD THORNE
  March 23, 2010
  10:21 AM

  If you have ever asked yourself: "Why do I get up in the mornings," I promise that you'll find an answer, somewhere, in one of Kurosawa's films.

• By J
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 AM

  his urban films are even better than the samurai's. imho.

• By Chris Sonnleitner
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 AM

  You may not care about anything I say the rest of your life, but, please, there is something you must do before you depart this world: watch Dreams, then you can open your eyes to everything around you.

• By Jon Hillman
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 AM

  Hey, you like movies about samurais with swords killing and maiming each other?

• By Michael Fieser
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 AM

  I'm sorry, my friend, I really want you to watch this film, but it would be too cruel of me to fundamentally change your perception of cinema.

• By Angelus Pingol
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 AM

  No words but invite him/her to a Kurosawa screening (be it on a retrospective---like my own Kurosawa baptism or on a dvd).

• By Jacob Thomas
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 AM

  From here on, your life will be divided into Before Kurosawa (BK) and Post Kurosawa (PK).

• By Todd Bowser
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 AM

  More than you are about to discover something about film, you are about to discover something about life.

• By Bill Dixon
  March 23, 2010
  10:23 AM

  This one rarely fails: Star Wars is a remake of Hidden Fortress.

• By Max Gambill
  March 23, 2010
  10:23 AM

  MAX GAMBILL Kurosawa took the western genre, one of the most Americanized genres in film, and di it better than any American before or after.

• By Jorge Sanchez
  March 23, 2010
  10:23 AM

  We're gonna watch a foreign film, just sit back and relax, I'll tell you all about the movie and the director once you're done enjoying the movie.

• By Darcy
  March 23, 2010
  10:23 AM

  You owe it to yourself to see at least one masterpiece, of course Kurosawa gives you about 30 to choose from.

• By Cahn Curtis
  March 23, 2010
  10:23 AM

  Cinema would not be the same today without him, period.

• By Derin Korman
  March 23, 2010
  10:24 AM

  Kurosawa is Author in true form, Rashomon is so immensely layered that you will still find things anew after the obligatory third screening; it will alter your perception of truth forever, an apt closure even for the post-modern reality of today.

• By Ethan
  March 23, 2010
  10:24 AM

  You - and everyone - should spend some time with Kurosawa's movies because he enlists gorgeous, one-of-a-kind compositions; pinpoint-precise editing; whip-fast action scenes; and some of the greatest performances in film history in the service of a passionately honest, deeply felt humanism.

• By Peter Fingerson
  March 23, 2010
  10:24 AM

  Jesus Christ, himself, extolled Kurosawa's irreproachable cinematic influence. 'Nuff said.

• By Mark Williams
  March 23, 2010
  10:25 AM

  Seven Samurai is the Origin of Species of action movies.

• By A. L. Esterling
  March 23, 2010
  10:25 AM

  There are some things on the planet that enrich and elevate our lives beyond measure; that is Kurosawa.

• By Rob Glenn
  March 23, 2010
  10:25 AM

  There's a movie that is just like your favorite episode of Three's Company when they showed the same story from Jack, Janet and Chrissie's perspectives and it's called Rashômon and it's almost as good!

• By Eric Stephenson
  March 23, 2010
  10:25 AM

  Watching a Kurosawa film is like being able to go back in time and see the Beatles perform, it's a chance to experience greatness.

• By Troy Swanson
  March 23, 2010
  10:26 AM

  "It's my pick, last time you chose Transformers 2 for crying out loud"

• By Phil Dean
  March 23, 2010
  10:26 AM

  To have not seen the films of Kurosawa is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun.

• By Kerry
  March 23, 2010
  10:26 AM

  Best_Slave_Rebellion_Scene_Ever (Hidden Fortress).

• By KEVIN F
  March 23, 2010
  10:27 AM

  Ikiru will forever change how you view your life, and your death.

• By Karl Royce Lee
  March 23, 2010
  10:27 AM

  I don't care if you don't like to read subtitles, just watch Dreams and I'll read it to you.

• By John Huntington
  March 23, 2010
  10:27 AM

  Kurosawa not only is a great story teller, but he has an amazing vision and his films are visually stunning.

• By Bao Nguyen
  March 23, 2010
  10:28 AM

  To my friend Kuro, Today you can say that Kuro saw a film that changed his life. - Bao

• By MATT TURNER
  March 23, 2010
  10:28 AM

  You will love Akira Kurosawa's films, the guy invented the lens flare shot for crissakes!

• By Bao Nguyen
  March 23, 2010
  10:28 AM

  To my friend Kuro, Today you can say that Kuro saw a film that changed his life. - Bao

• By Michael Sloan
  March 23, 2010
  10:29 AM

  Kurosawa invented your favorite films.

• By Rodney Hill
  March 23, 2010
  10:29 AM

  You love art films, you love action films, and you love comedy; how about all three in one?

• By Todd H
  March 23, 2010
  10:29 AM

  Honey, if you watch one movie, I promise you that I'll "talk" when you want to; I'll learn the right response to "does this dress make me look fat?"; I'll go shoe shopping with you; AND I'll do a complete spa weekend with you.

• By Lisa Fornillo
  March 23, 2010
  10:29 AM

  Imagine watching an older, excellent Japanese movie which was turned into an excellent American western (or two) but which was actually based on American westerns but couldn't look too western or the Japanese government wouldn't allow it to be made. Okay? Good. Let's go watch "Seven Samurai".

• By Christian
  March 23, 2010
  10:29 AM

  Kurosawa does not merely create a world, he takes you through the looking glass and into a whole other realm, from which one is always reluctant to return.

• By Dave Wild
  March 23, 2010
  10:30 AM

  If you want to see where the modern action movie was born, watch the Seven Samurai.

• By Cory
  March 23, 2010
  10:30 AM

  His films inspired everyone from Clint Eastwood to George Lucas, so there is no way to be a reasonable fan of film without experiencing his work.

• By LM
  March 23, 2010
  10:32 AM

  After tonight's movie, Kurosawa's "Sanshiro Sugata", we'll have just 29 more movies to go!

• By Josh Hornbeck
  March 23, 2010
  10:32 AM

  "Ikiru" is the most beautiful and heartfelt film about what it means to be human."

• By Jon Williams
  March 23, 2010
  10:32 AM

  Kurosawa films are artsy, but they will entertain you on a blockbuster level.

• By GORDOLF
  March 23, 2010
  10:33 AM

  ****************************************************************************** ****************************************************************************** To my dearest of friends: Life is a theatre in which the worst people often have the best seats; luckily for us, Kurosawa’s films remain to remind us of the beauty of the human condition wherein we are all worthy spectators. ****************************************************************************** ******************************************************************************

• By Cesar Maloles
  March 23, 2010
  10:33 AM

  Take your pick among Kurosawa's films and I'll watch it with you!

• By Chirs Ringkamp
  March 23, 2010
  10:33 AM

  If you've never seen Kurosawa you haven't lived.

• By Daniel Izui
  March 23, 2010
  10:33 AM

  Kurosawa illustrated with such strength and beauty, that the power of Shakespeare's work does not reside solely within the language and text, but rather stretches across all cultures and languages.

• By Dan E
  March 23, 2010
  10:34 AM

  Kurosawa perfectly straddles the divide between the Eastern and Western worlds; he was able to make some of the first action movies in a way that influenced everything from Sergio Leone to George Lucas and Quentin Tarantino, and he was also able to make some of the most beautifully quiet and lyrical films on Earth.

• By Alex P
  March 23, 2010
  10:34 AM

  Why is life worth living- it's a very good question... um... well, there are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile, uh... like what... okay... um... for me, uh... ooh... I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... uh... um... and Wilie Mays... and um... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony... and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues... um... Swedish movies, naturally... Sentimental Education by Flaubert... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh... the crabs at Sam Wo's... ummmmm... Akira Kurosawa's Dreams...

• By James Barton
  March 23, 2010
  10:34 AM

  Kurasawa is the cinematic air I breath.

• By Michael Suarez
  March 23, 2010
  10:34 AM

  If you see any film from any filmmaker before you die, this is it.

• By Craig Bennett
  March 23, 2010
  10:34 AM

  I've personally loved Kurosawa's movies for most of my life; there is so much heart, action, suspense, humanity, intelligence, beauty, and drama to his films that I think there is at least a single element for everyone to latch on to and adore for the rest of their lives.

• By Ross Knight
  March 23, 2010
  10:34 AM

  Kurosawa single-handedly restored culture to a post-World War II Japan.

• By Clifford Weimer
  March 23, 2010
  10:34 AM

  "Come on over tonight, cause I'll be watching something as exciting as Indiana Jones, as hilarious as Laurel & Hardy, as moving as Schindler's List, as action-packed as Enter the Dragon, AND it's got Seven Samurai in it!"

• By Cihan
  March 23, 2010
  10:35 AM

  You must watch him if you want to understand between modern and post modenist cinema.

• By Jeremy Hyler
  March 23, 2010
  10:36 AM

  Have a brilliant visionary-storyteller, change your life; just like when he inspired future filmmakers like Spielberg, Coppoala, myself and thousand others, to breath film for life.

• By Greg Helmstetter
  March 23, 2010
  10:36 AM

  If you like Shakespeare, many of his films are based on his writings; if you like Coppola or Scorsese, many of their films are based on Kurosawa; and if you like enjoyable, intelligent and masterful films, you should watch any film by revolutionary director Akira Kurosawa, and you will then want to watch more.

• By Jeff
  March 23, 2010
  10:36 AM

  His films will simultaneously make you reflect on how you've lived your life, rethink how you look at others and re-evaluate beliefs that you may have taken for granted - watching his films has already changed my life so much.

• By mike s
  March 23, 2010
  10:36 AM

  watch, shut up and learn.

• By Alfredo
  March 23, 2010
  10:36 AM

  As Kurowsawa's centennial is upon us, there is no better time to embrace in remembrance one of the world's greatest gifts to cinema, rich with slyness, depth and intelligence, all pristinely presented to the public by the Criterion Collection.

• By David Baeumler
  March 23, 2010
  10:37 AM

  To dream with Kurosawa's eyes is to know the soul.

• By Warner P
  March 23, 2010
  10:37 AM

  Dear Friend, I know you trust me, and you allow me to enlighten you on some of life's true pleasures.....well I believe the time is right for you to experience a craft so unique and beautiful, that you will never be the same..... take my hand and join me in the world of Kurosawa

• By Rick
  March 23, 2010
  10:37 AM

  "Yeah, Kevin, that's a great new iGadget, but if you really want to catch my envy, you'll watch this movie with me sitting here next to you knowing that you're encountering these people, those shots, that story, this life -- experiencing this movie that will twang memories of the best you've seen and whose reverberations you can expect to feel for days -- for the very first time, you lucky lad, you, and, yes, please also turn that thing off or at least set it to vibrate before I hit PLAY..."

• By Austin Brady
  March 23, 2010
  10:38 AM

  Watch this and be enlightened, stupid friends are dangerous.

• By Marcel De Maio
  March 23, 2010
  10:38 AM

  To watch a Kurosawa film is to bear witness to the human spirit.

• By Paul
  March 23, 2010
  10:38 AM

  After you watch a Kurosawa film, sunshine will seem brighter, fruit will taste fresher, the air you breath will feel crisper, the water you drink will be cooler, your mind will operate with a clarity you never thought possible, and when you make love it will be as if angels are singing and the stars are falling all around you, which is weird since you're my pet hamster Fluffy.

• By Pete Mantsourani
  March 23, 2010
  10:39 AM

  Dude, since most of your cultural education comes from adult animated entertainment, you need to get into Kurosawa because otherwise you won't get the Rashomon joke referenced on the Simpsons.

• By Bobby Munoz
  March 23, 2010
  10:39 AM

  For all of it's faults and shortcomings and occasional limitations, it is enough that cinema exists, if only to have given a genuine master like Kurosawa the vehicle with which to explore the varieties of human experience and emotion, in a manner not possible in any other medium, with a singularity of vision so profound that no other film director, living or deceased, bears adequate comparison ... and we are all the better for it.

• By Bill Melidoneas
  March 23, 2010
  10:39 AM

  To all my friends (who adore action movies and ensemble action films): The Seven Samurai in so many ways laid down the groundwork and is THE groundbreaking action and ensemble film. Akira Kurosawa breaks down the perfect mixture of plotting, character details, and action to satisfy, indulge, entertain, enlighten, and mesmerize any viewer who will give it their full attention. The Seven Samurai is a film once you seen it for the first time it won't be the last time you'll see it, it's a film that you will see dozens of times through your life-time. The Seven Samurai is one of the greatest masterpieces of cinema history.

• By D-Man
  March 23, 2010
  10:40 AM

  If you haven't seen a Kurosawa film yet, it's almost like you haven't watched a film in your life.

• By Steven Gibbs
  March 23, 2010
  10:40 AM

  If there is one thing that George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Sergio Leone, Zhang Yimou, and John Woo all have in common, it is this: they all admired and were influenced by Akira Kurosawa.

• By Eddy Ospina
  March 23, 2010
  10:40 AM

  If you only watch the films of one director throughout your entire life, it should be the films of Kurosawa because all that cinema and life can be is contained within his films.

• By Alicia
  March 23, 2010
  10:41 AM

  kurasawa is like sunshine through the rain of your brain. If you watch his movies, you will become a rainbow. btdubz, without his movie, "hidden fortress," there would be no star wars. imagine a world with no ewoks. that is your world without kurosawa.

• By Nick Duval
  March 23, 2010
  10:41 AM

  Would Criterion give him a box set if his films weren't this essential and interesting?

• By Blaine Elliott
  March 23, 2010
  10:41 AM

  C'mon Dad - it's 'Fistful of Dollars' but with samurais and much better. (actually said to my 68 year-old father only two nights ago - it worked and he loved it).

• By omfgitsbubba
  March 23, 2010
  10:42 AM

  Rashomon completely changed the way I watch film; its the reason I'm learning Japanese.

• By Justin H.
  March 23, 2010
  10:42 AM

  Kurosawa, as a filmmaker, is the light, the truth and the way.

• By Sammy Glenn
  March 23, 2010
  10:42 AM

  In response to your wishing Zatoichi was itchy and had the gift of sight, let me recommend a film called "Sanjuro".

• By Michelle Asci
  March 23, 2010
  10:43 AM

  Lucas, Leone, Peckinpah, Fellini, Coppola, Tarkovsky; who have you influenced?

• By Kenneth J. Souza
  March 23, 2010
  10:43 AM

  Those who do not band together tonight with us to watch Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI, have no honor; can't you see that I am serious?

• By B. Hoben
  March 23, 2010
  10:44 AM

  While "Dreams" isn't particularly typical of Akira Kurosawa's style or subject matter, it beautifully sifts through his subconscious and radiates into our own with supersaturated allegories and impossibly familiar tones echoed from the lush corners of our collective memory.

• By Jason
  March 23, 2010
  10:44 AM

  Whether you watch one of his sweeping costume epics, swashbuckling samurai flicks, dignified character portraits or tense melodramas, Akira Kurosawa's films are enjoyable to watch AND they're good for you, too!

• By Nathan Collins
  March 23, 2010
  10:44 AM

  Dude, these samurai dudes SET THE CASTLE ON FIRE, and the castle is ACTUALLY BURNING with the guy playing King Lear inside, and he finally gets up and starts to walk out as the room is starting to fall apart around him and walks out of the castle like a zombie on to this smoky battle field with three different very colorful groups of samurai dudes - look, it's ridiculous and amazing and THEY BURNED A CASTLE TO THE GROUND and my aunt somehow found the Criterion edition even though it's out of print so we'll watch it tonight.

• By Harper Harris
  March 23, 2010
  10:45 AM

  It's got the most epic, thrilling build up that leads to the most epic, exciting (and satisfying) climax of all time, not to mention it's been remade a dozen times! (Seven Samurai)

• By Mark Packard
  March 23, 2010
  10:45 AM

  You need to watch Rashomon to understand how closely film can reflect day-to-day reality, in which everything is subjective and a person's past experiences and current perspective can dramatically alter how two people experience the same event.

• By James Wray
  March 23, 2010
  10:45 AM

  If you and I are going to write scripts together then you need to watch Rashomon because it is the perfect example of a film.

• By Ryan
  March 23, 2010
  10:46 AM

  To watch Kurosawa's films, is to look into God's vagina.

• By Edward Heffernan
  March 23, 2010
  10:46 AM

  Kurosawa is the essential link between Western literature and Western pop culture-from Shakespeare to the Magnificent Seven.

• By Matt Swanson
  March 23, 2010
  10:46 AM

  "If you thought STAR WARS was great before George Lucas stuck his bloated, chinless, talentless nose into it and turned it into a ridiculous cartoon space farce, then trust me--you will like THE HIDDEN FORTRESS even better!"

• By Ben Friday
  March 23, 2010
  10:48 AM

  If I had to name one filmmaker whose body of work best exemplifies everything that cinema aspires to be; one filmmaker whose movies truly transport the viewer to a magnificent sense of time and place; one filmmaker who forever influenced the landscape of visual storytelling, and painted his canvas with strokes both grand and sweeping as well as intimate and poignant, that filmmaker would be Akira Kurosawa, and you'd be doing yourself a grave disservice to go through life without ever experiencing his films.

• By JOSH BRUNSTING
  March 23, 2010
  10:48 AM

  As Nick Naylor in Thank You For Smoking would say, Kurosawa is so good at what he does (making brilliant films) that he'll make you believe in God.

• By daniel guy
  March 23, 2010
  10:48 AM

  It's like time traveling and watching a collaborative effort between Peter. Jackson, John ford, quentin tarantino, and ang lee only you realize there is no time traveling and it only took one visionary to create these worlds.

• By Joseph Korgüll
  March 23, 2010
  10:48 AM

  Life. Kurosawa. Death.

• By Matthew Napier
  March 23, 2010
  10:49 AM

  After my first Kurosawa, I stopped watching movies and moved on to films.

• By Kevin White
  March 23, 2010
  10:49 AM

  He is the only man to ever truly put your dreams and your thoughts into images and to have them make perfect sense.

• By Rolf Benno
  March 23, 2010
  10:49 AM

  Whatever you do, do NOT watch Kurosawa's films.

• By Kaya Savas
  March 23, 2010
  10:50 AM

  Do you know who inspired those spaghetti westerns Leone did, that movie The Magnificent Seven, those Kill Bill movies Tarantino did, that final scene in The Last Samurai where they're all gunned down and re-imagined the entire western genre? No? Well let me show you.

• By Dan Bayer
  March 23, 2010
  10:50 AM

  Whatever type of film you like... western, action/adventure, character study, comedy, drama, tragedy, noir... Kurosawa did it, sometimes even adapting Shakespeare, and served as inspiration for some of the great Hollywood films of all time, so I can pretty much guarantee you that there's no way you won't at the very least appreciate what you see.

• By Frances Boquiren
  March 23, 2010
  10:51 AM

  When you watch his films, your nose will bleed and you'll wet your pants, and these are all good things!

• By Jacobo Roman
  March 23, 2010
  10:51 AM

  Sex for your brain; subtitles included.

• By G Reid
  March 23, 2010
  10:51 AM

  If you want to learn everything about the human condition, watch any Kurosawa film.

• By Ryan W.
  March 23, 2010
  10:51 AM

  Sweetheart... You haven't lived, until you've seen Ikiru.

• By Stefan Kuhn
  March 23, 2010
  10:52 AM

  Dude, it's like E.R. but with ghosts and kung fu and shit--oh, and a nympho, too.

• By Eugene Pokopac
  March 23, 2010
  10:53 AM

  Believe it or not, there ARE films that come out of Japan that do NOT feature Godzilla; try one by a MASTER of the craft!

• By Michael
  March 23, 2010
  10:53 AM

  If you want to know how Western Cinema received some if its major influences, and how some of its Best Directors like Coppola and Lucas received their influences: then watch Kurosawa.

• By ChriSTOPHER DIMITROV
  March 23, 2010
  10:54 AM

  Watching a Kurosawa film is like watching the most beautiful painting you've ever seen come to life.

• By P. Vehling
  March 23, 2010
  10:54 AM

  Kurosawa is the great emotional response to all the years of struggle of the Japanese citizen during the Second World War; it's as if he created a dissertation of the Japanese spirit with every frame.

• By Justin Amirkhani
  March 23, 2010
  10:54 AM

  Akira Kurosawa made great samurai movies that were more than you expected.

• By Leticia
  March 23, 2010
  10:54 AM

  I "double-dog-dare" you to watch a film by Akira Kurosawa...and not get swept up in his storytelling and direction! Kurosawa films and style have inspired many people in entertaiment today and in one viewing, you will understand why. To appreciate the evolution of film and tv, honor the past...c'mon I "triple-dog-dare "you :)

• By Doug Soper
  March 23, 2010
  10:54 AM

  After every Kurosawa movie, you'll be convinced (even if only for a little while) that you've just seen the best film you've ever seen.

• By Jared Pendergraft
  March 23, 2010
  10:54 AM

  You know all of your favorite films? They wouldn't have existed without Kurosawa. Period.

• By Marc Sober
  March 23, 2010
  10:55 AM

  Kurosawa's films are like a battleground; there's love, hate, action, violence, death... in one word: emotion; with a lot of beauty and humanity thrown in - so much so that you won't even mind the subtitles. [with apologies to Sam Fuller]

• By Michael Burns
  March 23, 2010
  10:56 AM

  Rashomon is like Heavy Rain without the "press x to Jason."

• By Greg Ferguson
  March 23, 2010
  10:56 AM

  Okay, so I know you have been searching High And Low like that Stray Dog, the Russian hunter Dersu Uzala, for a good movie - even in the Lower Depths of your Dreams, like some Shadow Warrior - and praying to your Drunken Angel that you'd find some bountiful Hidden Fortress by a nice shady Sanjuro with a good Judo Saga or II, so if you want To Live with No Regrets For (y)Our Youth (and not Live In Fear of dying like some Idiot in some Scandal on some Throne Of Blood, with nothing but a Red Beard to show for your Quiet Duel with your sorry, pathetic self - at least Not Yet), then someday - on One Wonderful Sunday maybe - you should do yourself a favour and check out a film by Akira Kurosawa, a true genius of the cinema - the Most Beautiful, even - but don't wait until some Rhapsody in August, because The Bad Sleep Well, and sleep often ... sleep so long that they forget what they were doing and let themselves rot and wither away like that rotten old gate in Kyoto - Rashomon - and, like the Men Who Tread On The Tiger's Tail, you mustn't delay because you never know when you might meet a fate less welcome ... so you'd better man up, dude, like that strong Bodyguard, Yojimbo, and run with the utmost expediency - chugging away "Dodesukaden...Dodesukaden..." to your nearest computer like I once Ran and log onto the Criterion Collection Store and choose a title that suits you; personally, I think you'd enjoy Seven Samurai.

• By Dennis Arsenault
  March 23, 2010
  10:56 AM

  Once you watch this film it will forever change the way you see movies and you'll thank me for the rest of your life.

• By Eric Wagner
  March 23, 2010
  10:56 AM

  Fearing I would I die, I remembered "Ikiru" Thought, "Nothing special."

• By Kent McKay
  March 23, 2010
  10:56 AM

  Experiencing Kurosawa's films feels like exploring all the compelling, hazy dreams from which one awakes too early.

• By bryan alexander
  March 23, 2010
  10:56 AM

  To My Girlfriend: "Babe, I just won the most amazingly beautiful Akira Kurosawa box set from Criterion, so.. show some gratitude and watch them all with me! "

• By ihsan alnasrawi
  March 23, 2010
  10:56 AM

  To those who have never seen Kurosawa, all I can say is: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..."

• By Elaine
  March 23, 2010
  10:57 AM

  There's a richness and vastness in the range of human possibilities Kurosawa explores in his work. From the rich man who will save his chauffeur's son in HIGH AND LOW, to the WWII general who encounters the ghosts of the men who died under his command in DREAMS, to the woman who moves from victim to manipulator and back in RASHOMON... his characters are heroes and cowards, kings and commoners, people blind to their own flaws and those who will fight to see who they really are. His characters stick to their guns or samurai swords; they also can change. His movies are entertaining and powerful, funny and devastating, and always beautiful to look at. I could watch IKURU every day, and maybe you could too.

• By Marcelo Lannes
  March 23, 2010
  10:57 AM

  Watching some of Kurosawa's films is the closest you can get to the experience of committing seppuku only to be reborn in honor.

• By Ryan Sarnowski
  March 23, 2010
  10:57 AM

  To my wife: I'd buy all of these films and show them to you, but we've agreed to be more frugal, so hopefully I'll be selected and we can watch these films together.

• By Amanda S
  March 23, 2010
  10:57 AM

  The exact thing that worked on my stepdad and my mom: Every good Western "borrowed" something from a Kurosawa film.

• By Gail Pascaris
  March 23, 2010
  10:58 AM

  Whether you are a fan of great film or great storytelling, you owe it to yourself to check out the artistry of Akira Kurosawa and his lasting influence on culture today!

• By Lance Stratton
  March 23, 2010
  10:58 AM

  Howdy kids, do you like A Bug's Life? I know you do. Then you should watch Seven Samurai, it's better, and has no icky bugs.

• By Brian Hischier
  March 23, 2010
  10:58 AM

  Time is like Rashomon, and as a result Kurosawa has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Dostoyevsky, Sergio Leone to George Lucas and even, some might say, old Time himself.

• By Dan Short
  March 23, 2010
  10:58 AM

  Generations of filmmakers, heck entire film genres, where influenced and inspired by Akira Kurosawa, so therefore his films have to be seen at least once in your life.

• By Jim
  March 23, 2010
  10:59 AM

  When Kurosawa cuts from one shot to the next, the new image cuts like a samurai's sword into the old image precisely when it is supposed to - neither 1/24th of a second too soon nor 1/24th of a second too late.

• By Dan McCormick
  March 23, 2010
  10:59 AM

  In his autobiography he wrote about how at the end of World War II, when the nation as a whole was contemplating the "honorable death of the 100 million", he thought that it would be good to first murder his boss (denying him an honorable death) but the emperor didn't call for mass suicide so he went back to work and made movies instead.

• By Tomas Jacobs
  March 23, 2010
  11:00 AM

  Come on, let's watch RAN: It's Shakespeare in blood mode without all the dialogue, wall-to-wall samurai in full armor fighting epic battles, and - oh, yes - the Fool survives to the end.

• By Steve F.
  March 23, 2010
  11:00 AM

  If I told you that the greatest maker of westerns made them in Japan and substituted Samurai swords for six-shooters--would that be something you'd be interested in?

• By Brian Clark
  March 23, 2010
  11:00 AM

  A painting teacher once told me that you can recognize good art simply because you come back to it again again, and I must have seen Seven Samurai at least twenty times and other Kurosawa films dozens of times.

• By Narukami
  March 23, 2010
  11:00 AM

  When people talk about cinema being art, these are the films they are talking about.

• By Ramin Matin
  March 23, 2010
  11:01 AM

  Because no other filmmaker has covered the whole spectrum of being human with such poetry and precision.

• By Eric Disque
  March 23, 2010
  11:01 AM

  Wanna go on a journy through the mind or know more about post-war Japan and epic feudal battles, look up Kurosawa.

• By David Abrams
  March 23, 2010
  11:01 AM

  Do you like samurai, Shakespeare, dysfunctional families, epic sagas, tortured souls, color-saturated cinema, bodies pincushioned with arrows, Western movies, and film noir?

• By Elaine
  March 23, 2010
  11:02 AM

  I meant IKIRU, d'oh!

• By Aldo
  March 23, 2010
  11:02 AM

  "Hey Jeff, wanna watch Macbeth?" (my theatre dork friend nods, I pop in Throne of Blood, he looks back and forth in bewilderment, says something to the effect of: "This is gonna be the fuckin' shit.")

• By Skip Shea
  March 23, 2010
  11:02 AM

  The greatest film directors of the West found their greatest influence by looking East, to Kurosawa.

• By Peter Kwong
  March 23, 2010
  11:02 AM

  Kurosawa made foreign films for people who don't like foreign films.

• By M. SEAL
  March 23, 2010
  11:02 AM

  The dude got producers to give him money to build huge, elaborate sets, then he burned them to the ground - and the producers were (usually) happy to have just been a part of the project.

• By Kevin
  March 23, 2010
  11:04 AM

  To the American public: Before Star Wars, before The Magnificent Seven, before gratuitous and ridiculously expensive special effects; there was Kurosawa who crafted timeless and unforgettable films with universal stories that reached across all boundaries.

• By Rui Abreu
  March 23, 2010
  11:04 AM

  Poetic oriental Western.

• By Mark Goldman
  March 23, 2010
  11:04 AM

  Kurosawa's films are like watching poetry captured on celluloid. Not always pretty, but always beautiful.

• By Mike Miley
  March 23, 2010
  11:04 AM

  Don't even think of using the phrase "pants-wettingly horrifying" until you've seen the end of THRONE OF BLOOD.

• By Jeff Downs
  March 23, 2010
  11:05 AM

  Because I said so.

• By f. barbato
  March 23, 2010
  11:06 AM

  I bet all my money than at least one of your favorite movies has been inspired by the genious of Kurosawas's films, so u've got nothing to loose!

• By Chris Merkley
  March 23, 2010
  11:06 AM

  Shakespeare is the master and wrote King Lear, but Kurosawa created 'Ran' and did it better.

• By Judson Picco
  March 23, 2010
  11:07 AM

  I LIVE IN FEAR of anyone who DREAMS in pictures but has not yet emerged from his THRONE OF BLOOD in some HIDDEN FORTRESS and RAN to his DVD player, on this--my birthday and the Masters--and watched the complex and sad RASHOMON, for such a friend truly dwells in THE LOWER DEPTHS of humanity and has not yet learned IKIRU (TO LIVE).

• By Tom
  March 23, 2010
  11:07 AM

  Kurosawa is to film what Shakespeare is to theatre.

• By Tony Peltier
  March 23, 2010
  11:08 AM

  Toshiro Mifune just might be the sexiest man who ever lived.

• By Dan K
  March 23, 2010
  11:08 AM

  Star Wars, Last Man Standing, The Magnificent Seven, Run Lola Run, and Hero are just a FEW of the films directly influenced by the great Akira Kurosawa, whose 30-odd films are all masterpieces that continue to provide entertainment to film lovers around the globe.

• By Will Schiffelbein
  March 23, 2010
  11:09 AM

  Cinema hasn't ever been the same since Akira Kurosawa brought his hermeneutic perspective, visual style, and unforgettable stories to the world of motion pictures.

• By J. Fein
  March 23, 2010
  11:09 AM

  You can only hope that when you go to sleep Kurosawa's Dreams will play in the background of your consciousness.

• By Tom Tyler
  March 23, 2010
  11:10 AM

  Bombed-out post-war Tokyo in painterly black, white, gray and silver; noir detectives pulling a plot string that gets thicker and heavier; a mature master and a soon-to-be superstar capturing and blending sagacity and fire; a lurid frame holding a much deeper story: Stray Dogs.

• By Dan Mancini
  March 23, 2010
  11:11 AM

  Seven Samurai is as epic as Lawrence of Arabia, and as fun as Raiders of the Lost Ark.

• By Anthony Cerminaro
  March 23, 2010
  11:11 AM

  Not to have seen a Kurosawa film is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun.

• By Danny Cutler
  March 23, 2010
  11:12 AM

  Just watch it.

• By Danny Cutler
  March 23, 2010
  11:12 AM

  Just watch it.

• By Sonetra Tol
  March 23, 2010
  11:13 AM

  Come see the reason I've happily purchased Yojimbo and Sanjuro 3 times.

• By Sean Leslie
  March 23, 2010
  11:14 AM

  You love Bug's Life so their is no excuse not to watch Seven Samurai.

• By Liz
  March 23, 2010
  11:14 AM

  Side effects may include but are not limited to: lack of interest in new blockbuster movies, a generally superior feeling to those who have never seen his movies, a desperate search for more of his films, staying in on Friday nights to watch whichever one you tracked down, inability to fall asleep during his films and an entirely new outlook on cinema.

• By James P.
  March 23, 2010
  11:14 AM

  'In this mad world, only the mad are sane', said Kurosawa. Feel like watching his films?

• By Brenda Bryan
  March 23, 2010
  11:15 AM

  There's typically at least one lonely old man/samurai/monk who appears hardened and toughened by life's low blows, but for some moral reason, he ends up doing the right thing and either A) kicks a lot of bad guys' tooshies, B) saves the townspeople from certain crisis, C) builds a playground for children, D) dissects a plot and points out the serious problems of what we know as "truth" or E) both A and B, which then results in the love of a woman/a group of little children/a town full of locals which leaves the viewer with a warmth in their heart, a glean of honesty in their mind, and a hunger in their belly (as these things take about 2 1/2 hours to resolve).

• By Matthew Buckwalter
  March 23, 2010
  11:16 AM

  If Buddha made a movie, it'd be Seven Samurai and it must be watched.

• By Matt Warner
  March 23, 2010
  11:16 AM

  You keep telling me you want to have good taste in movies; I'm telling you, this is absolutely the best place to start.

• By TD Lansdale
  March 23, 2010
  11:16 AM

  I Live in Fear for you if you do not search High and Low, even to the Lower Depths, To Live One Wonderful Sunday by watching The Most Beautiful of Akira Kurosawa's films, or should I simply call you, 'The Idiot?'

• By A D
  March 23, 2010
  11:16 AM

  Truly, it is an opportunity to learn ... and not just about film and film making.

• By Miran T
  March 23, 2010
  11:16 AM

  Kurosawa has made so many movies that you're bound to find something to love; from action adventure to police procedurals to group on a mission to carpe diem to samurai to epic war to quiet dramas.

• By ALEX
  March 23, 2010
  11:17 AM

  Kurosawa films are the source material for life.

• By Matthew Campbell
  March 23, 2010
  11:17 AM

  The art of Kurosawa: History goes in; humanity comes out.

• By Luc Bouvrette
  March 23, 2010
  11:18 AM

  The theatre of life through the eyes of a philosophical stylist.

• By Ben C
  March 23, 2010
  11:18 AM

  To my friend who loves Star Wars: "Hey, so you should watch a Kurosawa film called Hidden Fortress. Its basically Star Wars but ten times more badass." While he still prefers Star Wars, as soon as we finished Hidden Fortress, he immediately asked what else we should watch, and now claims that Kurosawa is his favorite director, and Rashomon his favorite film.

• By Duane P
  March 23, 2010
  11:18 AM

  Kurosawa films- lightning flashes scorch the screen cinema reborn

• By Sean Greenwood
  March 23, 2010
  11:18 AM

  What sets Kurosawa apart from others is his ability to make his films feel universal--you aren't just watching a Japanese film about a group of hired samurai, you're watching a film about seven guys who reluctantly band together to protect the innocent from evil.

• By Eben Price
  March 23, 2010
  11:18 AM

  "You will never see a more thrilling and a more moving film than _Seven Samurai_."

• By CJ Roy
  March 23, 2010
  11:18 AM

  Yes, I'm sure you will like Yojimbo as much as A Fistful of Dollars, call it a hunch.

• By Nicholas Lundgren
  March 23, 2010
  11:19 AM

  It all depends upon whom I'm trying to convince... A college boy, uninterested in anything but action: "Kurosawa essentially invented action; plus, his main star Toshiro Mifune? He used to chase his whiskey with beer. Nothing cooler than that." A film major/professional: "You haven't seen any Kurosawa? You haven't seen film." A Literary Obsessive: "You simply HAVE to see Rashoman; the Faulknerian, multi-perspective narrative is spectacular." A Human Being: "You know what? All of my hyperbolic praise aside, Kurosawa films are just plain entertaining."

• By dany Saadia
  March 23, 2010
  11:19 AM

  JS ZOLLIKER Kurosowa would be 100 years today. He died 12 years ago. People still remember him Is this EPIC or what? By the way, watch Rashomon.

• By Katie Lombardo
  March 23, 2010
  11:19 AM

  His films will give you a reason to want to live: to witness beauty, to feel pain, to get into the minds of others, to be a samurai, to live life to the fullest...his films will change the way you view the world and will be the most productive use of three hours you will ever find.

• By RojD
  March 23, 2010
  11:19 AM

  C'mon man....he's totally doin' a Tarantino, only west-to-east and 50 years earlier...

• By Eric
  March 23, 2010
  11:19 AM

  He is so good, even the Barenaked Ladies put his name in one of their songs.

• By Shawn Moore
  March 23, 2010
  11:20 AM

  Kurosawa is as epic as Lean, as historical as DeMille, as witty as Sturges, as heartfelt as Capra, as violent as Peckinpah, as engaging as Ford, as spectacular as Spielberg, as challenging as Tarantino, as inventive as Griffith, as human as Chaplin and as entertaining as Hitchcock.

• By David Duarte
  March 23, 2010
  11:20 AM

  Kurosawa's films inspired me to love graceful beauty, and I love you, so let's watch one.

• By Rob Koval
  March 23, 2010
  11:21 AM

  Kurosawa transcends filmmaking and offers a visionary new look to cinema. From retelling classic stories in innovative ways to influencing generations to come, Kurosawa is cinema at its finest.

• By Patrick May
  March 23, 2010
  11:21 AM

  Kurosawa is a director whose films reflect every aspect of the Japanese psyche, as well as the universal human condition.

• By Rob Koval
  March 23, 2010
  11:22 AM

  Simply put, this is the guy who influenced Scorsese, Polanski, Lucas, Spielberg, Coppola, the list goes on and on.

• By Jordan Nisly
  March 23, 2010
  11:22 AM

  Kurosawa's mastery of film-making and his unflinching vision for pushing the boundaries of story-telling has led to an impact that can still be felt today, through his deeply personal and emotional movies, his influence on modern cinema, and his bridging the gap of post-WWII tensions between Japan & the U.S.

• By Kevin Linke
  March 23, 2010
  11:22 AM

  Every great movie made today is just a remake of one of Kurosawa's films.

• By William H.
  March 23, 2010
  11:23 AM

  Want to grasp the beauty of philosophy without having to open a book?

• By Darren
  March 23, 2010
  11:23 AM

  Kurasawa's films are beautiful, rich in character and story, well paced, thoughtful, exciting, Samurai era period pieces and contemporary dramas, highly influential and FANTASTIC - so watch some already.

• By Robert Monroe
  March 23, 2010
  11:24 AM

  Go see SEVEN SAMURAI in the theater...if you don't love it I'll reimburse you double the price of the movie ticket plus take you to a japanese restaurant for dinner and lots of sake!

• By Tim Robinson
  March 23, 2010
  11:24 AM

  Just watch, have no expectations, and you will have an epiphany! This man painted with the camera, he made music with the lens, an alchemist of vision, he forged gold out of the most base ingredients. Enough words, language cannot do him justice. He is all HEART, and he emanated such a strong human compassion and sense of fallibility through his art. Peace

• By James Chow
  March 23, 2010
  11:24 AM

  If you think you have daddy issues, I challenge you to watch "Ran" and and tell me you're still messed up.

• By Brad Neel
  March 23, 2010
  11:25 AM

  Like Hitchcock is the Master of Suspense, Kurosawa is the Master of Action Films.

• By Sugith Varughese
  March 23, 2010
  11:26 AM

  Whatever time you spend watching Kurosawa movies you gain by not having to watch Peckinpah, Ford, Spielberg, Lucas, Scorcese and Hitchcock since they all stole from him anyway.

• By KP
  March 23, 2010
  11:27 AM

  Hey you: What, you never heard of Kurosawa, this is shameful, the master director who has inspired countless filmmakers and continues to inspire, immediately Insert the disc: Seven Samurai (Criterion Collection) DVD into your player...prepare to experience film perfection.

• By Grady Welch
  March 23, 2010
  11:27 AM

  Kurosawa may be the most important filmmaker to ever live because he transformed the entire world's perception of Japanese culture from fear of Hirohito's imperialism to understanding and, most importantly, compassion for its people through his expertly-crafted tapestries of their history and intimate displays of modern humanity.

• By Roberto Bentivegna
  March 23, 2010
  11:27 AM

  The flash of a samurai sword cuts the screen in two, a poem of blood, a filmic haiku.

• By CJ Marsicano
  March 23, 2010
  11:27 AM

  Honey, I was watching One Wonderful Sunday the other day, and it reminded me of you and I. :)

• By Alex
  March 23, 2010
  11:28 AM

  I'd say let's watch a Kurosawa film but you probably couldn't handle it.

• By Michael Kelly
  March 23, 2010
  11:28 AM

  The worst film by Akira Kurosawa I've ever seen is better that the majority of other movies ever made; and besides, this one's got sword fights!

• By Thorkell A. Ottarsson
  March 23, 2010
  11:28 AM

  If Shakespeare had been a Samurai and made films instead of plays then his name would have been Akira Kurosawa.

• By Carl Garcia
  March 23, 2010
  11:28 AM

  Imagine seeing something that is not only superbly well crafted, but gives you an understanding and appreciation of your own life; then imagine that same something has super badass samurai in it.

• By Alex Mize
  March 23, 2010
  11:28 AM

  I won 25 Kurasawa films from Criterion, pick one and let's see if this guy is any good!

• By DAVID DELBAUM
  March 23, 2010
  11:29 AM

  KUROSAWA IS TRUTH.

• By Mark
  March 23, 2010
  11:30 AM

  High and Low (1963) is a contemporary procedural kidnapping thriller that’s rife with the moral dilemmas, flawed heroes, class struggles, seething guilt, and striking visuals that collectively show off the tone and concentrated directorial style of a master filmmaker whose works have influenced many western directors, including John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven) and George Lucas (Star Wars), and maybe, one day, yourself!

• By Tom C.
  March 23, 2010
  11:31 AM

  Before Clint, there was "Thirty-year-old mulberry bush" and I have it on good authority Shakespeare wrote King Lear just so Kurosawa could create RAN.

• By Bries Vannon
  March 23, 2010
  11:32 AM

  Everything you hold dear - life, humanity, beauty, honor; those are only the foundation on which Kurosawa has built his monument.

• By Tim
  March 23, 2010
  11:32 AM

  it's got that something

• By Bill Seabrook
  March 23, 2010
  11:32 AM

  We remember and treasure and recommend movies that do something big that hasn't been done before. Pinter's "Betrayal" told the story in reverse time, starting in the present and ending in the past. "The Wizard of Oz" modulated from black and white to color to enrich Dorothy's dream. Kurosawa's "Rashomon" tells the story in four versions, one for each character, and leaves it to the viewer to decide what really happened. It's a breakthrough film that you never forget. It thrills me to recommend this timeless and very original film to you, my friend.

• By Tim Robinson
  March 23, 2010
  11:32 AM

  OOPS! Just read the 'In one sentence' part! So here is my feeble attempt: Just watch, have no expectations, and you will have an epiphany - this man painted with the camera, he made music with the lens, an alchemist of vision, he forged gold out of the most base ingredients.

• By Hal Ross
  March 23, 2010
  11:32 AM

  As I could never presume, I will quote the final lines of Kurosawa's autobiography, "Something Like an Autobiography," which after you watch his films you will want to read: "I am a maker of films; films are my true medium...Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people [as in cinema]...I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself."

• By Paul Hurt
  March 23, 2010
  11:33 AM

  Artistry and action, a director who's soul can be seen on film.

• By Kaare Kvenild
  March 23, 2010
  11:33 AM

  Do you want to watch "A Fistful of Dollars" only more bad-ass?

• By Todd Woods
  March 23, 2010
  11:35 AM

  Instead of arguing with me about what it would take for Hollywood to make better action movies, watch some Kurosawa and you'll know. (BTW this actually happened)

• By Enrique B Chamorro
  March 23, 2010
  11:35 AM

  Kurosawa puts on film all the timeless tales that we love to see, that we need to see!

• By Gary Dunaway
  March 23, 2010
  11:36 AM

  You'll forget the film is subtitled.

• By Collier
  March 23, 2010
  11:36 AM

  Kurosawa's films have feel to them, a respect of self and one's fellow man, a sense both tangible and emotional, that you just can't shake, not for years, not forever, that will change your life.

• By Ronak M Soni
  March 23, 2010
  11:37 AM

  You have to watch a Kurosawa; not only is he one of the best-loved directors of all time, but also I get twenty-five of his films if you watch one.

• By jason
  March 23, 2010
  11:37 AM

  Kurosawa is the summit where the heights of philosophy, art and beauty meet.

• By Stefan
  March 23, 2010
  11:37 AM

  Akira Kurosawa makes films about real people and real emotions and captures them in the most beautiful and honest way, you owe it to yourself to watch his films.

• By Miss Lisa
  March 23, 2010
  11:38 AM

  Thanks to Kurosawa, my guiding principle in tough situations is, "What would Toshiro Mifune do?"

• By Andrzej Banas
  March 23, 2010
  11:38 AM

  Within these 25 capsules, we'll find Kurosawa's dreams that will last for for eight thousand generations, until pebbles grow into boulders lush with moss.

• By Ricardo Osbaldo Torres
  March 23, 2010
  11:39 AM

  Failure, triumph, grace, love, hatred, glory, honour, betrayal, loyalty, hope, despair, existentialism, bellic conflict, transcendence, oblivion: all in the space of several hours worth of inane sitcoms, variety or 'reality T.V.' shows.

• By James Byrnes
  March 23, 2010
  11:39 AM

  Because nobody loves the rain more.

• By Joseph Barbaree
  March 23, 2010
  11:39 AM

  Upon actually surviving an elaborate suicide attempt involving multiple, self-inflicted throat and wrist lacerations (due in part to the box office failure of one of his films), a symbolic act representative of his overwhelming connection with his work, the gentleman continued to make breathtaking films which, in so many ways, truly crossed entire cultural divides and brought a global community of film-goers together (as made evident by an entire month of celebration, honorably titled "Kurosawa Month" at Criterion), so I must ask you: "How could the life and work of this man not interest you even in the slightest?"

• By Benjamin Crais
  March 23, 2010
  11:40 AM

  If you love film, watch a Kurosawa movie, if you love theatre, watch a Kurosawa movie, if you love music, romance, comedy, action, tradgedy or beauty...watch a Kurosawa movie.

• By James Mulligan
  March 23, 2010
  11:40 AM

  Augh, it's Kurosawa!!! He just... oh my goodness he's just so good.

• By ERIC WALES
  March 23, 2010
  11:40 AM

  Your favorite movie (whatever it may be) owes it's existence to, and will be supplanted by, any film from the greatest director of all time, Akira Kurosawa.

• By J.D. Connor
  March 23, 2010
  11:40 AM

  1. How does this happen, this "having friends who have not seen a Kurosawa film" of which you speak? 2. Remember that time you went out on that date with your ex and I lied to your girlfriend that we were having guy-movie-night? It was a Kurosawa marathon--Stray Dog, Yojimbo, and Seven Samurai. Guess what just showed up in her netflix queue? [Okay, that's 3 sentences.] 3. This is why I named my son Toshiro.

• By T.J. Royal
  March 23, 2010
  11:41 AM

  Have you ever seen movie weather as angry as the people in the movie itself?

• By Francois Veillette
  March 23, 2010
  11:41 AM

  Inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, Ran is simply the best movie ever, great story, great acting, magnificient battles, and the colors.... You have to see the colors!

• By Julio Pena
  March 23, 2010
  11:41 AM

  Times are tough; a plane ticket to Japan is expensive. Want to get to know the legend of the fabled Japanese samurais? Watch "The Seven Samurai". Want to get to know the perserverance of the Japanese post-WWII? Watch "No Regrets for Our Youth". Want to get to know the hopes and dreams of the Japanese living on the margins? Watch "Dodes'ka-den". Want to get to know Japan through the eyes of a man that was there? Watch a film by Akira Kurosawa.

• By Erick R. Wilczynski
  March 23, 2010
  11:43 AM

  If you like shallow hollywood action films you may not even know you like deeper more story based action films. Yojimbo is a necessary watch.

• By Mark Bourne
  March 23, 2010
  11:44 AM

  Trust me. After you watch your first Kurosawa film, not only will you immediately want to watch another, you'll feel as though you've never actually watched any movie before this one.

• By Christopher Shaw
  March 23, 2010
  11:45 AM

  "Yo Jimbo! You're gonna freakin' love this movie!"

• By Anthony Holly
  March 23, 2010
  11:45 AM

  I know you hate old movies, black and white movies, foreign movies, and movies you have to read, but if you hate even one second of a Kurosawa film, I'd be amazed. Pick any film, there is such a wide range of topics to choose from, from criminals to crazy samurai, all of which are fascinating. I guarantee that after you've seen just one Kurosawa film your life will have changed for the better and that you will want to see them all.......and hopefully I win this contest so that I will then own most of them to be able to watch them with you.

• By Isaac B
  March 23, 2010
  11:45 AM

  The breadth and depth of the human condition that he covers, from war to peace, grandeur to minutiae, make it worth the price of admission.

• By chris ure
  March 23, 2010
  11:45 AM

  Without Kurosawa, there would be no STAR WARS.

• By Hassan Alamdari
  March 23, 2010
  11:46 AM

  Do you want to see the movies that everyone has ripped off?

• By John Touhey
  March 23, 2010
  11:46 AM

  Do your soul a favor, dear friend, and watch Ikiru, one of the most beautiful and moving meditations on the meaning of life ever put to film!

• By Paul Zach
  March 23, 2010
  11:46 AM

  When you get sick of watching Grey's Anatomy and ER reruns, Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard will put you back in the pink of health.

• By Zachary Freiesleben
  March 23, 2010
  11:46 AM

  If you've seen The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars and Star Wars, you can thank Akira Kurosawa because those three movies are derived from Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and The Hidden Fortress respectively.

• By Zach Moore
  March 23, 2010
  11:47 AM

  Dear good friend, if you appreciate cinema, then why don't you have any Kurosawa in your diet?

• By PHILL ANTONINO
  March 23, 2010
  11:47 AM

  Have you seen A Fistful of Dollars? Yojimbo is basically that, but instead of badass cowboys with guns, its badass samurai with swords.

• By Derek Sweetman
  March 23, 2010
  11:47 AM

  Let me show you the basis for 95% of everything you've loved in film in the past 30 years and, yes, you can borrow them from my new DVD box set from the fine, fine people at Criterion.

• By WEST ANTHONY
  March 23, 2010
  11:48 AM

  You couldn't imagine music without The Beatles, or magic without Houdini; science without Einstein, or baseball without The Babe... I couldn't imagine cinema without Kurosawa.

• By Mike McConnell
  March 23, 2010
  11:48 AM

  We need to watch Hidden Fortress one last time before George Lucas updates it with new actors and special effects.

• By AS
  March 23, 2010
  11:48 AM

  It shows why even in a world beyond our control there is room for personal responsibility; plus, it shows that brief period of time after world war 2 but before Japan's return to (most of) the world's good graces when things were tough; and Japanese baseball!

• By Anthony Bowman
  March 23, 2010
  11:48 AM

  Kurosawa may have influenced just about every director you love today, but more importantly, he made great films that stand apart from anything else you've ever seen, each one spilling over with humor and heart, with some badassery mixed in for good measure.

• By Morgan White
  March 23, 2010
  11:48 AM

  Much like The Beatles have influenced all genres of music, Kurosawa has done the same for film.

• By Jason Davis
  March 23, 2010
  11:48 AM

  Kurosawa was to the screen what Shakespeare was to the stage.

• By Allen Agnew
  March 23, 2010
  11:49 AM

  You liked John Belushi, Samurai Sandwichmaker, now, see the original inspiration!

• By Jessica Schneider
  March 23, 2010
  11:49 AM

  Quit yer bitchin' about how much Hollywood films suck and try watching a real filmmaker for once!

• By bianca o.
  March 23, 2010
  11:49 AM

  Epic fights, scam artists, train freaks, take your pick!

• By David P
  March 23, 2010
  11:50 AM

  Hey, I can't be your friend if you don't watch Kurosawa.

• By Giovanni Colantonio
  March 23, 2010
  11:50 AM

  No amount of 3D or visual effects can so easily connect you to a fictional world like Kurosawa's trick-less art.

• By Ray O.
  March 23, 2010
  11:50 AM

  Start with Yojimbo--it's got loads of action, a heart-stopping climax, a riveting plot, and quite a bit of comedy; in other words, I guarantee you will want to see Sanjuro afterward.

• By William Vanyo
  March 23, 2010
  11:51 AM

  Kurosawa is so great, even Shakespeare stole from him!

• By Brandon Econ
  March 23, 2010
  11:52 AM

  "Like Kurosawa I make mad films, wait, I don't make films, but if I did they'd have a samurai."

• By Nick Singer
  March 23, 2010
  11:52 AM

  Ran will make you understand not just why Kurosawa and Shakespeare, half-way around the world from each other, in different languages, different times, are both geniuses--but also, the incredible power of the cinema, to make you not just understand, but FEEL, that all of we humans are so small, and so futile, and yet so brave, and that we share so much with each other even though we may not always recognize it.

• By joshua nelson
  March 23, 2010
  11:53 AM

  where would spielberg and lucas be without this man?

• By Scott McGee
  March 23, 2010
  11:53 AM

  To truly know the history of a nation, the rich tapestry of its people and its cultural influence across the globe, the Sensei waits.

• By Andrew
  March 23, 2010
  11:54 AM

  Beyond the universality of Kurosawa's work, it's his ability to so skillfully find the intersection between violence and humanity that makes his best films appeal to almost anyone.

• By Nate Twombly
  March 23, 2010
  11:55 AM

  If you want to see a movie with perfect cinematography at every point, every second, where one could pause the movie and still be in awe with the beauty captured on film then watch Seven Samurai. Every frame of this film was carefully planned out and executed by the pure genius of Kurosawua. Movies and moviemakers since and before have nothing on Kurosawua they all learned from him. Personally, I love to pause Seven Samuria because every frame is like a perfect photograph.

• By Alex Watkins
  March 23, 2010
  11:56 AM

  If you at all enjoy the modern action movie, see Seven Samurai.

• By sam harkham
  March 23, 2010
  11:56 AM

  You will cry at the sight of Toshiro Mifune in a loin cloth, covered in mud.

• By james hewey
  March 23, 2010
  11:56 AM

  Hi, my friend, if you have ever wondered what the sensation would be like, as a newborn child, taking that first breath, that first breath of startlingly fresh, clean air- that my friend- that is what watching your first Kurosawa film is like.

• By Andrew Bacon
  March 23, 2010
  11:57 AM

  I'm watching a Kurosawa movie this weekend, it's called "Throne of Blood," you should watch it, they shoot a guy with real arrows.

• By Jeff Scharlau
  March 23, 2010
  11:57 AM

  The Seven Samurai was the first lesson in masterful filmmaking for many, but watching it still feels like cutting class.

• By John Grimmer
  March 23, 2010
  11:57 AM

  You know all the movies that you love? Yeah, they are pretty much all based off of Kurosawa's films in one way or another.

• By Adam
  March 23, 2010
  11:58 AM

  Smoke, wind, zoom lenses, and arterial spurts!

• By DRC
  March 23, 2010
  11:58 AM

  Did you ever see "The Magnificent Seven". NO. Well this is better.

• By Levy Feiteira
  March 23, 2010
  11:58 AM

  Akira Kurosawa will remind you why we first started watching films.

• By Drew
  March 23, 2010
  11:59 AM

  I will KILL MYSELF if you don't watch a Kurosawa film today!

• By Kellie Haulotte
  March 23, 2010
  11:59 AM

  My friend you should watch Akira Kurosawa because you may think that Japanese culture is just anime but before that there a true mastermind, he made what today is known as Cinema.

• By Rob Brown
  March 23, 2010
  12:00 PM

  It'll only take 88 minutes to change your life forever.

• By Alex K
  March 23, 2010
  12:01 PM

  -Should I watch this movie? -Yes! -Why? -Well, because If you haven't watched Ikiru, then you haven't lived!

• By Shriraj Mohan
  March 23, 2010
  12:01 PM

  I dare you watch a Kurosawa movie and not watch another one

• By Andrew
  March 23, 2010
  12:02 PM

  Because he's Kurosawa, and that's reason enough.

• By Cheryl
  March 23, 2010
  12:02 PM

  If you like the Maginficent Seven then you have to definitely watch one of Kurosaw's movies, or yeah and if you liked Stars wars too.

• By Ryan
  March 23, 2010
  12:02 PM

  "Ran" takes place in feudal Japan, but somehow manages to be the most personal, immediate,and modern of all Shakespearean adaptations; it could not have been made by any other filmmaker at any other time.

• By Rob Bender
  March 23, 2010
  12:02 PM

  Kurosawa's Rashamon is so brilliant on so many levels, that you can even take a still frame from the film and discuss it at length.

• By George L. Moneo
  March 23, 2010
  12:04 PM

  My favorie Kurosawa movie, Ran: Laughter and reminiscence is heard, then one loud shot and Taro falls to the ground; Hidetora runs to his crumpled body, calling his name repeatedly, and then, he lets out a soundless scream that encompasses the pain of the final, awful consequence of his foolish and selfish life.

• By Henry Dykstal
  March 23, 2010
  12:04 PM

  Hey, let me tell you about this movie 'The Hidden Fortress' alright? It'd directed by Akira Kurosawa and stars Toshiro Mifune. Kurosawa is one of the greatest filmmakers of all tine , man. Think of someone better, try it. Tarantino? Mira Nair? Didn't think so. As for Mifune, man, he;s the most badass guy in movies! He can kick your ass and be utterly graceful while doing it. Now, for the movie. The Hidden Fortress is about these two peasents, serfs really, they sruvive a big battle and want to go home, but the winner's of the battle are blocking the roads, to make sure that the princess of the prefecture doesn't escape. Then they meet Toshiro Mifune's character, and he ends up bringing them on this epic journey. It's in black and white and subtitles ,but you won't even care. It's got fight scenes, screwball comedy, and Stars Wars took a lot of stuff from it. Now what are you doing sitting around, go watch it!

• By matt tabaka
  March 23, 2010
  12:04 PM

  Without Kurosawa =Impossible to imagine, because he directly changed our perception of film and cinematic storytelling. Even those who haven't seen his films have seen them (Star Wars, Sergio Leone westerns, ). It was an honor to live in his time.

• By Steve Koppelman
  March 23, 2010
  12:05 PM

  Watch Kurosawa because Ben Lim doesn't like his films.

• By Sean Young
  March 23, 2010
  12:05 PM

  An Akira Kurosawa film is that movie you’ve always imagined in your head, before your very eyes.

• By Greg Werlich
  March 23, 2010
  12:05 PM

  I'll provide the food and beverage, you just make sure you have three hours to spare.

• By Alex K
  March 23, 2010
  12:28 PM

  Everyone should plant a tree before they die, but if you lack the desire to do it then give Ikiru a go.

• By Christian Ramirez
  March 23, 2010
  12:29 PM

  Kurosawa's films embody the full potential of film making, including its ability to convey the human experience in all of its glory and grime.

• By Warren
  March 23, 2010
  12:30 PM

  The Seven Samurai is perfect; take a chance, and see it immediately.

• By Mike Barry
  March 23, 2010
  12:31 PM

  Watch one, take it or leave it, but proceed with caution as you may, just may, open up Pandora's (or if you a extremely lucky the AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa) Box, leading to innumerous hours spent in the company of Toshirô Mifune, planning and plotting with him that one perfect sentence that will convince your wife to watch 'just one' Kurosawa movie.

• By A. Miller
  March 23, 2010
  12:31 PM

  I 'm constantly trying to expand the horizons of my college students, showing them art-house, foreign, and silent films, most of which leave them groaning and demanding the latest blockbuster, but when I show them Seven Samurai, almost everyone stops whining, fidgeting, and surreptitiously checking their cell phones; if Kurosawa can win over a mob of disenchanted, largely uncultured, sleep-deprived, attention-deficit prone college students who usually see foreign films shot in black-and-white as institutionally sanctioned torture, what's stopping you from giving at least one Kurosawa film a try?

• By Patrick O'Leary
  March 23, 2010
  12:31 PM

  Seven Samurai has influenced countless films so you should see it in order to impress your friends when watching Star Wars.

• By Sam Bahre
  March 23, 2010
  12:32 PM

  Kurosawa was able to draw inspirations from his culture's past while looking forward into film's future.

• By Ryan Estabrooks
  March 23, 2010
  12:32 PM

  To my friends: Watching a Kurosawa film for the first time is like losing your virginity, but with samurai swords.

• By Jake Childers
  March 23, 2010
  12:32 PM

  I can guarantee that almost anyone that had anything to do with the making of any movie you love has, at some point, seen and loved a film by Akira Kurosawa.

• By Al
  March 23, 2010
  12:33 PM

  It isn't in 3-D. It's not even in colour! It won't assail you with gazillion-channel surround-sound!!! And either you have to understand Japanese or know how to read English. Kurosawa's films don't play at your local multiplex and never will. ... You know you'll love it! :)

• By SEAN C.
  March 23, 2010
  12:33 PM

  We're going to watch a movie; it's a black & white film with subtitles, an all Japanese cast, and it's 3 1/2 hours long...but it's way better than Titanic.

• By Andy I
  March 23, 2010
  12:34 PM

  To establish the setting of the corrupt, violent, gang torn village in Yojimbo; Kurosawa has a trained dog run towards the camera carrying a human hand in its mouth - the film is epic!

• By Caleb Wendling
  March 23, 2010
  12:36 PM

  If you want the answer to the question, "why are there beings at all instead of nothing", watch a Kurosawa film.

• By Michel Blemur
  March 23, 2010
  12:36 PM

  Kurosawa means a lot not only to me but to world culture in general and watching at least one of his films should be a requirement for a well rounded education

• By calvin Vankeersbilck
  March 23, 2010
  12:37 PM

  If you're interested in getting into great films, this is by all means the place to start.

• By Heather Kamp
  March 23, 2010
  12:38 PM

  You should watch this because he was one of the first to understand, a movie about another country didn't need to be "foreign".

• By Michelle Forsyth
  March 23, 2010
  12:38 PM

  You are never wasting time when watching Kurosawa.

• By Chris Martin
  March 23, 2010
  12:38 PM

  The epic works of Akira Kurosawa, regardless of which genre interests you, function as many of the most original, creative, entertaining, and emotionally moving examples of cinematography, original scores, narrative arcs, and character studies in the history of film.

• By Robert Lalonde
  March 23, 2010
  12:38 PM

  What are considered as the greatest directors of all time could only aspire to be as great as Kurosawa.

• By Daniel
  March 23, 2010
  12:38 PM

  Open yourself completely to the films of Akira Kurosawa, and in doing so he will stimulate your mind, open your heart and surely touch your soul.

• By Joel Newman
  March 23, 2010
  12:39 PM

  When you read King Lear back in high school, weren't you secretly thinking, "This could use some feudal Japanese warriors"?

• By Roy Baugher
  March 23, 2010
  12:39 PM

  "You need to watch a Kurosawa film, because all the people who love you, want you to do so."

• By Alex K
  March 23, 2010
  12:41 PM

  "I would like to thank the Academy and just add that I owe this to Akira Kurosawa, thank you."

• By Ellen
  March 23, 2010
  12:41 PM

  If you love Clint Eastwood's man with no name character, the CHUNG CHUNG of a Law & Order unsolved murder or even action movies with a message (cough cough not Michael Bay), this is where your journey begins and ends.

• By kyle Tracey
  March 23, 2010
  12:42 PM

  I remember being young and curious, so I picked up a Kurosawa film, watched it and my whole life changed, hope the same happens to you.

• By Joey Saade
  March 23, 2010
  12:44 PM

  He will live on forever through his films, don't you want to see why?

• By Scott Perrin
  March 23, 2010
  12:44 PM

  If a casual film watcher is curious to know who is one of the pioneers of cinema, then look no further then Akira Kurosawa.

• By dee l
  March 23, 2010
  12:46 PM

  Utterly spectacular films with an epic flow of raw emotions, characters, timeless atmosphere; a master storyteller that tells a universal tale in all languages.

• By Thomas Andersen
  March 23, 2010
  12:46 PM

  Star Wars, A Fistful of Dollars, and A Bug's Life; three pivotal pieces of Cinema that would not have existed without the influence of Akira Kurosawa.

• By Dave
  March 23, 2010
  12:46 PM

  Star Wars, The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, much science fiction, western and action cinema such as we know it, quite possibly American art house theaters such as we know them, and most likely American Shakespeare fans such as they are would not have existed without the films of Akira Kurosawa.

• By Austin B.
  March 23, 2010
  12:46 PM

  He is the single most important filmaker in Japanaese cinema, and without him, we'd have no "A Fistful of Dollars", no "Star Wars", and, frankly, little modern cinema worth talking about.

• By Sharon Bailey
  March 23, 2010
  12:46 PM

  Jeez, the thing about Kurosawa's movies is that no way can you sum them up like that...you just have to watch.

• By Justin Stowell
  March 23, 2010
  12:46 PM

  "It is because I was exposed to the likes of Seven Samurai and Yojimbo at a young age that I am trying to become a filmmaker myself."

• By Rich Kotkin
  March 23, 2010
  12:47 PM

  I would tell them that, Akira Kurosawa was the Chuck Norris of his time. I would then inform them that Kurosawa's talent was so scary good that when the Boogeyman would go to bed every night, he would check his closet for Akira Kurosawa.

• By Jeff Heise
  March 23, 2010
  12:47 PM

  Kurosawa is the master of the human epic-though his characters might be up against events so much bigger than they are, they remain human beings with flaws and virtues and they never disappear into the background-that is the mark of a truly great director.

• By Aaron W
  March 23, 2010
  12:47 PM

  The Man Without a Name challenges you William Munny!

• By Daniel Chavez
  March 23, 2010
  12:47 PM

  Like many great artists Kurosawa offers a window to the human condition, from the optimism of working together for a greater good to the futility of action because of fate to the longing to continue because there must be something more, he consistently delivered his own 'director's cut' vision.

• By Bill Hayes
  March 23, 2010
  12:48 PM

  Well, Gra'mom, I know you had your heart set on it, but I feel like watching something with the grandeur of John Ford, the flair for operatic violence of Martin Scorsese, the dark humor of peak Coen Brothers, and the mood creation abilities of a Stanley Kubrick, only...you know...better, so we are going to watch Seven Samurai and save our eighteenth viewing of Terms of Endearment until next week, cool?

• By Alexander Miller
  March 23, 2010
  12:49 PM

  Akira Kurosawa is the only director who has the ability to take you from the bowels of a war torn Japan to an inconceivably beautiful world of dreams, and I think if William himself could see what has been done with his work he would delightfully bow to a true emperor who has changed not only the world of film, but the world as we know it.

• By MATT PARKER
  March 23, 2010
  12:49 PM

  i can only say my life is richer for having seen them.

• By Joe Guerrero
  March 23, 2010
  12:49 PM

  Kurosawa combines all of the action, drama, and humor that you love so much in the movies you watch, only he does it BETTER, and with samurais.

• By Kevin
  March 23, 2010
  12:50 PM

  Since y'all like "Fistful of Dollars" and also like smart movies, let me introduce you to Kurosawa's pictures by showing "Yojimbo," the movie Leone copied in "Fistful"--it's essential a great Western, only with samurai instead of gunfighters (though one guy does carry a six-shooter).

• By Anthony Mania
  March 23, 2010
  12:50 PM

  So it's been about 2 hours since I decided to write something here, and all I can say is watching Kurosawa's films will change your life just take the leap.

• By Cinephile Stoned
  March 23, 2010
  12:50 PM

  Kirusawa is the purest filmmaker of all time. Plain and simple.

• By Bix Dugan
  March 23, 2010
  12:50 PM

  Watch this movie, or we'll shoot this dog.

• By Thomas Andersen
  March 23, 2010
  12:51 PM

  Star Wars, A Fistful of Dollars, and A Bug's Life; three pivotal pieces of Cinema that would not have existed without the influence of Akira Kurosawa.

• By Robert S.
  March 23, 2010
  12:51 PM

  How would you like to watch a film from the director who influenced Leone, Coppola, Scorcese, Spielberg, Lucas, Tarantino, and nearly every genre of film that is popular today?

• By Jason Mayer
  March 23, 2010
  12:51 PM

  It's merely a question of convenience--when determining the most effective and efficient manner of understanding humanity and greatness, a Kurosawa film distills it all in a mere 150 minutes, give or take.

• By Richard Edinger
  March 23, 2010
  12:52 PM

  Who doesn't like samurais?

• By David B
  March 23, 2010
  12:52 PM

  With all the second-rate action and adventure films you watch, you owe it to yourself to see the films of the master they stole everything from!

• By Chris Vickery
  March 23, 2010
  12:52 PM

  If you haven't seen Kurosawa, I envy you so much. You'll get to see Lear and his fool in a new way, the wonder of foxes having a funeral deep in the woods, the perfect tableau of seven samurai waiting to defend a small town from bandits, a crime story told from the different perspectives of the main characters--all for the first time. You'll feel you know these films, and you're just returning to them. Enjoy.

• By Lucas Taylor
  March 23, 2010
  12:52 PM

  Would you like to join me for a Kurosawa film and tea?

• By Jonathan
  March 23, 2010
  12:53 PM

  "Dude ["dude" is my disarming technique whenever I'm about to say something vaguely pretentious - ed.], he's like that spicy tuna roll you're eating -- all the trappings of exotic Asian cuisine while, in reality, being inherently "American", endlessly entertaining and accessible as he is enjoyable.

• By Josh Rhorer
  March 23, 2010
  12:54 PM

  Remember how much you said you hated Avatar? Well, this movie called "Seven Samurai" is 56 years old and is still vastly superior in almost every way. Kurosawa didn't need CGI to suck you in.

• By MATT PARKER
  March 23, 2010
  12:54 PM

  i can only say my life is richer for having seen them.

• By Meng Sen Quek (Vincent)
  March 23, 2010
  12:54 PM

  Hey don't watch a Kurosawa film - its too good for you.

• By Andy Heck
  March 23, 2010
  12:54 PM

  You'll never be a real film buff if you don't watch at least five of these movies.

• By Patrick Brown
  March 23, 2010
  12:55 PM

  Listen, watching one of these films is gonna start you down a slippery slope of watching as many as you can get your hands on, so maybe you'd better not - but if you're gonna do it, Yojimbo is my personal fave and a great place to start.

• By moonmaster9000
  March 23, 2010
  12:55 PM

  i'm going to call you a douche until you watch a kurosawa film.

• By Kris Hele
  March 23, 2010
  12:55 PM

  With High and Low, you get four films in one: a tense chamber drama in which a room full of people debates how to rescue a kidnapped child; a short, fast-paced action flick aboard a speeding train; a sustained, suspenseful police procedural that methodically tracks a dangerous psychopath; and finally, a dark, noirish manhunt that delves into the city's teeming underworld and comes to a close accompanied by an instrumental, almost tropical version of Elvis Presley's 1960 bossa nova hit, "It's Now or Never."

• By Kris H
  March 23, 2010
  12:56 PM

  With High and Low, you get four films in one: a tense chamber drama in which a room full of people debates how to rescue a kidnapped child; a short, fast-paced action flick aboard a speeding train; a sustained, suspenseful police procedural that methodically tracks a dangerous psychopath; and finally, a dark, noirish manhunt that delves into the city's teeming underworld and comes to a close accompanied by an instrumental, almost tropical version of Elvis Presley's 1960 bossa nova hit, "It's Now or Never."

• By William Gutheil
  March 23, 2010
  12:56 PM

  Those aspects of cinema you love so much; the techniques of telling a story you thought were so original; those camera movements that all of us take for granted; the ability of a filmmaker to construct an inescapable universe of utter amazement and awe from which you simply can't look away; they were all mastered here, with Akira Kurosawa.

• By Jared Westover
  March 23, 2010
  12:56 PM

  "Have you ever seen a surgeon beat up a gang of pimps? Man have I got a movie for you..."

• By Peter Labuza
  March 23, 2010
  12:57 PM

  It's like Orson Welles, John Ford, and Alfred Hitchcock, all wrapped into one amazing package, except it has the added dynamic of the influence of Japanese culture.

• By Andrew Crossley
  March 23, 2010
  12:57 PM

  What? Oh, Kurosawa? He's pretty good, he'll just change your life, make you believe that there's still beauty in the world, remind you that there's still a way out of darkness, show you the meaning of friendship and loyalty, take you more deeply and sincerely into the very core of human nature than you've ever been, make you think that maybe things are not always what they seem, and entertain you with buckets of blood and badass performances...

• By JZ
  March 23, 2010
  12:59 PM

  Watch Seven Samurai, for Akira's 100th Birthday's sake. Not all directors can "live" 100 years and be immortal in people's hearts. ++ iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ++ | :H:a:p:p:y: | ++ __|___________|__ ++ |^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | ++ | :B:i:r:t:h:d:a:y: | ++ | | ++ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• By Kenneth Starcher
  March 23, 2010
  01:00 PM

  Considering most of my friends were in middle or high school around the time the Barnaked Ladies were at their peak with their hit song "One Week," I'd just quote the song: "Like Kurosawa I make mad films; 'kay I don't make films, but if I did they'd have a samurai."

• By Elizabeth Hughes
  March 23, 2010
  01:00 PM

  Everything you ever need to know about what makes a film great or, in fact, how to make a great film, can be gleaned from watching, re-watching, and studying, "The Seven Samurai."

• By Freddie O'Connell
  March 23, 2010
  01:00 PM

  If you've ever listened to or read a great story--the hero's journey, the band of outsiders, the epic quest--and you enjoyed the great characters--clever detectives, bold samurai, tormented lovers--set in a classic genre--westerns/samurai, noir--or if you've ever watched a cartoon or read a comic book (manga or otherwise) that somehow resembled real life with exquisite visual imagery, then you'll want to watch at least one of Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's movies to see how he makes the foreign universal and the classic yarn a common experience of living.

• By Alex K
  March 23, 2010
  01:01 PM

  -Is this a good movie? Seven Samurai? -it's not bad, it's kind of like watching the ice hockey finals with your favorite team, if you like that sort of thing.

• By Joe Goad
  March 23, 2010
  01:02 PM

  "If you like action, art-house, romance, comedy, drama, suspense, tragedy, character pieces, westerns, samurai, or simply the magic of cinema, you'll love Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, the best film ever made."

• By Joe Goad
  March 23, 2010
  01:02 PM

  "If you like action, art-house, romance, comedy, drama, suspense, tragedy, character pieces, westerns, samurai, or simply the magic of cinema, you'll love Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, the best film ever made."

• By Mark Teppo
  March 23, 2010
  01:04 PM

  Kurosawa once had a dream about Vincent Van Gogh; he decided to make a short of film of this dream and the man he asked to play Van Gogh was director Martin Scorsese: the combination of those three details are what makes Kurosawa's films art as much as cinema.

• By John Espinoza
  March 23, 2010
  01:04 PM

  The last film in the Kurosawa festival playing at the Stanford Theater is RAN, which is an adaptation of King Lear, although I know you don't like Shakespeare or anything subtitled, but I will buy you your ticket, your popcorn, your Sprite, and all the sugar you *think* you need to keep you awake.

• By Robbie
  March 23, 2010
  01:05 PM

  He may not change your life, but he WILL make you see it in a new way.

• By Kathleen beck
  March 23, 2010
  01:05 PM

  I thought I had seen exquisite perfection in a few of the many films I have viewed in my life, but then I saw my first Akira Kurosawa film and realized I hadn't even been qualified to judge.

• By Brent Smith
  March 23, 2010
  01:06 PM

  Samurai and Shakespeare - what else do you need in a film?

• By Bradford Pomeroy
  March 23, 2010
  01:08 PM

  By retaining a subtle balance between the humanist and the warrior, Seven Samurai’s majestic depiction of strength, compassion, and courage set in early Japan, is that rare film that is not only essential viewing, but a meaningful epic that will inspire and remain with you for years to come as it has (and will continue) for generations since 1954.

• By Colin Brooker
  March 23, 2010
  01:09 PM

  You can't truly say you like movies until you've been exposed to the pure awesomeness that is Seven Samurai...and Ran...and Yojimbo...and Sanjuro.........

• By Alex
  March 23, 2010
  01:10 PM

  Kurosawa has influenced many American directors, and there's a good chance that your favorite movies were influenced by him, you NEED to check out where the influence came from.

• By Martin Paul Farinha
  March 23, 2010
  01:10 PM

  "George, before you make any more Star Wars movies please go back and watch Hidden Fortress again, it's obvious you forgot what inspired you to make such a great movie the first time around, in fact just buy the AK:100 box set and watch them all, lets face it, you can afford it!"

• By Ryan Quackenbush
  March 23, 2010
  01:10 PM

  Everything on screen is completely human done with samurai swords, guns and a paintbrush.

• By Julian Terry
  March 23, 2010
  01:12 PM

  To picture what true cinema looks like, watch a Kurosawa film.

• By Deborah Malitz
  March 23, 2010
  01:12 PM

  (My husband is an Urban Planner who has dealt with obdurate bureaucracy most of his professional life in his efforts to affect life-affirming change in our towns and cities): Watch what happens when a mid-level bureaucrat, who has spent a lifetime pushing skyscraper towers of meaningless paperwork, is suddenly faced with his own mortality and decides to act!

• By Peter Albani
  March 23, 2010
  01:13 PM

  If you like Star Wars, Magnificent Seven or a movie by George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Sergio Leone, and Quentin Tarantino you will love an Akira Kurosawa movie. (works for me my Ran (my friend still has it) and Seven Samurai DVD's circulate alot)

• By Justin Harp
  March 23, 2010
  01:14 PM

  Never before Kuroawa and never again after Kurosawa has there been a filmmaker so expertly capable of turning even the most banal moments in life into beautiful, eloquent, and heart-wrenching art that defines not just film but art itself.

• By Matthew J. Brady
  March 23, 2010
  01:14 PM

  Adapting Shakespearean tragedy to the samurai milieu may seem like a strange idea, but he did it multiple times, with complete success, and that's only one aspect of his amazing career.

• By Brian Silva
  March 23, 2010
  01:15 PM

  Have you ever seen pink smoke?

• By Kevin
  March 23, 2010
  01:16 PM

  If you've not seen 'RASHOMON' - let's watch it before some fool attempts to remake cinematic perfection.

• By Mike D
  March 23, 2010
  01:16 PM

  Not only will familiarity with the films of Kurosawa give you strong art film lover credibility, but they will give you an understanding of where some of your favourite themes and images from contemporary American cinema got their inspiration.

• By Hugh O'Brien
  March 23, 2010
  01:17 PM

  Because Kurosawa is the greatest, and so are you.

• By Nick Bruno
  March 23, 2010
  01:18 PM

  Ok, if you're tired of one-dimensional, single perspective films, why don't we give Rashomon a try?

• By Connor
  March 23, 2010
  01:18 PM

  "Its my turn to pick the movie for movie night."

• By Peter Albani
  March 23, 2010
  01:18 PM

  If you like any movie by George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Sergio Leone, and Quentin Tarantino watch an Akira Kurosawa movie, you will be amazed. (Works for me, my Ran (friend still has it) and Seven Samurai DVD's circulate alot)

• By MATT FITZWATER
  March 23, 2010
  01:19 PM

  "Yojimbo" is probably the best combination of swordplay, gunplay, humor, and a jolly soundtrack.

• By JM Francheteau
  March 23, 2010
  01:23 PM

  "If you'll just agree to watch Throne of Blood, I won't be obligated to tie you down with this here rope I've brought; the choice is in your hands."

• By Sue
  March 23, 2010
  01:23 PM

  Kurosawa never made a bad film, only universally beautiful, thoughtful, well-acted masterpieces that fill the viewer with joy, sorrow, questions and sometime answers, and will always leave you wanting more.

• By Timothy Compton
  March 23, 2010
  01:23 PM

  Who knew sublime came in 35mm?

• By CLINT SIMPSON
  March 23, 2010
  01:23 PM

  Dear friend, I would like to take a moment and tell you about one of the world's greatest filmmakers to ever grace the screen with his directorial presence.. His name is Akira Kurosawa. He was a Japanese born director who has inspired a countless number of artists and filmmakers alike. His ability to tell a story is truly unique. The first time I saw Seven Samurai I was in awe, each character had a subtlety about them that created something that seemed indefinitely real. I was pulled into this village without thought and I felt compassion, sadness, relief, comedy, honor and many, many other emotions. His films will take you to far off places and encompass you will unique visual storytelling that is unlike anything you will ever see again. There is a lot to say about Akira Kurosawa that I could probably not describe to you. The only way to have a true Kurosawa experience is to watch it with your own two eyes, and you will be glad you did. Here is a list of some of his greatest achievements and some of my personal favorites: 1. Nora inu aka Stray Dog (1949) 2. Shichinin no samurai aka Seven Samurai (1954) 3. Kakushi-toride no san-akunin aka The Hidden Fortress (1958) 4. Rashômon (1950) 5. Akahige aka Red Beard (1965) Happy watching! Your friend.

• By Eric Prince
  March 23, 2010
  01:23 PM

  Kurosawa is constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament !

• By Alexandre Rousseau
  March 23, 2010
  01:23 PM

  The great Akira Kurosawa may well be the only director able to rightfully extract all of humanity's sensibility through such colossal and epic imageries.

• By Chris Kelly
  March 23, 2010
  01:24 PM

  "High and Low" packs three amazing films into one, veering from tense kidnapping drama to police procedural to a bizarre third act featuring heroin zombies, dance hall mania, and a final jailhouse confrontation.

• By J
  March 23, 2010
  01:24 PM

  For your honor and humanity, watch this.

• By RaShanti
  March 23, 2010
  01:25 PM

  "You liked The Thirteenth Warrior, Three Amigos, A Bug's Life, Battle Beyond the Stars, and The Magnificent Seven; they are the illegitimate bastard spawn of the greatest movie you haven't seen - Seven Samurai."

• By Christopher Gibson
  March 23, 2010
  01:25 PM

  If you want to be my friend, you'll have to watch a Kurosawa film ...

• By Jorge A. Garcia
  March 23, 2010
  01:25 PM

  This movie was directed by an Emperor that viewed his kingdom through a pair of dark sunglasses and ruled it with a vision that is to this day, everything that cinema should be.

• By John Erwin
  March 23, 2010
  01:25 PM

  As a finely handcrafted watch measures time, you do not simply watch a Kurosawa film, you witness it.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:25 PM

  The Samurai film that started a whole new genre of Western-Yojimbo.

• By Sarah
  March 23, 2010
  01:25 PM

  When you experience something truly wonderful in life, it's in our nature, the overflowing compulsion to share that something with those around us, especially with ones we love.

• By YiFeng You
  March 23, 2010
  01:26 PM

  Watch how Kurosawa shows the world what the word epic truly means in every sense of the word.

• By Terry L. Hulsey
  March 23, 2010
  01:27 PM

  Kurosawa's films bring together the perfect balance of heart, mind and eye.

• By Matthew Velez
  March 23, 2010
  01:27 PM

  Oh wow, if you love Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese so much, then you should watch a film from the man that inspired all of them... Akira Kurosawa; let's go watch Seven Samurai!

• By Joe Armenio
  March 23, 2010
  01:27 PM

  I can think of few artists, in any medium, whose work pulses with such love and despair: these are films made by a man fully in love with life, half in love with death, his despair vividly and harrowingly explored in, and defeated by, art.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:28 PM

  The first Japanese Noir to start it all -Stray Dog

• By Jack
  March 23, 2010
  01:29 PM

  I have and will never see and Akira Kurosawa film that does not astound me.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:29 PM

  Whose is your favortie director? Chances are he would exsist if it weren't for Kurosawa

• By Eric Humble
  March 23, 2010
  01:29 PM

  Forget the fact that "Seven Samurai" has had countless imitators, and spawned the entire genre of "men on a mission" movies (from the likes of The Dirty Dozen straight up to Inglourious Basterds) and forget that it was the only one of Kurosawa's films to be seen by the great Fellini and still prompted him to claim that Kurosawa was the greatest living example of what a filmmaker should be--see the movie because it will inspire and entertain you, no matter who you are, no matter what your tastes, no matter how you feel.

• By Henry Colin
  March 23, 2010
  01:30 PM

  If you want to know anything about foreighn films, and how they have affected western culture and the dozens of remakes you see today, watch a Kurosawa film, they are so much better and you will still get a kick out of them, I suggest Yojimbo first, you will laugh and still see the master at work.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:30 PM

  From the people who brought you Yojimbo SANJURO!

• By John
  March 23, 2010
  01:30 PM

  Akira Kurosawa will make you love foreign film.

• By Brandon Botta
  March 23, 2010
  01:31 PM

  If you haven't experienced Kurosawa, you haven't experienced film.

• By Mark Hendrix
  March 23, 2010
  01:31 PM

  His infuence is so great that cinema history could easily be split into pre-Kurosawa and post-Kurosawa eras, and an examination of his work and everything that came after it would reveal that the essence of modern film began with his work.

• By Emit DLR
  March 23, 2010
  01:31 PM

  If you are open-minded and want to see some compelling non-American made films, Kurosawa will open your eyes to just how incredible and powerful film can be.

• By David Scherer
  March 23, 2010
  01:31 PM

  If you care anything about the great Hollywood Classic Westerns, you have to see the film that inspired them to be thoughtful, action packed, visually beautiful and full of humanity... Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai".

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:31 PM

  Mifune Kurosawa Together again for the last time Red Beard

• By Justin
  March 23, 2010
  01:32 PM

  "His films are nothing but hot, naked Asian chicks!" We can lie, right?

• By Jared Busch
  March 23, 2010
  01:32 PM

  All of modern cinema begins with Kurosawa.

• By Sean Parrott
  March 23, 2010
  01:32 PM

  Friend, the following people whose first names need not be included are Kurosawa fans; Bergman, Fellini, Altman, Spielberg, Polanski, Scorcese, Peckinpah, Woo, Coppola (the old one), Tarkovsky, Lumet, Leone, Bertolucci, and, last but not least, Parrott.

• By Martin
  March 23, 2010
  01:32 PM

  A long time ago in a galaxy we call our own, George Lucas created Star Wars -- only he ripped it off from Akira Kurosawa.

• By Alexander Bucsis
  March 23, 2010
  01:32 PM

  On Ikiru: When leaving this film, you will be leaving with many lifetimes' worth of knowledge and you will be able to point to the moment when you first understood life and why we live it.

• By Andy the Scot
  March 23, 2010
  01:33 PM

  Please don't stare at those goats; take a crack at viewing any Kurosawa flick for a mind bending experience!

• By Kevin Church
  March 23, 2010
  01:33 PM

  Everything you need to know about doing right by others, giving a part of yourself for a common cause, and upholding ideals under difficult circumstances is contained in SEVEN SAMURAI; there's also swords.

• By Em
  March 23, 2010
  01:34 PM

  You can't be a serious student of Japanese and only learn the words you see in giant robot anime–start listening to real people talk and see some expert filmmaking at the same time.

• By John Eddy
  March 23, 2010
  01:36 PM

  You know how Lucas talks about The Hidden Fortress (and others) as an inspiration for Star Wars? Well, prepare for the non-robot R2D2/C3PO. (yes, ok, its 2 sentences)

• By J-S. Cote
  March 23, 2010
  01:37 PM

  I would simply borrow his own words, spoken originally about director Satiajit Ray: "To have not seen the films of Kurosawa is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun. "

• By Francisco Lo
  March 23, 2010
  01:39 PM

  Many have tried to adapt a Shakespearean play but few can match Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, a version of Macbeth set in feudal Japan that is made with a perfectionist's vision like a David Lean film and the dramatic intensity of an Orson Welles picture, all while being a truly original masterpiece.

• By Bryce Duncan
  March 23, 2010
  01:39 PM

  Look man, it's acceptable to say that he had a huge hand in introducing eastern film to the western part of the world, and that's all I have to say. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AKIRA!

• By Eric Chaskes
  March 23, 2010
  01:41 PM

  Kurosawa's samurai films show us the deepest levels of human reality, plus they're exciting.

• By jaime ryan heintz
  March 23, 2010
  01:41 PM

  NO ONE has come closer to capturing the tragedy and folly of the human condition... with or without a samurai sword and a fountain of blood.

• By Michael Roth
  March 23, 2010
  01:42 PM

  You wouldn't hesitate to watch a Kubrick film.

• By Christopher Black
  March 23, 2010
  01:42 PM

  "Hey I've learned there's this master's degree you can get in The Art of Filmmaking that only takes three hours to complete, and it's called 'Seven Samurai'".

• By Keith
  March 23, 2010
  01:42 PM

  Throne Of Blood - Many to the chest, one through the neck.

• By Francisco Lo
  March 23, 2010
  01:43 PM

  Many have tried to adapt a Shakespearean play but few can match Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, a version of Macbeth set in feudal Japan that is made with a perfectionist's vision like a David Lean film and the dramatic intensity of an Orson Welles picture, all while being a truly original masterpiece.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:44 PM

  To truly you have to die Ikiru

• By Keith
  March 23, 2010
  01:44 PM

  Throne Of Blood - Many to the chest, one through the neck.

• By Chris
  March 23, 2010
  01:45 PM

  If you have even a passing interest in cinema and want to see its depths fully explored by an artist, then watch the films of Akira Kurosawa.

• By Alex
  March 23, 2010
  01:45 PM

  To see one of Kurosawa's movies is to live one full life in a couple of hours, entering old and leaving young but because that is not enough to sell it, here is the deal with his samurai movies: Kill Bill for adults.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:45 PM

  George Lucas is a fat hack The Hidden Fortress

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:46 PM

  Seven Samurai for the price of one!

• By Chris F.
  March 23, 2010
  01:46 PM

  So imagine Star Wars without the annoying blabbering of C-3PO, the constant beep's of R2-D2 and the teenage whining from Mark Hammill, and instead of a few silly light shows there are a lot of crazy samurai fights with blood and real swords... yeah that's Hidden Fortress, and yeah it's awesome.

• By Coffin Jon
  March 23, 2010
  01:47 PM

  Kurosawa is one of the few filmmakers who transcends the national boundaries and his films transcend the narrative ones.

• By Clint Stroman
  March 23, 2010
  01:47 PM

  Your choices are Ran... or From Justin to Kelly... again.

• By Matt Anthony Wilson
  March 23, 2010
  01:48 PM

  Akira Kurosawa was "dead guy brilliant," long before he literally and unfortunately, passed away, you owe it to yourself to see one of his masterworks.

• By Steven Denisevicz
  March 23, 2010
  01:49 PM

  Film as a medium has been revolutionized by Akira Kurosawa's films; a filmmaker of unsurpassed talent and no comparison.

• By Mario
  March 23, 2010
  01:49 PM

  You haven't watch an Akira Kurosawa's film, how can you lived?

• By Woody
  March 23, 2010
  01:49 PM

  Dude, there are samurais!

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:50 PM

  See The Fear Heat The Fear Feel The Fear I Live In FEAR!

• By Mark Judkins
  March 23, 2010
  01:50 PM

  This is the greatest movie of all time!!!!

• By Nick Melton
  March 23, 2010
  01:51 PM

  To know Kurosawa is to know movies - after all, "The Hidden Fortress" inspired "Star Wars," "Seven Samurai" inspired "The Magnificent Seven," and "Yojimbo" inspired "A Fistful of Dollars."

• By Casey Malone
  March 23, 2010
  01:51 PM

  Kurosawa once said that, "Man is a genius when he is dreaming," and if this holds true, then after seeing his films I have to think his life was a constant dream.

• By Michael
  March 23, 2010
  01:51 PM

  You wouldn't hesitate to watch a Kubrick film.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:52 PM

  He said.... She said..... Rashomon

• By addison
  March 23, 2010
  01:52 PM

  In an era of mass remakes, maybe taking a look at the art of borrowing for inspiration, ie. Lucas to "Hidden Fortress," Sergio Leone's Dollar Trilogy to "Sanjuro/Yojimbo," to help create original films with a story that resonates and draws inspiration from classic films, like those of Kurosawa.

• By Raymond Loyd
  March 23, 2010
  01:52 PM

  "I guess if you don't like any work of directors like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorcese, Roman Polanski, Ingmar Bergman, John Woo, and Spike Lee, you won't like Akira Kurosawa's either."

• By Joey Gee
  March 23, 2010
  01:53 PM

  Any one of these films will put stars in yours eyes and a rainbow in your mouth.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:53 PM

  The truth The lie The Rashomon

• By thomi wroblewski
  March 23, 2010
  01:53 PM

  okay imagine real life & death in hypnotic black and white all the poetry, the subtlety , the intensity that historic epic japanese film noir could be - done by a master

• By Mudflapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:54 PM

  What is right? What is wrong? What is the Rashomon?

• By Benham
  March 23, 2010
  01:55 PM

  "Dude, merely watching Ran will make you believe that you can now die with honor."

• By Jose
  March 23, 2010
  01:55 PM

  Because modern American cinema wouldn't exist without him.

• By Peter Scibak
  March 23, 2010
  01:56 PM

  Ran: It's King Lear... with SAMURAI!!!

• By Scott
  March 23, 2010
  01:57 PM

  Don't worry about waking up, you are not asleep just watching 'Dreams', a collection of some of the most beautiful/haunting/bleak shorts ever put on film.

• By james parsons
  March 23, 2010
  01:57 PM

  Dude...SAMURAI!

• By Dominique
  March 23, 2010
  01:57 PM

  Watch Yojimbo, it's funny.

• By brandon
  March 23, 2010
  01:57 PM

  With Kurosawa, "influential" doesn't equate to "boring" -- his films (whether historical or contemporary in setting) stand on their own as entertaining, beautiful, and thought-provoking works that are rarely matched by works that follow in their footsteps.

• By Joe Mendez
  March 23, 2010
  01:57 PM

  "Do you want to watch a film by the greatest action director the cinema has ever known?"

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  01:57 PM

  A childs life or your livelyhood puts you somehwere between Heaven and Hell

• By Jameson
  March 23, 2010
  01:59 PM

  Any person who considers themselves literary or culturally rounded, cannot truly claim to be without having experienced the Films of Akira Kurosawa.

• By Mark West
  March 23, 2010
  02:00 PM

  It's time to wake up and watch Dreams, because like every Kurosawa film, it will become elemental to your existence; and without you looking at them, to contain and give them shape, they will expand infinitely, like an essential vapour, and disappear from the world.

• By Bryan Young
  March 23, 2010
  02:00 PM

  Let's take you back behind the curtain for a filmmaker who has inspired countless tremendous movies, I mean, honestly, could you imagine a world without Å Fistful of Dollars, The Magnificent Seven, A Bug's Life, or Star Wars?

• By Lara Amrod
  March 23, 2010
  02:00 PM

  Viewing a Kurosawa movie is to see not only a film for the first time but to live for the first time, you will forget every other movie you have ever seen and with new eyes and mind discover the world of cinema, but as this might not sell you here is a true fact: his films inspired Lucas to create Star Wars.

• By Colin Lovelock
  March 23, 2010
  02:00 PM

  Imagine films that can touch your heart , challenge your mind, stimulate your senses and enrich your life by , all at the touch of the remote.

• By Michael Heacock
  March 23, 2010
  02:00 PM

  Unforgettable -- there are films that escape you moments after you leave the theatre, not so with these -- I've had every Kurosawa I've seen here inside me since they I first saw each of them, that alone is worth a viewing, right?

• By Brandon
  March 23, 2010
  02:00 PM

  Few Directors are worth dying for, Kurosawa is worth killing for.

• By Brandon
  March 23, 2010
  02:00 PM

  Few Directors are worth dying for, Kurosawa is worth killing for.

• By rabbit1970
  March 23, 2010
  02:00 PM

  Kurosawa is to film what Van Gogh is to painting.

• By Chris E.
  March 23, 2010
  02:01 PM

  Out of the 700+ DVDs sitting over there...Seven Samurai is the best one.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  02:01 PM

  No one survives The Lower Depths

• By Patrick McAvoy
  March 23, 2010
  02:01 PM

  Nate, you've lived in and love Japan, you love history, and you love Star Wars. How have you not seen The Hidden Fortress?

• By Ryan Hallman
  March 23, 2010
  02:01 PM

  There are Samurais!

• By Stephen Schwegler
  March 23, 2010
  02:02 PM

  Wait until you see the blood shoot out of that dude's neck!

• By Jon Rosa
  March 23, 2010
  02:02 PM

  "If you haven't seen 'The Seven Samurai', your life is incomplete!"

• By cmb
  March 23, 2010
  02:02 PM

  You look like a Tarantino guy, in fact, I bet you really love Reservoir Dogs, right, yeah, well, that movie is like Rashomon meets the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three, so don't take it from me, take it from your boy Quentin.

• By Ernst Charles Jr.
  March 23, 2010
  02:02 PM

  I know that you don't watch foreign movies much but I really feel that you need to watch some of Kurosawa's films because not only is he a great director, he's an artist who's threatened by being forgotten and in this World of Popcorn, we NEED to be reminded of talent such as his.

• By jay kranz
  March 23, 2010
  02:02 PM

  you think leone is good, check out the inspiration.

• By joe nolan
  March 23, 2010
  02:02 PM

  Kurosawa's films flash through bold spectrums of comedy, tragedy, love, loss, poetry, grandeur and action. You watch them in black and white, but you remember them in color.

• By Michael Heacock
  March 23, 2010
  02:02 PM

  Unforgettable — there are films that escape you moments after you leave the theatre, not so with these — I’ve had every Kurosawa I’ve seen here inside me since I first saw each of them, that alone is worth a viewing, right? [Sorry, I had to resubmit. I had a typo in my last submission. I removed a single word from the original submission, an unwanted "they".]

• By William Podlecki
  March 23, 2010
  02:03 PM

  You will always have time for Kurosawa films when you wear my vintage watch designed by the filmmaker himself, otherwise find the time because it will be well spent.

• By Steven Douglas Cromer
  March 23, 2010
  02:03 PM

  Akira Kurosawa's films will change your life

• By kyle todoulakis
  March 23, 2010
  02:04 PM

  I know you're the biggest Star Wars fan in the entire world, but you need to see The Hidden Fortress because it proves George Lucas ripped off this Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, for the entire story.

• By Drew Johnson
  March 23, 2010
  02:04 PM

  You've already been watching Kurosawa all your life--there's something of his in more movies than you'd believe.

• By Jason Forbes
  March 23, 2010
  02:04 PM

  RASHAMON will change how you experience movies.

• By Nickolas Winslow
  March 23, 2010
  02:05 PM

  Everything you've ever loved about every movie you've ever loved...Kurosawa did it first.

• By ted mills
  March 23, 2010
  02:05 PM

  If you want to be a filmmaker, Kurosawa's films are the finest textbook in the world, but if you don't want to be one, you might change your mind after Rashomon, or Ran, or Seven Samurai, or...!

• By Andy Baker
  March 23, 2010
  02:05 PM

  If you love film and you want to see one of the world's greatest directors, see a film by Kurasawa: I guarantee you will enjoy the experience.

• By Derek Nason
  March 23, 2010
  02:05 PM

  (Watching The Hidden Fortress with my mom): "Just keep watching...Hugh Grant's cameo is coming up any minute now".

• By CHRIS BRUCE
  March 23, 2010
  02:05 PM

  No filmmaker has embraced the past so well while at the same time enormously enriching the future.

• By Angela Carter
  March 23, 2010
  02:06 PM

  You'll never be more confused, but it'll be a good confused.

• By C Tyler Belile
  March 23, 2010
  02:06 PM

  Wanna see where George Lucas got part of his inspiration for Star Wars?

• By joe nolan
  March 23, 2010
  02:06 PM

  You watch Kurosawa's bold spectrums of comedy, tragedy, love, loss, poetry, grandeur and action in black and white, but you remember them in color.

• By Chris Herzog
  March 23, 2010
  02:06 PM

  Limiting yourself to the cinema of your own culture is like limiting your world to the four walls of your bedroom. Live a little.

• By Sean Ferguson
  March 23, 2010
  02:06 PM

  If you appreciate George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Coppolla, then you should watch the director that influenced them as well as the framework for Star Wars.

• By Juana Moore
  March 23, 2010
  02:07 PM

  Movies don't get better than this. They simply don't.

• By Will
  March 23, 2010
  02:07 PM

  The opportunity to relate to a film is special; few directors other than Kurosawa can create films where you can also relate to a villain, such as in 'High and Low'.

• By Nick DiNuzzo
  March 23, 2010
  02:07 PM

  Every time you watch a Kurosawa film, an angel gets its wings.

• By Thomas
  March 23, 2010
  02:07 PM

  Akira Kurosawa, FAN-TASTIC director, but you don't have to take my word for it, Francis Coppola once said, "One thing that distinguishes Akira Kurosawa is that he didn't make a masterpiece or two masterpieces, he made, you know, eight masterpieces."

• By Emery Snyder
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  There is absolutely, positively no way you can fully appreciate contemporary film without experiencing the artist that created its inspiration.

• By Erik Hanson
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  Dude, Star Wars is based on Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress! (I'm sure someone beat me to this, but I'm not going to read all 750 previous entries).

• By yetti smith
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  "basically almost every action film made in the past 40 years can find roots with his films."

• By Dan A
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  I saw Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" in a retrospective. I was so blown away that when the film ended I left the theatre and got in line for the next screening!

• By Rafael
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  Akira Kurosawa's movies are far more than just viewing experiences; they're the only movies that can grasp you by the soul and make you feel as if you're in a character's situation, trust me watching Akira's movies is the best choice you will EVER make.

• By Jason Gore
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  Because I'm so sick of discussing bad movies with you.

• By Jamie S. Rich
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  Imagine you spent your whole life thinking the world was created by many gods, only to discover there is one true God who did it all: that is what Akria Kurosawa is to cinema.

• By sudara
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  Interesting, never heard of Akira Kurosawa.

• By David
  March 23, 2010
  02:08 PM

  If you care enough to want to watch a Kurosawa film, then you care about cinema and everything that implies.

• By Joe Harris
  March 23, 2010
  02:09 PM

  After you watch Seven Samurai, you'll see A Bug's Life in a whole new way.

• By Chris Makas
  March 23, 2010
  02:09 PM

  I know that, like me, you have been subjected in recent years to tripe like "Avatar" and the sad decline of the James Bond franchise, and you're looking for something to restore your faith in the power of cinema, and fortunately, I have a film here that is actually a well-made, thoughtful movie that has a legitimate and complete theme, and is highly entertaining as well...it's called [any Kurosawa film].

• By Victoria Boquiren
  March 23, 2010
  02:09 PM

  Once you watch anything by Kurosawa, everything else is just a waste of time.

• By Parker
  March 23, 2010
  02:09 PM

  Kurosawa dreamt on celluloid and it is through his expressions you may better realize your own.

• By jon zipkin
  March 23, 2010
  02:09 PM

  It's everything you love in American films only it came first, it's better, and in Japanese.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  02:09 PM

  The World's Most Serious Film Called The idiot

• By Joseph Cristando
  March 23, 2010
  02:10 PM

  Dude, c'mon, if titles like Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood don't sell you then I don't know what will.

• By enrique perez
  March 23, 2010
  02:10 PM

  akira kurosawa movies reflects human touch...

• By cory morgan
  March 23, 2010
  02:10 PM

  You cannot call yourself a fan of cinema until you are familiar with the films Akira Kurosawa.

• By Josh
  March 23, 2010
  02:10 PM

  When that thing comes along where the material, directing, and acting melt so completely together that you can't tell where one stops and the next begins, that's Kurosawa, every time.

• By Tyler Dobrowsky
  March 23, 2010
  02:11 PM

  Simply, he is one of the great storytellers of our generation -- his work is suspenseful, joyous, comic and perhaps more so than another other director, richly and vibrantly alive with the wonder and possibility of what it means to be human.

• By Kevin T.
  March 23, 2010
  02:11 PM

  If there was a movement or genre in 20th century cinema, Kurosawa left his mark, moving it forward: film noir (Drunken Angel, Rashomon), the western (Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress), adaptations of Dostoevsky (The Idiot) and Shakespeare (Throne of Blood, Ran), even Capra-corn (Ikiru); but I dare you not to be moved by Dreams—it is Kurosawa at his most personal and nostalgic, while keeping up his experimentalism into old age.

• By John C. McDonnell
  March 23, 2010
  02:11 PM

  Everything you love about film is in Kurosawa films. Trust me. Let's watch Seven Samurai together and you tell me if I'm not right about this. Deal?

• By Steve Abrahamson
  March 23, 2010
  02:11 PM

  High and Low is one of my favorite movies and considering my other top movies are Breathless, Citizen Kane, La Dolce Vita and the Godfathers (I and II) then you know you have to see it.

• By Frank Svengsouk
  March 23, 2010
  02:11 PM

  Watch this movie, and you'll think twice about taking on a guy wearing a diaper and swinging a samurai sword...

• By Steve B
  March 23, 2010
  02:12 PM

  Here's the line that actually worked for me on a friend who was heavily into cop shows and hated historical epics: "High and Low is Kurosawa's adaptation of Ed McBain." (He'd read most if not all of Ed McBain's writing at the time.)

• By Aron McMullen
  March 23, 2010
  02:12 PM

  I've got a movie you might like. It starts with these two bumbling characters who argue with each other a lot crossing paths with a princess who is trying to get away from an evil lord who has taken over everything. She is helped by a wise swordsman who, along with the bumbling pair helps her to get to freedom with something she has hidden that the evil lord wants to get. Sounds pretty good, right? Star Wars? What is Star Wars?

• By JOEY POLLARI
  March 23, 2010
  02:12 PM

  To my friend who thinks Harry Potter and Transformers are the best movies ever made: Kurosawa was the man who brought in and single-handedly revolutionized his own wave of cinema that you can still see the effects of in every frame of a movie today. For Now, Joey.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  02:12 PM

  The Summer Thrill Ride to start all Summer Thrill Rides The Hidden Fortress

• By El Howdy
  March 23, 2010
  02:12 PM

  What else are you going to do?

• By Alex B
  March 23, 2010
  02:12 PM

  Dude: I know you are not a big fan of old, black and white and subtitled films but you're missing out, big time, as all of the movies you like full of "graphics and explosions" come from directors influenced by Kurosawa!

• By Michael O'Neal
  March 23, 2010
  02:13 PM

  Your eyes won't leave the screen...and it's not because of the subtitles.

• By Connor
  March 23, 2010
  02:13 PM

  "This is gonna hurt."

• By Jackson Cooper
  March 23, 2010
  02:13 PM

  To my friend Cooper: You've never seen "Rashomon"? Really? 'Cause that's not how I remember it.

• By Garrett Kelly
  March 23, 2010
  02:13 PM

  To be unfamiliar with Kurosawa, you might as well be unfamiliar with the theory of evolution, the work of Homer, the invention of fire, so let me introduce you to one of the masters.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  02:14 PM

  Shakespear VS Kurosawa in: THE THRONE OF BLOOD in dripping blood font with erie music playing

• By Adrian Chu
  March 23, 2010
  02:14 PM

  Kurosawa is not just a master of cinema, he is the master of masters of cinema.

• By Kevin Longrie
  March 23, 2010
  02:14 PM

  Ran is the best shakespearian adaptation you'll ever see.

• By stan wong
  March 23, 2010
  02:14 PM

  Kurosawa consistently crafted fine films of different genres all with the same effect of making your hairs stand upright.

• By Bernardo
  March 23, 2010
  02:14 PM

  Watch Rashomon now before Hollywood decides to remake that too.

• By S P Jose
  March 23, 2010
  02:14 PM

  Kurosawa is to movies what Sampras is to Tennis...Sustained brilliance and someone who took the game to the next level.

• By Ken
  March 23, 2010
  02:14 PM

  If you don't enjoy this, you're dead to me.

• By Frances Boquiren
  March 23, 2010
  02:15 PM

  Watch his films; he's my favorite and I hate everyone.

• By Dan Thompson
  March 23, 2010
  02:15 PM

  He's your favorite director's favorite director.

• By Alex Karklins
  March 23, 2010
  02:15 PM

  Check out Yojimbo and Sanjuro; Toshiro Mifune makes Clint Eastwood look like a pansy.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  02:15 PM

  live free die young No Regrets for Our Youth

• By Daniel Good
  March 23, 2010
  02:15 PM

  Before the New Wave there was rain -- a lot of rain.

• By Sean McCarty
  March 23, 2010
  02:15 PM

  If we can watch Seven Samurai together I'll massage your feet!

• By Gerrit Thompson
  March 23, 2010
  02:16 PM

  So "Hidden Fortress" is like "The Phantom Menace," but with real acting, better dialogue, no questionable CGI, and no f%$@ing midichlorians.

• By Deanna McMillan
  March 23, 2010
  02:16 PM

  Ikiru is a life-affirming film in the least expected of ways.

• By ed
  March 23, 2010
  02:16 PM

  Kurosawa's films inspired both Star Wars and the Clint Eastwood westerns, and that' s just the least thing he did.

• By Cameron Dutra
  March 23, 2010
  02:16 PM

  To my fellow film students out there, You have NOOOOOO hope of ever making a great film, or appreciating and understanding the art of filmmaking at all if you are not familiar with the genius that is AKIRA KUROSAWA!!!

• By Derek L.
  March 23, 2010
  02:16 PM

  He made George Lucas cream cream cream in his pants.

• By Kevin Perkins
  March 23, 2010
  02:17 PM

  Taught George Lucas everything that Lucas knows. But didn't teach him everything that Akira knows.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  02:17 PM

  Sometimes all's it takes is One Wonderful Sunday.

• By Claudia Sicondolfo
  March 23, 2010
  02:19 PM

  You'll be surprised by how many movies you've already seen of his once you actually watch his movies.

• By MudFlapp
  March 23, 2010
  02:20 PM

  April showers bring May flowers however there is a Rhapsody in August

• By christopher
  March 23, 2010
  02:20 PM

  男は天才彼が夢です。 (man is a genius when he is dreaming.) akiro kurosawa

• By Matt S
  March 23, 2010
  02:20 PM

  To my former roommate Mike, When I was house-sitting for my friend Ben, and you called me while you were driving to work to let me know that you MAY have forgotten to turn off the stove at our apartment, and I sped home to find a fire alarm blaring, a kitchen billowing with sulfuric smoke, and a pot of eggs smoldering on the stovetop, I confess to have contemplated dark, dark thoughts, until I thought of this quote, "In a mad world, only the mad are sane," from this Kurosawa film called "Ran" (which you should totally watch, btw), which didn't exactly fix the situation, but did give me a good chuckle as i poured the blackened, rotten eggs onto your bedsheets. --Matt

• By Ian Hardin
  March 23, 2010
  02:20 PM

  The Seven Samurai tells the story of seven warriors who unite to rescue a village from a band of brigands tormenting them and in the process rescue themselves from their own personal torments.

• By Tyler W.
  March 23, 2010
  02:21 PM

  Throne of Blood is like Macbeth (if Macbeth had people getting shot through the neck with arrows).

• By Kevin Detwiler
  March 23, 2010
  02:21 PM

  Okay dude seriously, how could a movie called Throne of Blood NOT be horrorshow?

• By A Markle
  March 23, 2010
  02:22 PM

  Kurosawa opened the gateway to foreign films for me and until I saw Seven Samurai I never understood that movies could be both entertainment and art.

• By Bill
  March 23, 2010
  02:24 PM

  He teaches you to see.

• By Brandon Goco
  March 23, 2010
  02:25 PM

  Kurosawa is the eastern equivalent to John Ford, Federico Fellini, and Orson Welles, rolled up in one.

• By David Voigt
  March 23, 2010
  02:27 PM

  Quite simply, you watch Kurosawa because you CAN...

• By Tim Moyle
  March 23, 2010
  02:27 PM

  Kurosawa's movies entertain but never feel like junk food and make you think but never feel like homework.

• By Justin Hartley
  March 23, 2010
  02:28 PM

  Never again will you see a film as engaging, intricate, beautifully shot and mind-numbingly AWESOME as "High & Low", unless of course you plan on watching any of Kurosawa's other equally important and inspiring films!

• By Mike W
  March 23, 2010
  02:28 PM

  didn't fancy his previous film, The Hidden Three-tris? Try this one.

• By S P Jose
  March 23, 2010
  02:28 PM

  You can't call yourself a movie buff without having watched a Kurosawa !!

• By R.J. Lozada
  March 23, 2010
  02:28 PM

  Kurosawa's storytelling so quick, so pinpoint accurate on gamut of humanity that he lets you have your color pink in a 'black and white' world, and that's not even the tip of his ouerve iceberg....so you got to check High and Low, but that goes without saying.

• By Tony Nunes
  March 23, 2010
  02:29 PM

  About ANY Kurosawa film... Imagine God is a filmmaker, this is how he sees our humanity.

• By Andy
  March 23, 2010
  02:30 PM

  Which would you like to see tonight: Martial Arts, Coming-of-Age, Female Heroism, Heist, Comedy, Espionage, Romance, Slice-of-life, Underworld, Redemption, Sacrifice, Medical Drama, Film Noir, Courtroom Drama, Mind-bending, Unrequited Love, Adaptation, Humanistic, Samurai Epic, Political, Shakespeare, Tragedy, Adventure, Revenge, Western, Action, Kidnapping, Social Justice, Short Films, Nature Film, War, Surrealism, or Family Drama?

• By Charlie Poekel
  March 23, 2010
  02:31 PM

  Your entire life is a rip-off of a Kurosawa film

• By Ty Carlisle
  March 23, 2010
  02:31 PM

  The amazing thing about Kurosawa is that he is a light of inspiration in a world pained by crisis, yet he can capture the pain and the inspiration at the same time, in a single shot, or a single line of dialogue.

• By Tim
  March 23, 2010
  02:31 PM

  If you think Lord of the Rings was epic, watch Seven Samurai.

• By Justin Johnson
  March 23, 2010
  02:32 PM

  If you wanna see where spaghetti westerns got their "cool" from, check out YOJIMBO.

• By Justin Hartley
  March 23, 2010
  02:32 PM

  Never again will you see a film as engaging, intricate, beautifully shot and mind-numbingly AWESOME as "High & Low", unless of course you plan on watching any of Kurosawa's other equally important and inspiring films!

• By Jeffrey Cook
  March 23, 2010
  02:32 PM

  If you want to understand exactly why it is you enjoy the films of our "modern" period, films by people such as Martin Scorsese, you *must* go back to Kurosawa.

• By D. Frank Smith
  March 23, 2010
  02:33 PM

  There has never been a more captivating connection between director and actor as between Akira Kurosawa and Toshirō Mifune. Their work together is the stuff of legends.

• By Matthew Orr
  March 23, 2010
  02:34 PM

  In the wake of the Kanto earthquake, Akira's brother Heigo took him out to see the destruction & bodies, wouldn't let him look away, and told him, "If you shut your eyes to a frightening sight, you end up being frightened, If you look at everything straight on, there is nothing to be afraid of”; Akira Kurosawa grew to be a filmmaker who was afraid of nothing, and used each film to open everyone else's eyes to the world around them- that's why you should watch.

• By Stuart Ure
  March 23, 2010
  02:34 PM

  Even a badass like Steve McQueen could never hold a candle to Toshirō Mifune - watch the magic that IS Kurasawa!

• By Liam C
  March 23, 2010
  02:34 PM

  A lesson in morality has never been so entertaining.

• By Chris Coronado
  March 23, 2010
  02:34 PM

  If historically-inspired samurais that later spawned cowboys isn't enough to convince you, let me tell you that this is A-grade movie making at its finest on top of that.

• By Robert Greene
  March 23, 2010
  02:36 PM

  Hidden Fortress is just like Star Wars, only, you know ... good.

• By Minkin
  March 23, 2010
  02:37 PM

  At first you will be excited by the action and combat maneuvers, but then the narrative will grow on you and the conflict of traditional honor with modern emotional alienation will make you want more and after this movie, you will be reborn a cinephile.

• By Justin Johnson
  March 23, 2010
  02:37 PM

  If you wanna see where spaghetti westerns got their "cool" from, check out YOJIMBO.

• By Jimbo Lee
  March 23, 2010
  02:37 PM

  Kurosawa's films are like drugs, but in an educational and entertaining kind of way. Watch any film of his, I guarantee you'll want to watch all the rest that he's made.

• By Simon Gilmore
  March 23, 2010
  02:38 PM

  These films inspired Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to become filmmakers.

• By Chris Robinson
  March 23, 2010
  02:38 PM

  If Shakespeare was a samurai...

• By Dylan Wilcox
  March 23, 2010
  02:39 PM

  The Republicans would have voted for health care in a heartbeat had they the Seven Samurai to contend with.

• By Patrick Tobin
  March 23, 2010
  02:40 PM

  Take everything you love about the last 60 years of Hollywood, and then cut out all the bullshit.

• By Rebecca Ramage
  March 23, 2010
  02:40 PM

  Beauty through image, Truly, forever, timeless, This Master of life.

• By Robert Hunter
  March 23, 2010
  02:40 PM

  What do you mean you don't remember we agreed to watch Rashomon tonight?

• By Liam C
  March 23, 2010
  02:40 PM

  A lesson in morality has never been so entertaining.

• By Trevor
  March 23, 2010
  02:42 PM

  I was in a coma for 17 years and it only took Seven Samurai to wake me up.

• By Michael Nickelson
  March 23, 2010
  02:44 PM

  You want to watch an Asian film that has more than swords and fists but depth and soul that shows us the tragedy and triumph of humanity then my friend we need to watch an Akira Kurosawa film.

• By Peter Barlow
  March 23, 2010
  02:46 PM

  If I ever found out that I was going to go blind, I'd make sure that I saved at least 162 minutes the previous day to watch Ran one more time.

• By James Napoli
  March 23, 2010
  02:47 PM

  Kurosawa knew.

• By Inney Prakash
  March 23, 2010
  02:47 PM

  A million words of praise for Kurosawa's cinema could never say as much as a single frame therein.

• By Jacob Jensen
  March 23, 2010
  02:47 PM

  To have not seen the films of Kurosawa is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun.

• By Richard I.
  March 23, 2010
  02:49 PM

  Take some David Lean, add a bit of Frank Capra and chop it all up with some Terrence Malick. After done, spread a bit of Leone and Spielberg, and serve with a glass of Coppolla. That's Kurosawa!

• By Dirkson
  March 23, 2010
  02:49 PM

  Wanna' watch a movie where you don't need 3D glasses to feel like you're actually there?

• By Simon Gilmore
  March 23, 2010
  02:49 PM

  These films inspired Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to become filmmakers.

• By Rene Baker
  March 23, 2010
  02:49 PM

  Even watched from another country, another culture, another social context, another year, you will always feel that Kurosawa's films were made specificaly for you, but also that they were influenced by you, by the simple fact that you exist, and that's why you can always feel that a Kurosawa movie is simply you.

• By Matt
  March 23, 2010
  02:50 PM

  Watch Rashomon and you'll realize you've already seen it a thousand times in other movies and TV shows, watch every Kurosawa movie and you'll realize that people have copied all his work so over and over again. After you realize you've seen it all then you'll realize that no one has done it better.

• By Christopher Parodi
  March 23, 2010
  02:50 PM

  I'm going to show you a film that will change your life - for the better. Are you ready?

• By Brian F.
  March 23, 2010
  02:50 PM

  If the world was completely destroyed and God asked me, "How should I teach the surviving human race the essential lessons that will allow them to live an honest and truthful life," I would suggest that God hold a special screening of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai."

• By jessi w.w.
  March 23, 2010
  02:52 PM

  Whether or not we get out of this office job any time soon, Kurosawa's Ikiru will instill in you the eternal hope that an individual's spirit, however atrophied, remains ready and able to awaken, take up a cause, and touch the lives of others before it fades away.

• By Tomas Roges
  March 23, 2010
  02:53 PM

  "I'm sorry, but the video store was all out of Ghost of Girlfriends Past (lie)." "Yeah, Seven Samurai is kind of like that." "What? Sorry, I lost the key to your handcuffs."

• By Sam Moyerman
  March 23, 2010
  02:53 PM

  Because during the first week of Film 101, before dissecting Griffith, Welles, German Expressionism, and French New Wave, we watched Kurosawa to see how wonderfully affecting, important, enthralling, and impactful film can truly be.

• By Anton K
  March 23, 2010
  02:53 PM

  Yojimbo is the masters homage to American cinema, a samurai western, a wandering anti-hero manipulates two feuding families and hacks a few people apart.

• By Jeff Benn
  March 23, 2010
  02:54 PM

  Watching a Kurosawa film is like going back to the source and finding it undiluted and pure.

• By Tim O'Neil
  March 23, 2010
  02:54 PM

  To watch Ikiru is to learn again how to live.

• By Jeremy
  March 23, 2010
  02:54 PM

  Start over

• By Shaun Adams
  March 23, 2010
  02:55 PM

  American Cinema as we know it *would not* exist, if not for him.

• By Nick Hartel
  March 23, 2010
  02:55 PM

  "At some point, you must witness the master at work."

• By Gus Sanchez
  March 23, 2010
  02:56 PM

  You can either sit back and allow yourself to be educated in the craft of film making at its' highest pedigree, or you can sit back slack-jawed and subject yourself to the cinematic equivalent of explosion porn as imagined by an adult with the imagination of a Ritalin-starved 10-year-old boy by the name of Michael Bay.

• By Adam Wiseman
  March 23, 2010
  02:56 PM

  The reason why you love that movie so much is because Kurosawa inspired the people who made it.

• By J.D.
  March 23, 2010
  02:57 PM

  In Ran, there is a LOT of fire and violence and sabotage, and lots and lots and lots of people die - but it's also pretty!

• By Jeff Clem
  March 23, 2010
  02:57 PM

  To watch a Kurosawa film is to experience intellectual, psychological and emotional entertainment ranging from heaven and hell to the lower depths.

• By cole roulain
  March 23, 2010
  02:57 PM

  this one is called "the emperor strikes back".

• By Atwood
  March 23, 2010
  02:58 PM

  While standing on the shoulders of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and modern western Americana, Kurosawa was himself influential on classic and contemporary storytelling and filmmaking, greatly admired by a large percentage of directors during and following his time, from Fellini, Bergman and Ray to Scorsese, Altman, and Polanski.

• By Lex
  March 23, 2010
  02:58 PM

  You say it isn't possible for a film to change your life? Here, add Kurosawa's Ikiru to the top of your Netflix list. Watch it, we'll talk later.

• By Jeffrey Ford
  March 23, 2010
  02:58 PM

  Just forget that the language may be different, and allow yourself to be enveloped by the drama that he creates, because it is universal.

• By Ian
  March 23, 2010
  02:58 PM

  Its everything we love about movies, but with samurais.

• By Jillian Sutherland
  March 23, 2010
  02:59 PM

  On Ran and Throne of Blood-- "Ok, so I know you hated having to do Shakespeare in high school, but... what if Shakespeare had SAMURAI'S in it?"

• By Toshi Tomori
  March 23, 2010
  02:59 PM

  Kurosawa trained his camera eye on samurais and city folks with unwavering humanity.

• By Jordan
  March 23, 2010
  03:00 PM

  My girlfriend has the best one: "We're either watching 'Rashomon' or 'The Gilmore Girls.'" Sold.

• By Joe H.
  March 23, 2010
  03:01 PM

  My enemy became my friend after we watched Akira Kurosawa's Dreams together.

• By Landen Celano
  March 23, 2010
  03:01 PM

  If not for the poignancy, masterful craftsmanship, historical and cultural significance, insights into the human soul, intrigue, suspense, thrills, action, and downright beauty of his films, then just watch Kurosawa because he's a badass.

• By Nate L
  March 23, 2010
  03:01 PM

  You may have absolutely no desire to gain a greater appreciation for cinema, but Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru will give you a greater appreciation for life.

• By Emily Nine
  March 23, 2010
  03:01 PM

  Kurosawa that's his name samurai and telephoto shots were his game Kurosawa action-packed guy couldn't stop asking how, what, or why "is this real life" maybe yes, maybe no now for a battle scene and torrential snow Kurosawa people were jealous made Dodes'kaden Japanese studios got callous funding was a bust then things got personal with Dreams, Madadayo, and August the nicest of his arsenal Kurosawa yeah, that's his name don't wear it out just watch his movies 'cause that's what it's all about.

• By Elliot Kallen
  March 23, 2010
  03:02 PM

  Watch Ikiru and it will touch you in such deep and fundamental ways that it will probably change your life.

• By Thomas
  March 23, 2010
  03:03 PM

  "If you've never seen anything from Kurosawa, you should see the densely layered plotting of Rashomon that tells the same story of a vicious crime through four pairs of eyes -- each showing the differences in humanity's fabric, along with the director's exquisite eye for intricacy".

• By George L. Moneo
  March 23, 2010
  03:03 PM

  Correction: I misidentified one of Hidetora's sons. :-/ My favorie Kurosawa movie, Ran: Laughter and reminiscence is heard, then one loud shot and Saburo falls to the ground; Hidetora runs to his crumpled body, calling his name repeatedly, and then, he lets out a soundless scream that encompasses the pain of the final, awful consequence of his foolish and selfish life.

• By Steven Lintlop
  March 23, 2010
  03:04 PM

  Who could imagine that almost 400 years after Shakespeare wrote Macbeth that it could be transformed by Kurosawa, into a tale set in medieval Japan and delivered with more power and eloquence than any performance I have ever experienced on the English stage or screen.

• By Dax Gonzalez
  March 23, 2010
  03:04 PM

  Your view of the world will hereafter be through the lens of Kurosawa.

• By Nat Duffy
  March 23, 2010
  03:05 PM

  Akira Kurosawa made beautiful, hugely entertaining films that influenced most everything good in cinema that followed - come over tonight, we'll start with Rashomon.

• By Clayton Moore
  March 23, 2010
  03:05 PM

  Quick, name your top 5 most amazing cinematic films, and I can assure you that Kurosawa did them first, and did them better.

• By Joseph B.
  March 23, 2010
  03:05 PM

  Kurosawa gave us the ability to be awed by honorable and vicious characters.

• By Randall Ischy
  March 23, 2010
  03:06 PM

  Kurosawa's films are everything you could ever want in film: drama, history, humor, action, violence, love, and death, the entire span of the human paradigm shown in an elegant, entertaining, and aesthically stunning way.

• By August Ragone
  March 23, 2010
  03:06 PM

  Kurosawa is the director whose films forever revolutionized the Western.

• By R. Glick
  March 23, 2010
  03:06 PM

  Simply say to anyone worth talking with: Ano hito no namae wa Kurosawa desu. (His name is Kurosawa.)

• By George D
  March 23, 2010
  03:07 PM

  To be ignorant of Kurosawa's work is to be ignorant of culture; not just the culture of Japan, or of film, or of art, but the culture of humanity.

• By Sam
  March 23, 2010
  03:08 PM

  Rashomon is much like your sexuality, extremely ambiguous.

• By Patrick
  March 23, 2010
  03:09 PM

  'Ey 'ey, that Kurosawa guy is tops, trust me.

• By Tim Benge
  March 23, 2010
  03:10 PM

  As living beings with identically fragile shells and luminescent spirits, there are choices we all face, regardless of our position in life, that determine the ultimate worth of our existence, and in Ikiru Kurosawa masterfully illustrates a dying career bureaucrat's attempts to redeem his wasted years and live well in his last days by showing us the dying man's final, successful choices in joyful, heart-wrenching scenes that are so full of transcendent selflessness that they could bring a stone to tears.

• By Travis Westmore
  March 23, 2010
  03:10 PM

  Life's too short to watch bad films, but even if you have all your life, Ikiru will make you realize its never too late to make the best of your time.

• By John Beaudine
  March 23, 2010
  03:10 PM

  Everything you need to know about what makes cinema the greatest art form in the past 100 years is due to Kurosawa's sense of composition, movement, editing, color, design and everything else in between.

• By MBA Carr
  March 23, 2010
  03:10 PM

  Kurosawa offers beauty, order, honor and characters, who despite their strategies, find their place only with the passage of time.

• By Jacob Smith
  March 23, 2010
  03:10 PM

  If you don't watch a film by Kurosawa, then you won't see Shakespeare the way it was meant to be played, and you certainly can't claim to have seen everything that cinema can be.

• By Aaron G.
  March 23, 2010
  03:11 PM

  Very few filmmakers will create even one great film in a lifetime, yet Kurosawa, in nearly all of his works, from vast historical epics to maddening personal struggles, uncompromisingly handled each of his subjects with vigor, heart and intelligence, ultimately able to plumb the lower depths of the human soul and articulate to audiences all over the world what it means to live.

• By Kenji L.
  March 23, 2010
  03:11 PM

  Try Kurosawa once and I'll buy you the DVD box set of AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa, even if you don't like it, you earn a great box set and you can sell it to any of the folks here, you already have more than 1,000 potential buyers here on this page.

• By Benjamin Birdie
  March 23, 2010
  03:13 PM

  If you've never seen a Kurosawa film, the most you could ever really understand about the human condition is like 75%, tops.

• By Thomas
  March 23, 2010
  03:13 PM

  Ran will be burnt into your memory, like all the best, firsts, of your life.

• By Joseph Scott
  March 23, 2010
  03:14 PM

  They have samurai, bro.

• By Kainan Jarrette
  March 23, 2010
  03:14 PM

  Drama like heart beats; action like a flowing stream; this is cinema.

• By Sergio
  March 23, 2010
  03:14 PM

  Dude, i'm telling you he basically gave Lucas the idea for Starwars!

• By Tommy Mozden
  March 23, 2010
  03:15 PM

  How can you call yourself a lover of film without watching a Kurosawa masterpiece?

• By ZACH O'CONNELL
  March 23, 2010
  03:15 PM

  "Netflix accidentally sent us something called 'Thone of Blood' instead of 'Saw IV', so we may as well watch it."

• By John Yoritomo
  March 23, 2010
  03:15 PM

  How can you not watch the movie that has inspired every single action movie after it and still reigns king among them all, for Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, an inspiring, seminal, philosophical, ageless, tale that remains a definitive work of true art, is surely this.

• By Green Rahman
  March 23, 2010
  03:16 PM

  "Did you know that before starting any movie Spielberg always watches Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai!" Reference: Inside the Actor's Studio interview.

• By Connor
  March 23, 2010
  03:17 PM

  "If you like breathing oxygen, have I got a director for YOU!"

• By Johnnie Alward
  March 23, 2010
  03:18 PM

  You're about to see all the colours of life in monochrome and hear the heartbeat of a celluloid strip.

• By Chris F.
  March 23, 2010
  03:19 PM

  Akira Kurosawa raised the bar for what it meant to be a great filmmaker, and as a result has influenced and continues to influence a countless number of filmmakers by consistently challenging them to strive for such greatness and reach that next peak in world cinema.

• By Alexander Ross
  March 23, 2010
  03:19 PM

  "I promise."

• By Steven Hanna
  March 23, 2010
  03:20 PM

  My one sentence, which I think will serve to convince a hypothetical Kurosawa-ignorant film fan to watch one of his movies: "Hey, the folks at Criterion think this guy is important enough to put out a 25-film box set -- want to watch one of them with me?" If the film fan not only doesn't know who Kurosawa is, which is unbelievable enough, but also has no idea what Criterion is, I'm not sure I'd want to spending the two hours watching a movie with him anyway.

• By Brennan Dye
  March 23, 2010
  03:21 PM

  Want to watch a film?

• By David Turner
  March 23, 2010
  03:21 PM

  At its best, cinema is a amalgam of the best of humanities capability for storytelling-- a re-figuring of oral histories and visual reproductions of events long gone; with his ability to exhibit the unreliable nature of human oral traditions in Rashomon, the , encompassing visuals of feudal Japan in his Samurai epics, and even the epics of Westen culture with his Shakespeare films, Kurosawa represents the almost infinite potential of cinema as a medium.

• By Joel La Puma
  March 23, 2010
  03:21 PM

  A Fistful of Dollars straight out stole everything that comprises the modern western from Yojimbo, and realizing this, Kurosawa flung to earth a bolt of lightning so mighty that even Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone cowered.

• By Nick Gaede
  March 23, 2010
  03:21 PM

  To be honest, I watched Seven Samurai and it made me waste four years of my life in film school, when really all I ever needed to know about movies or cinema or art I had already seen in that film.

• By EDWARD G.
  March 23, 2010
  03:22 PM

  The simple, powerful, wonderful alchemy of his art will change the way you look at movies.

• By Jay F.
  March 23, 2010
  03:22 PM

  Kurosawa unflinchingly makes you witness the beauty in all of humanity, with all its imperfections, limitations and aspirations—the true mark of a great artist.

• By Anthony
  March 23, 2010
  03:24 PM

  Akira Kurosawa is the reason I love watching movies from the attention to detail of set design to the scope of the landscape to the ferocity of the characters he was able to capture on film the best and worst of human nature.

• By Connor
  March 23, 2010
  03:24 PM

  Hey, I just made li'l smokies and mac and cheese and I'm about to watch Sanjuro. Come play!

• By Abel Alvarez
  March 23, 2010
  03:24 PM

  Let's start to watch this Kurosawa movie and if in a half hour you still don't want to watch it, we'll stop and you'll have wasted no more time than it takes you to watch one of your silly reality TV shows.

• By MADISON BEAUDET
  March 23, 2010
  03:24 PM

  If you want to fill rest of your free time with one director, Kurosawa is your man.

• By Kevin Sullivan
  March 23, 2010
  03:25 PM

  Have you ever wondered why farmers and samurai don't get along?

• By Keith DuCharme
  March 23, 2010
  03:25 PM

  Because Kurosawa gets it.

• By Sean Fitzgerald
  March 23, 2010
  03:25 PM

  George Lucas tried to base Star Wars: A New Hope off of Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" and failed.

• By Sean Kelly
  March 23, 2010
  03:25 PM

  If you have watched a movie or a TV show, listened to a radio drama or read a novel, chances are you've already seen the plots that Kurosawa pioneered in his movies, and now you can see how they all began.

• By Dawn
  March 23, 2010
  03:26 PM

  Want to see an excellent film that not only makes you think, and looks amazing, but is very entertaining, too?

• By Toby
  March 23, 2010
  03:29 PM

  Take a look at your list of favorite movies, from The Magnificent Seven to Star Wars, and many of them are remakes or rip-offs of his stuff — so doesn't it makes sense that you'd like his work?

• By Michael Hammond
  March 23, 2010
  03:30 PM

  Kurosawa is to 20th century filmmaking what Faulkner is to its literature: epic, compassionate, daring, comic, uncompromising; in a word, human.

• By Stan
  March 23, 2010
  03:30 PM

  "I don't mind a lie if it's interesting. But if men don't trust each other, this earth might as well be hell." So, let's make this interesting. You will love "Rashomon." If I am lying, I will fall on my sword!

• By Andy
  March 23, 2010
  03:31 PM

  Because living without Yojimbo isn't really living.

• By Matt
  March 23, 2010
  03:31 PM

  He has more remakes and films based on his work than Shakespeare. It's no wonder that even HIS remake of a Shakespeare play is one of his most original and impressive.

• By Scott Simms
  March 23, 2010
  03:31 PM

  I could tell you about the beauty of Kurosawa's films, but I'd never do them justice.

• By Brian Darr
  March 23, 2010
  03:31 PM

  To watch the films of Akira Kurosawa is to understand how a world which knew the nation only through names like Hirohito and Tojo, learned that Japan could be home to a great artist with a humane and highly personal style.

• By Alida Villatoro
  March 23, 2010
  03:32 PM

  You cannot know where you are going if you do not know where you have been.

• By Ellen
  March 23, 2010
  03:33 PM

  Epic battles and universal plots, catering to men and women, young and old.

• By Monica Castillo
  March 23, 2010
  03:33 PM

  Movies set in imperial age Japan starring characters with real problems, dashed with a bit of forbidden love, laced with lots of action scenes, and all set to intricate storyline of a struggle to survive.

• By Cher
  March 23, 2010
  03:34 PM

  Popcorn, rice crackers, liquid refreshments, tissues, dvd remote...please sit down with me for a ride of your life..

• By Thom Sutton
  March 23, 2010
  03:34 PM

  Do you like rain?

• By Kyle
  March 23, 2010
  03:34 PM

  Kurosawa is even better than two chicks at the same time!

• By RYAN MCGLADE
  March 23, 2010
  03:35 PM

  Even though it's filmed in black and white and was made in 1954, I can guarantee you that "Seven Samurai" will enthrall, entertain, inspire, and astonish you more than "Avatar" or "The Blind Side" ever will.

• By Sylvain Philippe
  March 23, 2010
  03:36 PM

  If you love movies, you'll love Kurosawa.

• By Jeff Lane
  March 23, 2010
  03:36 PM

  Dude, Samurai, sword fights, and bloody bloody revenge!

• By JayBee
  March 23, 2010
  03:36 PM

  This guy...all his movies have been ripped off by all YOUR favorite writers and directors...and his stuff is better then ANY of their stuff....

• By Suyash Sonwalkar
  March 23, 2010
  03:37 PM

  There is no better depiction of the the joyful depths of the human soul despite facing the ferocity of nature and injustice than Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

• By Miles Mason
  March 23, 2010
  03:37 PM

  Let's watch a movie by the man who inspired George Lucas to make star wars, John Belushi to make his Samurai character on SNL, Sergio Leone to make A Fist Full of Dollars and John Sturges to make Magnificent Seven; need I say more?

• By Todd LaPlace
  March 23, 2010
  03:38 PM

  If you could manage to sit through "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" twice, you can handle a few subtitles, especially when they come with samurai.

• By David M. K.
  March 23, 2010
  03:39 PM

  If you don't watch Kurosawa, I'll kill myself.

• By Berles Desire
  March 23, 2010
  03:40 PM

  It’s impossible to look at any film the same way after seeing the creative mind of Kurosawa imitated in many modern films, but never duplicated - consider yourself enlightened.

• By Paul Lim
  March 23, 2010
  03:41 PM

  Watching "Rashomon" is like seeing truth fflickering by at 24 frames per second...times four!

• By Kevin Chiou
  March 23, 2010
  03:44 PM

  No other filmmaker understands balance as well as Akira Kurosawa.

• By Lynelle Hassenpflug
  March 23, 2010
  03:44 PM

  Akira Kurosawa simply makes perfect film.

• By Ben Razavi
  March 23, 2010
  03:45 PM

  Hey, don't worry about the rope around your hands and feet holding you down because after the first film in this massive 25 Film Collection that Criterion just sent me you'll forget about the discomfort and will be begging for more Kurosawa....

• By MIKE
  March 23, 2010
  03:46 PM

  If you're not hooked in the first half-hour, I promise you get to pick for the next month.

• By JASON DAVIS
  March 23, 2010
  03:48 PM

  Are you lost my child? Salvation is available to all of us. We have a savior, and he can forgive you of all your sins. Confess your past film transgressions and spare yourself an eternity watching Little Nicky! Just accept Kurosawa as your lord and savior and be baptized by the Samurai!

• By Daren Fowler
  March 23, 2010
  03:49 PM

  Katy you love "Hamlet" and gritty film noirs and hate evil corporations, then watch "The Bad Sleep Wall".

• By Alex Morgan
  March 23, 2010
  03:49 PM

  It is a good viewpoint to see the world as a dream: when you have something like a nightmare, you will wake up and tell yourself that it was only a dream.

• By Dave
  March 23, 2010
  03:49 PM

  To my friends who blame film for the death of literature and missed this turn from Ulysses: S. Dedalus: ...wake-up, yo! Jimbo, wake-up, you drunken angel-fiend of Dodes'ka-denmeath; Saint Juro and his seven-by-seven samurai let the stray dog Red Beard out of the mush-kage an' he's on a rash, o'man--thatee cur, ew! he has ran all the way to the hidden fortress through the high and low to take you where the bad sleep well no more galump-galump--the throne of blood!

• By Alex Biese
  March 23, 2010
  03:49 PM

  To put in bluntly, you have not truly experienced cinema, art or life until you've had it shown to you by Kurosawa, and the finest example of this, out of many fine examples, is "Ikiru."

• By Jim Rankin
  March 23, 2010
  03:51 PM

  Kurosawa is to film as to what Jimi Hendrix is to music - timeless!

• By Peter Fey
  March 23, 2010
  03:51 PM

  You'll dig it all--he was the Marty Scorsese of Japan.

• By Bob Bloom
  March 23, 2010
  03:51 PM

  Men in skirts, wielding swords.

• By Joe M
  March 23, 2010
  03:52 PM

  If only our 11th grade English teacher showed us Ran instead of the PBS King Lear version, we may have appreciated Shakespeare a bit more.

• By John Elliott
  March 23, 2010
  03:53 PM

  "The Seven Samurai" is like "Spider-Man" or "Transformers", except for people who don't live with their parents - it's so good you won't even notice the lack of nudity!

• By Steve Rubin
  March 23, 2010
  03:53 PM

  Akira Kurosawa said of the great director Satyajit Ray, "Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon", but I would hold a mirror up to those words.

• By David Smith
  March 23, 2010
  03:54 PM

  Here, just watch any one of the 25 Kurosawa films I just won and tell me he's not the best filmmaker that ever lived.

• By Brad Fox
  March 23, 2010
  03:54 PM

  Some directors create great movies, Kurosawa created the concept of cinema - setting high-watermarks other filmmakers still are striving to match.

• By Brian
  March 23, 2010
  03:55 PM

  I would speak to my friend who loves to paint, and steer him towards Ran. This is what I would say : "You have to check out Ran for all of the beautiful colors, sets and characters that weave in an out of this painting of a movie"

• By Benjamin Copan
  March 23, 2010
  03:56 PM

  Nearly every "original" and "revolutionary" idea in western cinema in the last half-century, from Star Wars to Magnificent Seven to Basic, was stolen from Akira Kurosawa's movies; his finger prints are everywhere, so if you know his films, all other cinematic experience will be enriched and you'll better understand the power of what you're seeing.

• By AMIR HOTHER YISHAY
  March 23, 2010
  03:56 PM

  It's fucking amazing.

• By A. Knobelsdorf
  March 23, 2010
  03:56 PM

  Godzilla, sushi, geishas, bento boxes, kitsunes, Mount Fuji, anime, bullet trains, nothing says Japan more than Kurosawa.

• By Dan
  March 23, 2010
  03:57 PM

  If you want to know why you should give a damn about Japanese cinema, just watch a Kurosawa.

• By Andrew Skinner
  March 23, 2010
  03:57 PM

  Scorsese, Ford Coppala, John Ford, Eastwood, Federico Fellini, and Werner Herzog, all spell G-R-E-A-T, But GREAT is spelled KUROSAWA

• By DJ
  March 23, 2010
  03:57 PM

  Kurosawa will, if nothing else, change the way you look at film -- and quite possibly the way you look at life.

• By Jamie Bucknell
  March 23, 2010
  03:58 PM

  Watching a Kurosawa film will jerk you out of your complacency with movies that have no real insight into what it means to be a human being.

• By Linda Susan
  March 23, 2010
  03:58 PM

  If you've ever been reticent to watch certain foreign films because they were from a time and place so fundamentally different than yours that you felt you couldn't emotionally connect, just watch any of Kurosawa's classics and it will open your eyes to a whole other world of great cinema.

• By Jose Galvan
  March 23, 2010
  04:01 PM

  "Dude, if you don't love it, I'll watch that Vin Diesel crap you always talk about."

• By Spencer Draper
  March 23, 2010
  04:01 PM

  Akira Kurosawa made films that are not only breathlessly entertaining, but universal triumphs of the human spirit-this cannot be expressed in mere words so enjoy.

• By David Hollingsworth
  March 23, 2010
  04:02 PM

  Since you prefer twisted surreality, Yojimbo has a scene of a dog with a severed hand in its mouth.

• By paul tablan
  March 23, 2010
  04:06 PM

  From during-the-war to postwar Kurosawa, his 26 films encompass a wide range of stories, from samurai and martial arts films to dramatic tales of "corrupt business" Kurosawa tells a story that anybody can get into.

• By SHAWN Costello
  March 23, 2010
  04:07 PM

  If you have any interest in the cinema of the last 100 hundred years your history will not be complete without seeing a Kurosawa film, pick one.

• By Josh H
  March 23, 2010
  04:09 PM

  If you watch Seven Samurai, I'll let you have the choice of any one of 25 of Kurosawa's films, once Criterion mails the set to me.

• By John Miller
  March 23, 2010
  04:10 PM

  It's just like all your favorite movies...except good.

• By John Nicholls
  March 23, 2010
  04:11 PM

  In a thousand years people will still talk about him and how he pushed the medium.. Imagine the cinematic equivalent of William Shakespeare.

• By Timothy Roach
  March 23, 2010
  04:11 PM

  Light and shadows, Kurosawa and film.

• By Jose Sauceda
  March 23, 2010
  04:13 PM

  This film will render half your movie collection obsolete!

• By Steven Kendall
  March 23, 2010
  04:13 PM

  A Kurosawa film is a world where the dreamer persuades us have the same dream together.

• By I Wei Lai
  March 23, 2010
  04:13 PM

  It is impossible to describe the beauty, depth and versatility of Kurosawa's works in words, let alone one sentence, so you'll just have to let his vision explain it to you.

• By Robert Weiss
  March 23, 2010
  04:14 PM

  You owe it yourself to check out Kurosawa because he has influenced just about every great film director who came after him; need I say more?

• By Kim
  March 23, 2010
  04:15 PM

  Everyone who loves film should watch Seven Samurai; yes it has subtitles & is over three hours long but I promise you it will be one of the most epic & wonderful films you will ever experience.

• By Phil White
  March 23, 2010
  04:16 PM

  Right, now imagine a film NOT directed by Michael Bay and NOT starring Leonardo DiCaprio ...

• By Debi Dufala
  March 23, 2010
  04:16 PM

  ......and the Book of Kurosawa was again consulted by the Interpreter who proceeded to read aloud the words, "They will come into existence, experiences retold, A Fistful of Dollars, Ocean's Eleven, The Usual Suspects, Speed, and a Star Wars will flash forth, in all that is brillant, mirrored by one that initially cleared the path for those following".........

• By Jose Gallegos
  March 23, 2010
  04:18 PM

  Without Kurosawa, some of your favorite films wouldn't even exist.

• By Adam Popichak
  March 23, 2010
  04:18 PM

  Just watch one, and if you don't like it, I'll cook dinner for an entire month. (I won't even break a sweat.)

• By Scott Perry
  March 23, 2010
  04:20 PM

  A Kurosawa film is always a cut above the rest.

• By Lex W.
  March 23, 2010
  04:20 PM

  In less than 7 hours over 1,000 people have tried to come up with clever one liners to convince you to watch and Akira Kurosawa movie, what are you waiting for?

• By Zach W.
  March 23, 2010
  04:21 PM

  If love is a color only the blind can see, than a Kurosawa film is a work of art only the numb can feel.

• By Wolfgang Plank
  March 23, 2010
  04:21 PM

  I would tell a friend: "If you have seen at least one film by Akira Kurosawa, you would think about what one sentence to tell a friend of yours to convince him to watch one of Kurosawa's films in order to share that experience."

• By Josh Bossie
  March 23, 2010
  04:21 PM

  Watching Kurosawa is the only sort of subconscious film school that can inspire such diverse films as Star Wars, A Fistful of Dollars, and even A Bug's Life.

• By Jean Scheaffer
  March 23, 2010
  04:22 PM

  All the stories are told by Kurosawa. They are the timeless stories of all sides.

• By Andrew T
  March 23, 2010
  04:22 PM

  There is, within every work of his; a plot sparked with the brilliance of originality(even when he's adapting someone else's work), an artist's gift for aesthetic beauty, a poet's understanding of the human condition, and paradoxically the loving brutality of truth and a dictator's pursuit to see his vision realized and as an audience it is possible to enjoy all these elements, cumulatively or separately.

• By Josh G.
  March 23, 2010
  04:23 PM

  You're sick of movies set in the 20th century and you want to watch a foreign film, well my friend today is your lucky day.

• By virginia mcgarry
  March 23, 2010
  04:24 PM

  While I know I do go on and on to you about the genius of Akira Kurosawa and his extensive catalogue of film as art and social commentary, today I celebrate his 100th birthday - so indulge me, join me in watching something that will change how you look at movies: timeless stories, truly a master at presenting the human condition; incredible attention to detail in costumes and sets; each shot thoughtfully considered (not an inch of film wasted) and beautiful to look at; amazing action without special effects other than his skill in how to present it; the ability to draw from his actors unforgettable performances (not called The Emperor for nothing!) - I promise to open up a whole new world of truly great film-making to you.

• By Yoshi Kato
  March 23, 2010
  04:24 PM

  In addition to experiencing pure visual magnificence, watching any Kurosawa film allows one to not only view history and the world with a more thoughtful and stimulated perspective but to re-examine one's own life differently, as well.

• By Lewis Saul
  March 23, 2010
  04:25 PM

  Let's watch a film by a director who deeply cares about entertaining you and keeping you transfixed by his extraordinary attention to detail in every nanosecond of his 30 films!

• By Telemachus vlachakis
  March 23, 2010
  04:25 PM

  If you ever wondered where great detective/kidnap/ransom movies and series came from, none can compare to High and Low.

• By Anthony V LeClair
  March 23, 2010
  04:25 PM

  It took only one (my first) of Akira Kurosawa's films, Ikiru, to prove to me that cinema is not always an insult to the human condition, but can be a frightening and perceptive celebration of it.

• By Hunter Sharum
  March 23, 2010
  04:26 PM

  Some Kurosawa films leave me breathless, some leave me shattered, some leave me inspired, but they all leave me wanting more.

• By Steven Kendall
  March 23, 2010
  04:26 PM

  A Kurosawa film is a world where the dreamer persuades us to have the same dream together. (correction to previous post)

• By Gustavo
  March 23, 2010
  04:27 PM

  Cause you need transcendent, unapologetic cinematic ART.

• By Zachary Rittenhouse
  March 23, 2010
  04:28 PM

  You haven't lived untill you've watched an Akira Kurosawa film.

• By Aren Zolninger
  March 23, 2010
  04:28 PM

  If you refuse to see any one of Kurosawa's vastly influential, widely entertaining, masterfully stylish and truthful films just because they are in black and white or in subtitles, you must refuse to see beauty and humanity in any other color or language beside your own.

• By Robert Haney
  March 23, 2010
  04:28 PM

  Wanna see where Star Wars came from?

• By Andy Johnson
  March 23, 2010
  04:28 PM

  Well, if people like Steven Spelberg, George Lucas, and Segiro Leone loved his films, I think you'll at least enjoy a few.

• By Pierre Robitaille
  March 23, 2010
  04:29 PM

  Considered by certain critics and film lovers -including myself- to be Kurosawa's masterpiece, IKURU, gently but lucidly, reaches the realm of the sublime when it brings the viewer to ponder the meaning of life as well as the ebb and flow of the human soul.

• By Philippe Leblanc
  March 23, 2010
  04:29 PM

  Watching a film by Akira Kurosawa, (especially Seven Samurai and Rashomon) for the first time is an eye opening epic movie event and you just know that without his influence, the movie industry would never looked the way it looks now, and all thanks to one man. How about we open your eyes to a cinematic masterpiece tonight?

• By David
  March 23, 2010
  04:30 PM

  Broaden your Horizons, you won't regret it.

• By Danny Jaramillo
  March 23, 2010
  04:31 PM

  " Dude. . . step away from the Kung Fu Theater crap and come check out some of these Kurosawa movies bro! "

• By RONALD
  March 23, 2010
  04:31 PM

  What Soren Kierkegaard had only tried to explain a century earlier, the concept that truth is subjective, Akira Kurosawa captured on film in his masterpiece "Rashomon", a film that everyone must watch in order to fully understand human nature.

• By RONALD
  March 23, 2010
  04:31 PM

  What Soren Kierkegaard had only tried to explain a century earlier, the concept that truth is subjective, Akira Kurosawa captured on film in his masterpiece "Rashomon", a film that everyone must watch in order to fully understand human nature.

• By Brian Hostutler
  March 23, 2010
  04:32 PM

  Foreign movies for people who hate foreign movies.

• By Dan Withrow
  March 23, 2010
  04:32 PM

  Like Leonardo Da Vinci or WIlliam Shakespeare, the masters of the arts deserve to be appreciated to some degree by everyone, and Kurosawa is most certainly one of the masters.

• By P.T.Smith
  March 23, 2010
  04:32 PM

  Kurosawa's films are a reminder that there doesn't have to be a line between art house film and shear entertainment, that the same film can have gorgeous shots, be carefully paced, have incredible acting, and still be filled with intense chases, long chaotic fights, and drunken sing-alongs.

• By Valery Joe
  March 23, 2010
  04:32 PM

  I want you to watch a Kurosawa film because we're good friends, and you should really get to know some of my other good friends.

• By Seth Beatty
  March 23, 2010
  04:33 PM

  Trust me bro, it's about a group of samurais taking on bandits in 16th Japan - it will literally and figuratively blow your mind.

• By Christopher R
  March 23, 2010
  04:34 PM

  from Seven Samurai: "What's the use of worrying about your beard when your head's about to be taken?" They are bound to ask what that is from.

• By Pete Marinucci
  March 23, 2010
  04:34 PM

  Kurosawa didn't invent cinema, but he perfected it as the ultimate Twentieth Century work of art; in film there is only Before Rashomon and After Rashomon.

• By Steve Lee
  March 23, 2010
  04:35 PM

  In a poetic and sentimental statement on the human condition and the desire to leave a lasting mark of beauty in the world,Ikiru is the about a lifetime of uncertainty and self-doubt and the decision to do the right thing despite the odds.

• By Keith Dillon
  March 23, 2010
  04:38 PM

  Oh, just see Seven Samurai, will ya? I don't care what the film school freaks say, it's a helluva lot of fun.

• By Antal Zambo
  March 23, 2010
  04:38 PM

  Watching "Ikiru" is an essential part of understanding what it is to be a human being.

• By Levi Kim
  March 23, 2010
  04:39 PM

  Once you are done watching this movie, you will see cinema and film in a whole different light...and I mean that in a good way.

• By Andrew Brack
  March 23, 2010
  04:39 PM

  If you appreciate beautiful cinematography, rousing action sequences and exquisite characterization and storytelling then pick out one of those films from our new AK:100 boxset and we'll be sure to have a wonderful evening.

• By Devin B
  March 23, 2010
  04:39 PM

  Consider the classic films you've seen from some of today's high profile directors, and you'll find that most of their vision originated from the genius of Kurosawa, who towers above them all in the pantheon of cinema.

• By Andrew
  March 23, 2010
  04:39 PM

  Kurosawa was born into a samurai family and raised in samurai tradition, there's a reason his samurai epics are the best!

• By Duncan Gray
  March 23, 2010
  04:39 PM

  One long sentence, to pitch Kurosawa to a friend... He has, quite simply, the greatest range and depth of any director, with a body of work comparable to many but equaled by none: Yojimbo is like Tarantino, if Tarantino had more to say; The Hidden Fortress is the adventurous root of Star Wars, if George Lucas composed his shots like a painter; the empathetic humanity of Ikiru is on a par with the latest Pixar masterpiece, if Pixar also made epic Shakespeare adaptations; his epic Shakespeare adaptations are on a par with Olivier, if Olivier also directed stylish film noir; and Seven Samurai is all of it and more.

• By Drew
  March 23, 2010
  04:41 PM

  “Man is a genius when he is dreaming.” - Kurosawa

• By Tj Alston
  March 23, 2010
  04:43 PM

  There are directors who created a film which define that director's career; Kurosawa's career defined cinema.

• By Christy Weber
  March 23, 2010
  04:43 PM

  When life gives you lemons, watch a Kurosawa film.

• By Jonathan Keogh
  March 23, 2010
  04:43 PM

  Putting 10 cents in a 5 cent bag is popular amongst writers, but Kurosawa is the only one who could do it in cinema.

• By Carter Bruce
  March 23, 2010
  04:43 PM

  Rare is the film that can balance quiet subtlety and severe badassness.

• By Roy
  March 23, 2010
  04:43 PM

  If you are not totally hooked in by a Kurosawa film in the first five minutes, then you are “Hakuchi” (The Idiot)!

• By Justin T
  March 23, 2010
  04:44 PM

  60 years ago, Kurosawa did, in black and white, films that have not been surpassed with 3D, color, digital effects, or any other innovation of the 20th and 21st century. ------------------- When people ask me what makes Kurosawa special, I think "nothing specific - he was simply the very best". -------------------- Kurosawa was behind the best film of the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s - wanna watch them?. --------------------- These films are older than your parents, and you've never seen anything better.

• By Sheridan Cleland
  March 23, 2010
  04:44 PM

  Samurais, dude. Honest-to-god, real, live, no-wire-work samurais.

• By Justin Morgan
  March 23, 2010
  04:46 PM

  Kurosawa is the definition of cinema, period.

• By Ryan Griffin
  March 23, 2010
  04:46 PM

  Every movie (except Pootie Tang) has been influenced by Kurosawa!

• By Adam Schefflan
  March 23, 2010
  04:47 PM

  Rare is the auteur who can skillfully blend the intellectual rigor of art cinema with its more accessible antithesis and appeal to both equally. Peace.

• By Ryan Slater
  March 23, 2010
  04:47 PM

  I know you don't believe a perfect film exists, but Kurosawa made at least a dozen of them.

• By Neil M.
  March 23, 2010
  04:49 PM

  One of the finest directors to ever walk the planet, not only does Kurosawa embody everything we've come to love about cinema, he also helped define it.

• By Kelvin Ho
  March 23, 2010
  04:49 PM

  Everything you ever heard about Akira Kurosawa is true, and then some.

• By Scott Hennessy
  March 23, 2010
  04:49 PM

  Before the cool of Eastwood or Delon in Melville's Samurai there is the source: Mifune as Yojimbo.

• By Leonard
  March 23, 2010
  04:50 PM

  Watch Stray Dog, there's an episode of The Wire kinda like it.

• By JONATHAN BAYLIS
  March 23, 2010
  04:50 PM

  The first Kurosawa film I saw on the big screen was Dreams, and it made me want to spend a lifetime watching every single film that preceded it.

• By Robert Bryant
  March 23, 2010
  04:50 PM

  A haiku: There is nothing like - Kurosawa cinema - it is art on film.

• By Alex Goldstein
  March 23, 2010
  04:52 PM

  Kurosawa is to film what Babe Ruth is to baseball, what Mohammed Ali is to boxing, what Julia Child is to cooking, what Jimi Hendrix is to the guitar, or even what Seabiscuit is to equestrian racing; if you don't know him, you don't know jack.

• By Robert Bryant
  March 23, 2010
  04:53 PM

  There is nothing like - Kurosawa cinema - it is art on film. (A haiku)

• By Michael Crane
  March 23, 2010
  04:53 PM

  I lent someone at work Yojimbo and he told me he didn't have to read the subtitles because he saw the western, my crying lead to my buddy wanting to borrow it.

• By Tyler Jackson
  March 23, 2010
  04:54 PM

  Nah man, Yojimbo would kick John Wayne's ass!

• By Greg McElhatton
  March 23, 2010
  04:54 PM

  Watching a Kurosawa movie for the first time is as startling and eye-opening as if someone who was colorblind suddenly got to see the full spectrum of colors for the first time.

• By John Kim
  March 23, 2010
  04:55 PM

  Watching Kurosawa is to be in the hands of a true auteur, a master: as soon as you start watching, you know you are in the hands of a genius, but after a few minutes, you forget the genius part of it and you are engrossed in a riveting story writ large on a bold and brilliant canvas, and after it's over, you say, "How about we hit the menu button and watch that all over again!"

• By Aaron Waltke
  March 23, 2010
  04:55 PM

  There is a fox who lived in the woods alone; though his family was taken by spirits, his lust for vengeance was quelled by the twin necessities of duty and honor... but his family was not returned-- understand this, my son, and you will understand the films of Akira.

• By Joshua Fialkov
  March 23, 2010
  04:56 PM

  It's the Magnificent Seven, only better and with swords. WITH SWORDS!!!

• By Wondwossen
  March 23, 2010
  04:57 PM

  I told my fiancee that "she can either go to work tomorrow and slave away, or live a little and watch the marathon on TCM with me".

• By Johnny Coffeen
  March 23, 2010
  04:57 PM

  If you don't believe film is an art form, watch a Kurosawa film.

• By Chris M
  March 23, 2010
  04:58 PM

  It's like seeing a movie for the first time again.

• By Matthew Winslow
  March 23, 2010
  04:59 PM

  I would look my friend dead in the eyes and say, "Like a Stray Dog, Living in The Lower Depths of The Hidden Fortress, you are The Idiot upon The Throne of Blood and Scandal, but Hold No Regrets for Your Youth because Akira Kurosawa's Dreams are High and Low and will be your Rhapsody in August on One Wonderful Sunday!"

• By John M. Simmons Jr.
  March 23, 2010
  05:00 PM

  Open Kurosawa's magic box and even if you are dog tired he will make you dance with tears in your eyes.

• By Ward Blair
  March 23, 2010
  05:02 PM

  If you consider cinema an art form, then you've got got GOT to check out it's greatest painter, sculptor, and craftsman, Akira Kurosawa.

• By PDH
  March 23, 2010
  05:02 PM

  Just think Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas some of America's most important filmmakers all have something in common, they all love this guy and his films.

• By Jonathan Rimorin
  March 23, 2010
  05:02 PM

  Hey kid, when I was your age, I saw THE SEVEN SAMURAI; and then I saw RAN, and I thought it was the coolest thing over (really, I went around saying "coolest thing over"); and then I tried to live like a samurai, and then I tried living like a conflicted businessman, and now I live like an old man treasuring life on a swing in the rain; so if you admire me (and I know you do), you should do as I do, and be influenced as I was influenced, and watch THE SEVEN SAMURAI, it'll help with your reading, it'll help with your humanity, and it'll help you impress all the chicks in college, God's honest truth.

• By Erik
  March 23, 2010
  05:03 PM

  If God himself directed a movie, it'd probably only be half as good as a Kurosawa film.

• By Kris H
  March 23, 2010
  05:03 PM

  No director in history made thought-provoking art house films that were more accessible and commercially viable, nor made vivid and entertaining commercial movies that were more artistic and critically acclaimed, blending both high and low into a seamless and fully realized cinematic vision.

• By David Glen
  March 23, 2010
  05:04 PM

  This guy showed me that film is so much more than movies.

• By Morgan
  March 23, 2010
  05:05 PM

  "The life of a man, burn it with the fire -- the life of an insect, throw it into the fire -- ponder and you'll see: the world is dark, and this floating world is a dream." -from the Hidden Fortress

• By Wyatt
  March 23, 2010
  05:06 PM

  Before Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, and Steve McQueen, there was Toshiro Mifune, and after seeing him in a Kurosawa film, you'll wonder why you ever respected those guys.

• By Brent Ecenbarger
  March 23, 2010
  05:07 PM

  As your friend, I believe it is important to tell you that there is a film maker whose films have affected people from different cultures and backgrounds across the world, both emotionally and intellectually, and by devoting a few hours of your life to trying out his film, you will be rewarded and enriched beyond your greatest expectations.

• By Luisel Pena
  March 23, 2010
  05:07 PM

  Listen, if Kurosawa's films speak to you as they do to me, then you will find yourself coming back to them over and over again, for the rest of your life, as if you were visiting an old friend who will always impart new insights into the tragic dimension of human existence and the perennial need to affirm our humanity.

• By Tom Davis
  March 23, 2010
  05:08 PM

  In each of his films Kurosawa has revealed The meaning of life

• By Henderick Lui
  March 23, 2010
  05:09 PM

  Just watch Ikiru tonight and when you wake up in the morning and open your eyes you may see the world in a slightly different way.

• By Pierre
  March 23, 2010
  05:10 PM

  Just simply the ultimate Frame of reference,

• By R. Vinson III
  March 23, 2010
  05:10 PM

  Kurosawa attempts to answer if humanity is a condition of living, or if simply living is enough.

• By Donald F. Williams
  March 23, 2010
  05:12 PM

  "RAN" is like watching a Shakepeare tragedy on steroids.

• By Rene Glen
  March 23, 2010
  05:13 PM

  Kurosawa's films gave me a whole new perspective on film.

• By Ariel Esteban Cayer
  March 23, 2010
  05:14 PM

  Akira Kurosawa is to film what Victor Hugo is to French litterature: he created the language and technique that filmmakers use everyday and that resonates through every film since, be it Scorsese, Lucas or Coppola.

• By josh wilmarth
  March 23, 2010
  05:15 PM

  His genius and refined methods of storytelling were highly influential upon everyone who came after (even if they didn't know it); from the rawest of human emotions to the most intricate of plots, kurosawa was a master of his craft.

• By Gareth Hughes
  March 23, 2010
  05:16 PM

  To watch a Kurosawa film is to experience a full range of human emotion, from sorrow to joy and from anger to love, so do yourself a favor and open your mind to his brilliance, because after all, life is brief.

• By Sheila Jenca
  March 23, 2010
  05:16 PM

  Honey, remember the weekend before we got married, and you dressed me up like a Playboy Bunny and told me you were surprising me with a pre-honeymoon weekend at the Four Seasons, and when you opened the door to our room, all the guys from your office and bowling league yelled "The party's finally arrived!" because you'd decided since I wouldn't let you have a stripper at your bachelor party, you were going to have the next best thing; and then I grabbed the nearest fifth of Jack Daniels and cracked you over the head with it; and when I ran sobbing out of the room you chased after my cottontail and when you caught me you told me you'd do anything I wanted to make up for it?

• By Kenny
  March 23, 2010
  05:16 PM

  Dude, you have to understand, watching a Kurosawa film with me will be the best time we ever spend together.

• By Jeffrey Riedy
  March 23, 2010
  05:18 PM

  Nobody calling themselves a film connoisseur can possibly deny themselves the works of a director whose inspirations included Shakespeare, John Ford, and Frank Capra, and whose works have influenced directors and filmmaking styles from Fellini to Bergman, and also Lumet, Polanski, and Scorcese, and inspired Spaghetti Westerns and Sci-Fi Blockbusters like Star Wars.

• By Carl Baugher
  March 23, 2010
  05:19 PM

  To prove that movies can be both entertaining and works of art at the same time, you only have to look at any Kurasawa film for the proof.

• By MattyB
  March 23, 2010
  05:20 PM

  If George Lucas found inspiration for "Star Wars" from "The Hidden Fortress" then you know Kurosawa is a director you need to experience.

• By George Wong
  March 23, 2010
  05:21 PM

  Kurosawa is to film as Shakespeare is to the written word.

• By Bret Bynum
  March 23, 2010
  05:21 PM

  You say you already have a favorite film maker but you have never seen a Kurosawa film!?

• By ArmandoV
  March 23, 2010
  05:22 PM

  "To have not seen the films of Akira Kurosawa is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun."

• By Stephen Mill
  March 23, 2010
  05:25 PM

  Throne of Blood is like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but WAY better!

• By Bryan Dunn
  March 23, 2010
  05:26 PM

  Don't tell me you don't like black and white or subtitles---Kurosawa's films will change your mind and your heart.

• By Elizabeth Cash
  March 23, 2010
  05:27 PM

  No matter what your favorite movie is, the odds are it has been influenced by Kurosawa because his movies have been remade into or influenced westerns (The Magnificent Seven and A Fistful of Dollars), science fiction (Star Wars), drama (The Last Princess), as well as, influencing famous directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Sam Peckinpah, Steven Spielberg, and Spike Lee.

• By dylan
  March 23, 2010
  05:28 PM

  you need to watch some kurosawa, u cant call urself a film lover if u never see kurosawas films

• By Rob Sniderman
  March 23, 2010
  05:31 PM

  (Before I start, I know that this technically isn't a sentence, but this is the best way that I can think of to convince somebody to get into Kurosawa) All I would do is sit them down, and turn on the bullet train scene from High and Low. Just by watching this, they will see how amazing Kurosawa is; seeing how he can pull off suspense amazingly (SUCH mounting tension throughout the scene), show tons of emotions that a character have (still showing Gondo's internal struggle about whether or not he will pay the ransom), gives the slight idea of claustrophobia and unrest in the small confines of the train, and, as well as all of these amazing factors, would still make a person very excited to see what happens in the rest of this movie, and many other Kurosawa's. Clearly, if the person who I was showing this to had common sense, they'd know how amazing a director/writer/producer/editor he can be!

• By Bob Scammon
  March 23, 2010
  05:32 PM

  If you watch a Kurosawa film i will buy you dinner, oh and his style and vision will change the way you look at movies.

• By Sean
  March 23, 2010
  05:34 PM

  Kurosawa unraveled reality—outdoing Shakespeare—and wove artifice.

• By Evan
  March 23, 2010
  05:34 PM

  If master filmmaking is what you're looking for then look no further.

• By Kento Gebo
  March 23, 2010
  05:35 PM

  I know you loved "The Little Engine That Could" as a kid, so try to imagine the story being pumped up on steroids, the engine being replaced by a bunch of poor farmers, the impossible-to-climb mountain being depicted by a bunch of bad-ass interlopers, and the engine's determination being represented by a small group of down-on-their-luck warriors, ... and then you've got Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai!"

• By Curt S
  March 23, 2010
  05:36 PM

  I am thick with envy that you have 25 masterpieces ahead of you.

• By Jason Rubin
  March 23, 2010
  05:36 PM

  When I begin to feel a little despair seeping into my transitory heart, I find myself once again drawn to Ikiru's images, which somehow manage to inspire me with their sublime sorrow, compelling me to live even as they articulate the inevitable pain of departing.

• By Rick Escueta
  March 23, 2010
  05:37 PM

  OK, so I know you don't really like foreign films, or black & white movies, or period pictures or long movies... But you will definitely LOVE any of Kurosawa's films.

• By Erik
  March 23, 2010
  05:37 PM

  Watch "One Wonderul Sunday" because Kurosawa channels a romantic comedy through his incisive vision of post-World War II Japan.

• By Jen Shaffer
  March 23, 2010
  05:37 PM

  You may not know who he is, you might not be familiar with his direct works of cinema, but Kurosawa is one of the most influential individuals in the movie industry, one that pours every ounce of himself into his films, with spectacular and timeless results.

• By Rob Hamilton
  March 23, 2010
  05:40 PM

  Kurosawa is like the Mile Davis of film, 'often imitated but never duplicated'! It's difficult to choose just one film to watch, like saying one tune or song can give you the essence of a musician's carrer... but if there's one director that you can learn the timeless brilliance of visual storytelling from, it's Akira Kurosawa!

• By Christian
  March 23, 2010
  05:44 PM

  "I don't care if your in bed with your wife, get your ass in here to see Seven Samurai from the master Kurasawa and see for what it supposed be, a film."

• By Oakland Bautista
  March 23, 2010
  05:44 PM

  Watching a Kurosawa film is like eating the most sublimely delectable sushi in all of Japan with your eyes and ears...

• By Tim Balzer
  March 23, 2010
  05:46 PM

  "Yeah, she left me because forcing her to watch SEVEN SAMURAI for the third time this month wasn't, and I quote, 'being attentive to her needs.'"

• By Matt Carlin
  March 23, 2010
  05:47 PM

  Okay, so you don't like to read subtitles but you remember how much Clint Eastwood liked to talk, and this is the guy that helped inadvertantly make him a star so sit down, shut up, and enjoy!

• By GEORGE CROSSLAND
  March 23, 2010
  05:47 PM

  to anyone who has never seen any of his films: his influence is in almost evrthing these days, you will feel comfortable watching his films, and with such a varied libary of films there will be a film of his that you will love and will be part of you for the rest of your life.

• By Jake Fredel
  March 23, 2010
  05:48 PM

  on Yojimbo: It's dirty, witty, violent, entertaining and absolutely glorious - and you'll never find a director who directs a film as well as Akira Kurosawa does, or kick ass like Mifune does in this film.

• By Noah Miller
  March 23, 2010
  05:48 PM

  It's cheaper than booking a ticket to Tokyo, and ten times as wondrous: how can you possibly resist?

• By Timothy R White
  March 23, 2010
  05:49 PM

  Kurosawa was greatly influenced by Hollywood films, so if you love Hollywood films, you should watch his; he is the greatest Japanese director, so if you love Japanese films, you should watch his; in fact, if you love movies, you should watch his.

• By Rosa Payan
  March 23, 2010
  05:50 PM

  You really should see Kurosawa's films. That man was over his time, what movies try to do now; He did those things many decades ago and way better. I can truly say he is one of the fathers of cinema.

• By Jason the Utterly Sincere
  March 23, 2010
  05:51 PM

  To my wife: The Kurosawa set is like a conglomeration of your very favorite things: going to the RSC, watching films featuring ninjas, Sex & The City, etc... except for the Noh, samurai, absence of martinis, the sheer preponderance of Japanese dialect and the utter, unforgivable lack of cute cats -- nobody's perfect, obviously, but I swear to you that Brad Pitt and George Clooney feature in almost every one of these films (shirtless).

• By Jonathan Crow
  March 23, 2010
  05:51 PM

  Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Michael Bay, Ridley Scott, Gore Verbinski, James Cameron, Brian DePalma, McG, Tony Scott, Christopher Nolan: poseurs; Kurosawa: the real thing.

• By Jacob Churosh
  March 23, 2010
  05:52 PM

  Kurosawa was the last real genius in film history, and his influence is literally EVERYWHERE.

• By Mike Millan
  March 23, 2010
  05:54 PM

  Bret we've been through a lot together, and it's time for me to be a true friend and let you borrow "Seven Samurai" in fact I'll let you borrow the Criterion version, don't say I never did anything for you.

• By Andrew Chance
  March 23, 2010
  05:54 PM

  "Like Kurosawa I make mad films, okay I don't make films, but if I did they'd have a samurai."

• By Brett Kessler
  March 23, 2010
  05:55 PM

  All of your favorite films were made in homage, on some level or another, to this master.

• By Matt Anthony Wilson
  March 23, 2010
  05:55 PM

  People ask me why they should watch an Akira Kurosawa film, I simply reply, "because it's an Akira Kurosawa film," that may not make sense to them but that's really the most appropriate response to such queries.

• By Rafiq
  March 23, 2010
  05:56 PM

  Hey, I know a movie with seven equally magnificent people, but they're all samurais!

• By Douglas B
  March 23, 2010
  05:57 PM

  Just as light cannot justly be described to the blind or a symphony to the deaf, an AK movie cannot be done justice with words, just watch, no one in particular, a random selection will do.

• By Wayne Nichols
  March 23, 2010
  06:00 PM

  A Kurosawa film should come with the warning: Beware, watching this will change the way you experience movies.

• By Esteban Navarro
  March 23, 2010
  06:01 PM

  Because a cinematic life without Kurosawa is not worth living.

• By AARON A
  March 23, 2010
  06:01 PM

  I'm not doing this for you, but all the people you're going to recommend this to.

• By Igor
  March 23, 2010
  06:02 PM

  You're not allowed to complain about modern movies until you've seen these classics.

• By Evan J
  March 23, 2010
  06:02 PM

  I'd simply turn on the film, a single frame of a Kurosawa film is worth more than any words.

• By Keith Enright
  March 23, 2010
  06:03 PM

  Give a man a DVD player and he'll watch "Transformers 2;" give a man a Kurosawa disc and he'll be completely transformed too.

• By Richard
  March 23, 2010
  06:03 PM

  Watching one of Kurosawa's masterworks, you will know that you are watching a master painter at work, and the experience will forever change the way you view cinema.

• By Raj Balkrishnan
  March 23, 2010
  06:03 PM

  Are you ready for a life transforming experience?

• By Josh Merola
  March 23, 2010
  06:04 PM

  Whether you love film or not, whether you are ethnocentric or not, whether you can follow subtitles or not, at least one Akira Kurosawa film is a must. He loved John Ford, so his films have a definite Western-feel that makes them adaptable to anyone who can watch moving images. He was one of the great visionaries of all time, yet told simple stories in such profound ways. To see one of his films is to learn about 16th century samurai life in Japan or post-World War II life in a war-torn nation. One could argue he is the reason we can sympathize with Japan today. They have such a rich and exotic history and culture. No one embodied or visualized that better than the greatest Japanese director: Akira Kurosawa.

• By Felix Montanez
  March 23, 2010
  06:05 PM

  Dude, those are REAL arrows being shot at Toshiro Mifune!

• By Mark Jeffries
  March 23, 2010
  06:05 PM

  How tragic that man can never realize how beautiful film is until he is face to face with Ikiru.

• By Anita
  March 23, 2010
  06:07 PM

  Kurosawa at his best is like three hours of cuddling in the afterglow after wild, manic lovemaking...only better.

• By Brandon Griffith
  March 23, 2010
  06:08 PM

  You truly haven’t experience Shakespeare until you see and hear it in the original Kurosawa.

• By Christopher Gonzalez
  March 23, 2010
  06:09 PM

  You haven't live until you've seen Ikiru.

• By Elliot Kallen
  March 23, 2010
  06:10 PM

  Watch Seven Samurai or Sarah Palin will be our next President...

• By Walter Biggins
  March 23, 2010
  06:10 PM

  Many of Kurosawa's greatest films are in black-and-white--my first was THE SEVEN SAMURAI, with YOJIMBO right after that--but they're so assertive, vibrant, swinging from vicious extremes and hyberbole to tender silence and minor grace that FEEL color-drenched. His films so pulse with the full color spectrum, and the full spectrum of human emotion and thought, that your mind will fool your eyes into thinking you're seeing vivid, at times lurid, color. Whether seeing a Kurosawa film set in the modern day or in ancient times, every frame will dazzle the eyes so much that the world outside the movie theater (or the TV den, or copmuter screen) will seem de-saturated of color by comparison.

• By Walter Biggins
  March 23, 2010
  06:13 PM

  Dear Daniel: Kurosawa makes black-and-white FEEL like color, and the real world seem de-saturated.

• By Chris
  March 23, 2010
  06:14 PM

  From intimate exchanges to sprawling epics, Akira Kurosawa's work is simultaneously passionate and meticulous.

• By Jun-Dai Bates-Kobashigawa
  March 23, 2010
  06:14 PM

  Kurosawa said that if you take him and subtract film, you get nothing—it would only be a slight exaggeration to say that the opposite is true as well.

• By Vahid Mortazavi
  March 23, 2010
  06:15 PM

  Literature history without Shakespeare is impossible to understand, as film history without Kurosawa. So, how could you be unfamiliar with him?!

• By Giovanni Radtke
  March 23, 2010
  06:16 PM

  Everything you loved about Cinema is in his films.

• By Eric Morris Eskenazi
  March 23, 2010
  06:18 PM

  There is nothing more Zen than watching Kurosawa.

• By Jason Metcalfe
  March 23, 2010
  06:18 PM

  Think about everything you appreciate in an action film combined with excellent dialogue, sharp cinematography, tension, romance, samurai swords and Toshiro Mifune and you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from a Kurosawa picture.

• By Meg
  March 23, 2010
  06:19 PM

  I love all of Kurosawa's films and I am the smartest person you know!

• By Andrew Gilbert
  March 23, 2010
  06:19 PM

  To watch a Kurosawa film is to have your favorite uncle tell you the most moving, wild, brutal and enjoyable tale ever told.

• By Cole Boerens
  March 23, 2010
  06:21 PM

  A standard by which all others have yet to achieve.

• By Ivan Nikolov
  March 23, 2010
  06:21 PM

  I guess we could go and see the Grand Canyon instead of watching this Kurosawa film, but in the end it's just a fucking hole.

• By Adam Wroblewski
  March 23, 2010
  06:22 PM

  If there is one film that could be considered the single-handed prime-mover of my fanaticism for cinema of all kinds, it is Rashomon.

• By Jordan Murphy
  March 23, 2010
  06:23 PM

  Akira Kurosawa made visually stunning films, his impeccable compositions matched only by his deep sense of humanity.

• By Lorren Bell
  March 23, 2010
  06:25 PM

  He is a king who usurped himself—his kingdom is now ash, he is a ghost awaiting death—the sight of him divides an army in terror, he is a father who is hunted by his favored sons—whose salvation lies with the son he rejected.

• By Bob
  March 23, 2010
  06:25 PM

  "Ikiru" is an inerrant snapshot of the best and worst of man, society, and interpersonal relationships - as true now as it was sixty years ago.

• By Taso g.
  March 23, 2010
  06:26 PM

  No, really, it was the basis for Star Wars!

• By Ryan Jeri
  March 23, 2010
  06:28 PM

  If you've ever loved a modern western, or gone to a Star Wars convention in a Chewbacca costume... remember; Kurosawa made it first.

• By Christian Paolo Malo
  March 23, 2010
  06:30 PM

  The visionnary and prolific Kurosawa has, directly or indirectly, impacted every genre, inspired every filmmaker in the world and influenced every movie made since.

• By Cam Wilde
  March 23, 2010
  06:31 PM

  Steven Spielberg + George Lucas + Francis Ford Coppola = Akira Kurosawa; Harrison Ford + Clint Eastwood + Robert DeNiro = Toshiro Mifune; Marlon Brando + Morgan Freeman + Robert Duvall = Takashi Shimura

• By Jeffrey Garner
  March 23, 2010
  06:32 PM

  Don't press "play" on "SEVEN SAMURAI" unless you're ready to become the most depraved sort of junkie, who will lie, cheat and steal to obtain the rest of the collection, as well as becoming paler for the first few months as you absorb them all.

• By Jason Wierzba
  March 23, 2010
  06:34 PM

  Yojimbo is about this bad motherfucker who wanders into this town where dogs run around with severed limbs in their mouths and proceeds to seriously fuck up the town, himself, and the entire post-war Japanese weltanschauung in one balls-to-the-wall apocalyptic CinemaScope throwdown blitz.

• By Quentin Turnbull
  March 23, 2010
  06:34 PM

  Perfect, wet voyeurism by a master who could instill color through B&W and channel B&W through color, Japanese Shakespeare at times at its finest, watch any of his movies with an umbrella close by...did I mention they're perfect...

• By Eric
  March 23, 2010
  06:34 PM

  My friend, words are inadequate so just watch them and you'll understand.

• By Craig Verity
  March 23, 2010
  06:34 PM

  Anything and everything is a Kurosawa film, because he is a master artist who uses film to show us stories with fully developed colorful characters and stunning visuals that will last as long as film exists, and as you exist.

• By Paul Casey
  March 23, 2010
  06:35 PM

  The Japanese don't just make better cars and sexbots than us, but better films as well...I guarantee, The Lower Depths is TOTALLY about a sexbot!

• By Miles Labat
  March 23, 2010
  06:36 PM

  If you study the history of filmmakers and not mention Akira Kurosawa or one of his films is like studying the history the bible and not mentioning God.

• By Jesse Oswald
  March 23, 2010
  06:37 PM

  Considering that you made me sit through Avatar, I think you owe me one....

• By Brad Eastridge
  March 23, 2010
  06:37 PM

  If you have ever wanted to smell, taste, and breathe a motion picture, watch a Kurosawa film.

• By andrew j smith
  March 23, 2010
  06:38 PM

  Hello there, welcome to Earth. Your tour guide will be Akira Kurosawa, who is to us what Virgil was to Dante-- the most eloquent, devastating, penetrating, sly, nuanced, complex and ferociously beautiful elaborator of the many worlds we humans inhabit, High and Low-- from the brutal Lower Depths to heavenly Dreams-- AK is our indispensable host, the one who can best lead us to our heart's desire. Enjoy your visit.

• By Greyory
  March 23, 2010
  06:38 PM

  If bad luck can make a man or destroy a man, then it's possible for one film to make him either appreciate or loathe the world... and this is that film.

• By RJL
  March 23, 2010
  06:38 PM

  You're welcome...

• By Scott Nessa
  March 23, 2010
  06:38 PM

  High drama, low comedy, honor, betrayal, severed heads: what's not to like?

• By Henry Musikar
  March 23, 2010
  06:38 PM

  Breathtaking cinematography, incredibly nuanced, yet theatrical acting, music like strong drink, and a story that you'll think about the rest of your life make The Seven Samurai a movie that you, as the smart, feeling person you are, must see, and the sooner the better.

• By JEFF NEILSON
  March 23, 2010
  06:39 PM

  Kurosawa's films are among the world's most beloved and respected for good reason: his majestically-shot, timeless works offer the profound experience of glimpsing the human condition through a lens of philosophy, history, art and truth.

• By J.R. Hernandez
  March 23, 2010
  06:40 PM

  Dearest friend, lend me your ear, so that I may introduce to you a wonderous world of cinema, saumurai, language and culture; your greatest teacher is to be Akira Kurosawa, and his films - which were his life - will enhance the meaning of yours; Mr. Kurosawa has bequethed to you his life, his wisdom, his struggles and his interpretation of living in this world and if you love cinema, or more urgently if you ache to better understand the nature of our very being, his films are an education unlike any other in this world; experience his films and enhance your memory of this earth; choose from any of his cinematic literature and journey towards the rest at your own leisure, trust me friend, you haven't experienced what movies are at all, until you see his, only then will you see what he saw.

• By Jason
  March 23, 2010
  06:40 PM

  There is something you need to experience, a film called Ikiru, though it will take you both above and beneath what you've come to expect from a film experience, because you'll find yourself within this dream of celluloid, there will be no separation between image and heart, and it will stay with you always.

• By Ervin Bayron
  March 23, 2010
  06:40 PM

  Start watching Seven Samurai and I'm quite certain you'll yearn for more Kurosawa.

• By Mark Shepherd
  March 23, 2010
  06:42 PM

  Most of the great films and directors were directly influenced by Kurosawa, so to understand the mindset of those films and directors you have to watch him.

• By Brandon Bragg
  March 23, 2010
  06:43 PM

  There comes a point, after you've seen a good share of Kurowosawa movies, when you start to realize what an immense and overreaching influence the man has had on the medium of film and you can't help but go back and find little pieces of him in most, if not all, of your favorite movies.

• By MARK C
  March 23, 2010
  06:43 PM

  "You won't watch Kurosawa, yet you're always complaining about how bad the movies are, nowadays. Trust me and watch him. He helped with putting the art in film, while still being entertaining to his audience. How many other Directors can you say that about?'

• By peter nguyen
  March 23, 2010
  06:43 PM

  "Kurosawa didn't make films, he made timeless masterpieces about loners, lowlifes, heroes, villains and... kick-@ss samurais."

• By Mark Shepherd
  March 23, 2010
  06:44 PM

  Most of the great films and directors were directly influenced by Kurosawa, so to understand the mindset of those films and directors you have to watch him.

• By Jaysin Osterkamp
  March 23, 2010
  06:45 PM

  Never will you see a film with so much heart, so much character and so much plot as Seven Samurai that you will want to instantly watch the movie over and over because you immediately feel connected to each and every moment as if they were your own.

• By Chris
  March 23, 2010
  06:45 PM

  [If the friend is male:] Bro!--you aren't really a man until you've seen Yojimbo.

• By Jes
  March 23, 2010
  06:45 PM

  "Dude, just watch with me, and afterward I promise I won't say, 'I told you so'."

• By D. Thomas Dalton
  March 23, 2010
  06:48 PM

  Kurosawa did for film what Miles Davis did for music: mastered his art, innovated new directions, and influenced countless others in all media even decades after death.

• By mindy arbo
  March 23, 2010
  06:49 PM

  Kurosawa had it all- a keen eye for visual drama, a painter's sense for framing,an appreciation for physical, emotional and spiritual beauty, a passion for history and culture, and a deep understanding of the drama, tragedy and comedy of the human condition, all wrapped up in and guided by his love for a great story.

• By Peter Ritter
  March 23, 2010
  06:49 PM

  Haiku: There is Hollywood And there're the Japanese – Watch Kurosawa.

• By Sloan Murray
  March 23, 2010
  06:50 PM

  With Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa has created 207 minutes of sheer cinematic perfection that flow like water and leave you wishing there were another 200 minutes to spend in said perfection; fortunately, Kurosawa has 29 more films worth of it.

• By Russell Mulvey
  March 23, 2010
  06:51 PM

  "Why would you want to watch THAT when you could watch a Kurosawa film?"

• By Danny Crocker
  March 23, 2010
  06:51 PM

  That's all great and fun and stuff, but let me show you what movies can do - watch this!

• By Edward L.
  March 23, 2010
  06:51 PM

  Kurosawa's films provide windows into the nobility of the human experience - after experiencing one of his masterpieces you'll find that life has a bit more flavor and character than you had previously thought.

• By Jordan Smith
  March 23, 2010
  06:52 PM

  You'd be just a silly goose not to watch a Kurosawa picture show.

• By Scout Tafoya
  March 23, 2010
  06:52 PM

  Me to girlfriend: "Sweetheart, can we watch Seven Samurai, it's my favorite movie?"

• By Steve
  March 23, 2010
  06:53 PM

  To convince a friend of the poetic beauty of Kurosawa I would describe the last scenes of ''Kagemusha'' when the flagpole seems to unfurl under the shimmering blue waters,epitomising the futility and sadness in conflict like an old masters painting.

• By Justin Rice
  March 23, 2010
  06:54 PM

  Yojimbo starts out with a dog carrying a human hand and ends with a guy killing a bunch of people with a sword, but it's poignant!

• By Cindy Lee
  March 23, 2010
  06:55 PM

  Hey, remember how you loved Star Wars, the Magnificent Seven, and Last Man Standing, so now let's watch the movies that inspired them!

• By Jordan Ghetler
  March 23, 2010
  06:57 PM

  Akira Kurosawa's films are beautiful, entertaining, and by all means accessible to the casual film viewer, and although watching 10 minutes of, for example, Seven Samurai, might not have you convinced, there is a timelessness to his films that keeps you interested and increasingly "involved" with each viewing.

• By Tom Fox
  March 23, 2010
  06:57 PM

  "No, you have it backwards--first we watch this movie, and THEN I'll put down the sword."

• By D. Davies
  March 23, 2010
  06:58 PM

  EDUCATE YOURSELF!

• By Henry Biedenkapp
  March 23, 2010
  06:58 PM

  Akira Kurosawa was first -- the big bang of Japanese cinema, then Western cinema, and now World cinema -- the yin and the yang, the alpha and the omega!

• By Josh Mauthe
  March 23, 2010
  06:59 PM

  Imagine The Man with No Name...with a katana and a lot of sake.

• By Jose
  March 23, 2010
  07:00 PM

  If you like Pulp Fiction see where Quentin Tarantino ripped off Kuroawa's idea and watch Rashomon!

• By Liam
  March 23, 2010
  07:00 PM

  "Where'd you think the screen-wipe transition came from? George Lucas?"

• By Evren
  March 23, 2010
  07:01 PM

  "What Lucas and Spielberg have done for American film--making it accessible--Kurosawa does for life."

• By Julie
  March 23, 2010
  07:03 PM

  It might not now but after watching a Kurosawa film, you're criteria for a GREAT film will include black and white and subtitles.

• By Django
  March 23, 2010
  07:03 PM

  I just do not see how we can continue to call each other friends when have yet to bond over a viewing of Rashomon.

• By Jason Parker
  March 23, 2010
  07:03 PM

  "You don't have to enjoy a Kurosawa film- hey, you don't even have to understand it!- but please: just appreciate it- try and see that his movies truly exemplify film, not just as bunch of moving pictures, but as a form of art, and that's all you have to do to discover one of cinema's most magnificent masterminds- none other than Akira Kurosawa."

• By Ezra Littlewood
  March 23, 2010
  07:05 PM

  Hey, I know you've questioned truth and human nature before, so why not watch one of the most important and influential directors of all time explore it in Rashomon with samurai, babies, bandits, mediums, woodcutters, priests with shaken faith in humanity, and one of the most intense and expressive actors of all time: Toshiro Mifune.

• By Kevin Lok
  March 23, 2010
  07:10 PM

  For a filmmaker whose career warrants a centennial and a 25-disc retrospective box set, the least you can do is give Kurosawa a chance on his 100th birthday.

• By Andrew Ziegler
  March 23, 2010
  07:12 PM

  It's the LEAST you could do after Hiroshima AND Nagasaki!

• By Andrew Ziegler
  March 23, 2010
  07:13 PM

  It's the LEAST you could do after Hiroshima AND Nagasaki!

• By Bryant Hinnant
  March 23, 2010
  07:13 PM

  Look, after you watch Yojimbo, Clint Eastwood will seem like a pussy.

• By John Espinoza
  March 23, 2010
  07:14 PM

  The last film playing in the Kurosawa Festival at the Stanford Theater is RAN, which is an adaptation of King Lear, although I know you don't like Shakespeare or subtitles, I will pay for your ticket, your own tub of popcorn, your Sprite, and all the candy you *think* you need to keep you awake, which you will later find the film was enough of a rush.

• By Brad Pearson
  March 23, 2010
  07:15 PM

  His use of all the elements of film making: story-telling, composition, sound, performance, camera movement, music, scenery, etc, turn cinema into the highest art.

• By Tom Weber
  March 23, 2010
  07:15 PM

  The cinema of today can be best appreciated through the influence of cinema from the past... watch THE HIDDEN FORTRESS and THE SEVEN SAMURAI for a better perspective on STAR WARS.

• By Andy
  March 23, 2010
  07:16 PM

  *earlier post had incorrect email Which would you like to see tonight: Martial Arts, Coming-of-Age, Female Heroism, Heist, Comedy, Espionage, Romance, Slice-of-life, Underworld, Redemption, Sacrifice, Medical Drama, Film Noir, Courtroom Drama, Mind-bending, Unrequited Love, Adaptation, Humanistic, Samurai Epic, Political, Shakespeare, Tragedy, Adventure, Revenge, Western, Action, Kidnapping, Social Justice, Short Films, Nature Film, War, Surrealism, or Family Drama?

• By Micah
  March 23, 2010
  07:16 PM

  You know about Leone and Lucas because they knew about Kurosawa.

• By Brian Hollendyke
  March 23, 2010
  07:17 PM

  You should see Akira Kurosawa's films because he is to great cinema as Edward Cullen is to a legion of teenage Twihards; he is god!

• By Tyler Catlin
  March 23, 2010
  07:17 PM

  If you liked the Karate Kid you should watch one of these movies, they are better than the Karate Kid.

• By Colin Lovelock
  March 23, 2010
  07:18 PM

  Come here and let me show you how fun a truly great film can be!

• By Andrew Clark
  March 23, 2010
  07:19 PM

  Your life is incomplete without a visit from The Seven Samurai.

• By Gabriela Pinelo
  March 23, 2010
  07:20 PM

  (WARNING: CALIFORNIA VERNACULAR) Oh My God Dude, you have to it see 'cuz it's SO HELLA FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!

• By James R
  March 23, 2010
  07:21 PM

  To live a scandal and not be the idiot, we should watch Kurosawa's High and Low at my hidden fortress in the lower depths on one wonderful Sunday so that we have no regrets for our youth and enjoy sweet dreams.

• By Paul
  March 23, 2010
  07:21 PM

  Kurosawa constructs films the way dead Russian write novels, with thematic arts, embedded symbolism and shit, and that's why you'll want to kiss me for introducing you to the worlds he created.

• By Mathew Seed
  March 23, 2010
  07:22 PM

  For Ikiru: "If you want I can lend you the secret to true happiness in life...if you don't mind subtitles..."

• By Bob Gambardella
  March 23, 2010
  07:25 PM

  Kurosawa is to Japan what Lean is to England, Fellini is to Italy, and Ford is to America; a chronicler of our times.

• By Michael
  March 23, 2010
  07:26 PM

  Greatest Director ever is bandied about too much these days, however I believe the moniker fits for Kurosawa; if you don't like Seven Samurai, I don't know if we can be friends anymore.

• By Joe Johnson
  March 23, 2010
  07:30 PM

  Without Akira Kurosawa, the Criterion Collection would be without a criterion.

• By Chris Harper
  March 23, 2010
  07:31 PM

  All of the films you watch and love today are watered down versions of his films.

• By Brian Gillenwater
  March 23, 2010
  07:31 PM

  Kurosawa is a cinephile's wet dream. White people like Akira Kurosawa. (Please refer to StuffWhitePeopleLike.com)

• By Daniel Sohinki
  March 23, 2010
  07:33 PM

  Watching a Kurosawa film will give you the strength of 10 men, intensify your intimate relationships, make you immune to all illness, give you wealth beyond your wildest dreams, and save you 15 percent or more on car insurance.

• By Paul Robinson
  March 23, 2010
  07:34 PM

  If you have not witnessed a Kurosawa film you have quite simply not experienced the wonder of cinema....

• By Ryan
  March 23, 2010
  07:36 PM

  Every contemporary film maker worth his weight in sand has referenced this master.

• By Jim Williamson
  March 23, 2010
  07:36 PM

  Kurosawa is the greatest writer/director there ever was, so please stop wasting time!

• By Patrick
  March 23, 2010
  07:39 PM

  If we were hanging out, right now, at the home of any of your favorite filmmakers currently working today, this movie would already be playing.

• By John R. Douglas
  March 23, 2010
  07:39 PM

  Spielberg, Lucas, Cameron, Bigelow, Scorsese and pretty much any other filmmaker you can name all learned most of their best chops from Kurosawa and if you haven't seen any of his best stuff you'll never really know how so much of their best stuff came from one man.

• By Jeff Korte
  March 23, 2010
  07:40 PM

  Plod through mud in fallen boots and dance in slippers made of silk.

• By ERIC SAN JUAN
  March 23, 2010
  07:40 PM

  If you could dance between the raindrops and, even if for just a moment, glimpse the face of the father you left behind in the son you've yet to have, each image laid atop the other until all that was left was the murky sense that you were alone despite the crowd, dry despite the rain, aged despite your youth, wouldn't you jump at the chance?

• By Rob
  March 23, 2010
  07:40 PM

  Not much of a poet, but here's my haiku Three cameras roll Emperor won't miss a beat Nothing missed, Nothing lost

• By Jose Angelito Marquez
  March 23, 2010
  07:42 PM

  When I first watched Seven Samurai, I was so into it and thought it was so great that I stayed up past my normal bedtime just so I can finish it... I was seven, and I hated black and white movies.

• By Olivier Bélanger
  March 23, 2010
  07:44 PM

  Kurosawa is a director who was doing things well. He learned cinema with the great Mikio Naruse and did bring his deepness with him in his well built movies of any kind, from drama to Samurai film. With all the genres he experimented and the fact that he is one of the greatest directors; everyone can have one of Kurosawa films in his top 10 of favourite films.

• By fILMABOUTLOVe
  March 23, 2010
  07:45 PM

  You will come to the realization that cinema is the accumulation of all arts.

• By Robert H. Knox
  March 23, 2010
  07:45 PM

  Kurosawa was and is the cinema personified; if you can watch RAN or SEVEN SAMURAI and say "I didn't like it.", then you just don't like cinema.

• By Kiel Vander Wiele
  March 23, 2010
  07:45 PM

  To gain a big step in your cultural literacy you need to see Seventh Samurai.

• By Barry M.
  March 23, 2010
  07:46 PM

  You haven't read Ed McBain until you've seen him in the original Japanese. See HIGH AND LOW.

• By Guinness Rider
  March 23, 2010
  07:47 PM

  You should watch 'Seven Samurai', because, like reading Shakespeare, it is you; the story, the characters, everything is made up of elements of you and your life, and, like all of us, the parts combine to make the whole, imperfect, compelling, and beautiful.

• By Eddie Goldstein
  March 23, 2010
  07:51 PM

  ¿Curious? . . . Cure: Kurosawa

• By Amanda
  March 23, 2010
  07:51 PM

  I love these films more than I love my children.

• By Philip Pangrac
  March 23, 2010
  07:53 PM

  If you want an understanding of film as an art form, as arguably the ultimate fulfillment of creation and expression, then Kurosawa is your gateway because his films are as accessible as anything you'll see at a cineplex but as masterful as anything else recorded on celluloid, laying the foundation of modern cinema and setting the bar for everyone that came after him.

• By Alex Griffin
  March 23, 2010
  07:53 PM

  Torture, cults, suicide, but can you dance to it?

• By Fred O.
  March 23, 2010
  07:55 PM

  I remember you saying - just before you left me - that "Austin Powers isn't funny, it's stupid;" but let me show you Ikiru, or Rashomon, to prove that we can both agree on what truth is.

• By Phil Eichenauer
  March 23, 2010
  07:56 PM

  TO LIVE a lifetime and never see any Kurosawa, THE IDIOT and his followers could never say “we had NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH.” I LIVE IN FEAR that someone somewhere hasn’t seen at least a frame of Kurosawa. For a while I thought of these fools as bad, blind and tired people. THE BAD SLEEP WELL not knowing they have nothing to fear but ignorance. Then I embraced the concept of the culturally deprived anomaly, a symbolic quest to show the world the wonder of the man named Akira. I would find the poor soul, THE SHADOW WARRIOR that fights only entertainment and self-education from their THRONE OF BLOOD. I RAN everywhere, searching HIGH AND LOW for a person who had never seen a Kurosawa film. ONE WONDERFUL SUNDAY at a bottomless mimosa brunch, I foolishly used my quest question as a pickup line on THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, DRUNKEN ANGEL of my DREAMS. In the hot sun of late summer, I flipped out my practiced acerbic prod, a regular RHAPSODY IN AUGUST – “are you the one that’s never seen any Kurosawa?” At first she just stared at me in disbelief, as if I had insulted her entire family. I simply stared back at her beauty. THE QUIET DUEL lasted long enough to spread a rumor of SCANDAL. Finally she touched my RED BEARD with both hands, slaughtering me with seven of her perfect fingers, Seven Samurai come to kill me carefully. She said to me, “THE MEN WHO TREAD ON THE TIGER’S TAIL are NOT YET ready to hunt the fox.” She slowly pointed to herself as the fox and we both burst into laughter. I poured us into THE LOWER DEPTHS of the mimosa carafe before we fled the brunch and ran around all day. We played silly children’s games and learned the little reasons why we already loved each other. We were both 30 YEARS OLD. She randomly made the sound of a train from a distance, “DO-DESU-KA-DEN,” and I never stopped laughing with her random fun. I fell so hard for her in those hours, aping around as her wishful BODYGUARD. The only thing I couldn’t get to know about her was her favorite Kurosawa film. Just before dark, we followed a STRAY DOG to a nearby park and settled in THE HIDDEN FORTRESS of a gazebo to capture our moment. She whispered into my ear, “my favorite is RASHOMON.” From that first second, I knew her story of how we met would always be different than mine. Epilogue: We named our children DERSU UZALA and SANSHIRO SUGATA. IKIRU (TO LIVE) SANJURO (30 YEARS OLD) YOJIMBO ( BODYGUARD)

• By Michael Blocher
  March 23, 2010
  07:57 PM

  It's the most fun you can have with your shoes off

• By Thom
  March 23, 2010
  07:58 PM

  Kurosawa changed my conception that the medium of cinema in its adolescence couldn't offer anything of value -- I was wong: watch Sanjuro for proof.

• By M. Taing
  March 23, 2010
  07:58 PM

  The (new) Karate Kid is to asian culture like Taco Bell is to mexican food, but watching Kurosawa movies is like having dinner with my grandma.

• By Jay Dingman
  March 23, 2010
  07:59 PM

  If you want to know about the complicated simple things in life than watch an Akira Kurosawa film.

• By Tom
  March 23, 2010
  08:00 PM

  Stunning visually, filled with great performances, Kurosawa's films are great stories that have vision, warmth, and humanity.

• By Stephen Huss
  March 23, 2010
  08:03 PM

  I will pay you $20 to watch "Seven Samurai", and when it's over, you're going to give me the money back.

• By Jerry Lange
  March 23, 2010
  08:03 PM

  The films of Akira Kurosawa paint an unmatched cinematic beauty on the world canvas using the brush of an artist and the uncompromising sword of a samurai.

• By Phil Eichenauer - One Sentence Version
  March 23, 2010
  08:03 PM

  TO LIVE a lifetime and never see any Kurosawa, THE IDIOT and his followers could never say “we had NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH,” I LIVE IN FEAR that someone somewhere hasn’t seen at least a frame of Kurosawa, for a while I thought of these fools as bad, blind and tired people, THE BAD SLEEP WELL not knowing they have nothing to fear but ignorance, Then I embraced the concept of the culturally deprived anomaly, a symbolic quest to show the world the wonder of the man named Akira, I would find the poor soul, THE SHADOW WARRIOR that fights only entertainment and self-education from their THRONE OF BLOOD, I RAN everywhere, searching HIGH AND LOW for a person who had never seen a Kurosawa film… ONE WONDERFUL SUNDAY at a bottomless mimosa brunch, I foolishly used my quest question as a pickup line on THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, DRUNKEN ANGEL of my DREAMS, In the hot sun of late summer, I flipped out my practiced acerbic prod, a regular RHAPSODY IN AUGUST – “are you the one that’s never seen any Kurosawa,” at first she just stared at me in disbelief, as if I had insulted her entire family, I simply stared back at her beauty, THE QUIET DUEL lasted long enough to spread a rumor of SCANDAL, finally she touched my RED BEARD with both hands, slaughtering me with seven of her perfect fingers, Seven Samurai come to kill me carefully, She said to me, “THE MEN WHO TREAD ON THE TIGER’S TAIL are NOT YET ready to hunt the fox,” she slowly pointed to herself as the fox and we both burst into laughter… I poured us into THE LOWER DEPTHS of the mimosa carafe before we fled the brunch and ran around all day, we played silly children’s games and learned the little reasons why we already loved each other, we were both 30 YEARS OLD, she randomly made the sound of a train from a distance, “DO-DESU-KA-DEN,” and I never stopped laughing with her random fun, I fell so hard for her in those hours, aping around as her wishful BODYGUARD, the only thing I couldn’t get to know about her was her favorite Kurosawa film, Just before dark, we followed a STRAY DOG to a nearby park and settled in THE HIDDEN FORTRESS of a gazebo to capture our moment, She whispered into my ear, “my favorite is RASHOMON,” from that first second, I knew her story of how we met would always be different than mine… Epilogue: We named our children DERSU UZALA and SANSHIRO SUGATA. IKIRU (TO LIVE) SANJURO (30 YEARS OLD) YOJIMBO ( BODYGUARD)

• By DORIN BOC
  March 23, 2010
  08:03 PM

  If you didn't discover the meaning of life yet, if you don't know how to live your life yet, if you don't know how to make something for your children, for the future, if you want to born again, you must learn from the Kanji Watanabe's experience from KUROSAWA's masterpiece IKIRU, a movie who will live forever...

• By CR
  March 23, 2010
  08:04 PM

  An Akira Kurosawa film is where inspired filmmaking and the human condition meet to create a world so engaging that it is often imitated and used as the benchmark for high art in cinema.

• By Lisa Brandi
  March 23, 2010
  08:04 PM

  You should watch Kurosawa films because they're just like the Twilight trilogy, only poignant, provocative, and penetrating, without the vampires and culturally starved following who wouldn't know a "Throne Of Blood" if they sat on one!

• By Peter Marvin
  March 23, 2010
  08:05 PM

  If you liked "Battle Beyond the Stars," "Star Wars," or "The Magnificent Seven," then you'll LOVE Kurosawa.

• By Joe H
  March 23, 2010
  08:08 PM

  Akira Kurosawa films are the raw thread of life writ large and bold, captured on film, be it pathos or joy, heroic or simply mundane.

• By Tom Helberg
  March 23, 2010
  08:12 PM

  Kurosawa's films will change your view of cinema forever, as it has changed mine.

• By Eric Jonelunas
  March 23, 2010
  08:12 PM

  Though the speech may be in a different language, the stories convey an implicit understanding and telling of human nature.

• By DAN
  March 23, 2010
  08:12 PM

  You're familiar with the first four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water; now let me introduce you to the fifth: Kurosawa.

• By Kim Tran
  March 23, 2010
  08:13 PM

  Before you play a game you read the rulebook, and Kurosawa wrote the rulebook on film, duh.

• By Ted Hocevar
  March 23, 2010
  08:15 PM

  If you don't get in touch with Kurosawa, you'll go blind.

• By Kevin Pihlaja
  March 23, 2010
  08:16 PM

  What would you do if you were told you had a few months to live --- watch Ikiru and see how the greatest director of all time answers this question.

• By pannonica
  March 23, 2010
  08:18 PM

  Forget about "you haven't lived until...."; you aren't qualified to die until you've seen at least one Akira Kurosawa film and the undisputed place to start is The Seven Samurai.

• By Gary Koltookian
  March 23, 2010
  08:23 PM

  The films of Kurosawa are as sublime as sampling a tumbler of warm sake on a cool autumn evening - they refresh the soul, prompt soulful introspection, and make you value the miracle and adventure that is life.

• By Samuel Nelson
  March 23, 2010
  08:24 PM

  Kurosawa wrote and directed tragedies for the modern man, full of bittersweet epiphanies that underscore out own senses of morality, the humor that makes those lows so low-- as well as humor that show us how to face adversity with honor and grace, and taps into the thread of humanity that reaches back past Shakespeare and will carry though the work of students of Kurosawa's films for all time to come.

• By J.K. LeBel
  March 23, 2010
  08:24 PM

  Many of the films you adore owe a debt to Kurosawa films; you owe it to yourself to see a Kurosawa film.

• By Darryl Rabideau
  March 23, 2010
  08:25 PM

  Beauty & Sadness: Every Kurasawa film has atleast one moment that will burn itself into your soul.

• By TJ
  March 23, 2010
  08:25 PM

  A deceased man once told his family, through the use of a medium, that the one thing that he regretted the most about the time he spent among the living was the fact that he neglected to watch a single movie by Akira Kurosawa.

• By Carey Mann
  March 23, 2010
  08:25 PM

  He could explain American culture and Japanese culture better than most indivuals from any country could anything at all.

• By Chris
  March 23, 2010
  08:26 PM

  If more people only knew, AK would be trending more than Bieber!

• By Jason Buckman
  March 23, 2010
  08:27 PM

  Watch one, any one, and you will see something you love about movies done first and done best by a man who loved to show you a story.

• By Gil Gauvreau
  March 23, 2010
  08:27 PM

  You must see The Seven Samurai, because it encompasses ALL that is great about cinema; in fact it it IS cinema.

• By sam yearwood
  March 23, 2010
  08:28 PM

  If one can imagine such a thing as an imperial bard, then it may just be possible to understand the connection between Kurosawa's work and his native Japan - historically, culturally and, most importantly, cinematically.

• By Michael Katz
  March 23, 2010
  08:29 PM

  If you want to understand what it is to be alive, you have only to see Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai and experience the scene of the young lovers looking up to the swaying trees.

• By Dylan Chestnutt
  March 23, 2010
  08:29 PM

  After seeing an Akira Kurosawa film your dreams become a phantasmagoria of images and blueprints, so inspired you are by his many enumerations, and the conscious mind can not let go of the subtle patterns expressed in the film, thus driving you to seek them out in your life and live a day in one of his many worlds.

• By Christian Bancroft
  March 23, 2010
  08:30 PM

  It's not that he is the "pictorial Shakespeare," nor is it that he created not 1 or 2 masterpieces, but 8, nor that he has inspired countless directors, nor that he has garnered over 75 awards and nominations, it's that his name is Akira Kurosawa, and this is one of his films.

• By Jacob LaFountaine
  March 23, 2010
  08:32 PM

  Open your mind before I shut it for you.

• By Douglas Hachiya
  March 23, 2010
  08:36 PM

  If you don't like any of his films, I'll buy you dinner! (Of course I'll NEVER have to!)

• By Jason Dickason
  March 23, 2010
  08:37 PM

  Akira Kurosawa made masterpieces.

• By Adam
  March 23, 2010
  08:37 PM

  You think you know a lot about movies, but you really don't… here, watch this: it's called Yojimbo.

• By Matthew Kozovski
  March 23, 2010
  08:37 PM

  Kurosawa is to movies as what The Bealtes are to music, everything after has been influenced from him and none of it compares. P.s. - just actually used the sentance to a friend tonight before we watched Rashomon

• By Gil Gauvreau
  March 23, 2010
  08:39 PM

  If you were to see only one film in your life, you must see The Seven Samurai, because it is is the embodiment of not only what cinema was, but of what cinema would become.

• By Stephen Kohn
  March 23, 2010
  08:39 PM

  All I need to say is this, your favorite directors favorite director is Akira Kurosawa.

• By Geoffrey Yetter
  March 23, 2010
  08:43 PM

  Prepare to have your soul cleaved in two, old-school style.

• By Karen Sheeler
  March 23, 2010
  08:44 PM

  Kurosawa's films are all hypnotic, beautiful to look at, unique even when they appear similar in theme, and exhibit a clear understanding of the entire range of human emotions. No matter what I'm doing, if a Kurosawa film is on TV, I have to stop, sit down and watch it.

• By Jared Lindahl
  March 23, 2010
  08:45 PM

  In a single, masterful take, Kurosawa is able to capture--whether through a perfectly timed gesture and facial expression or through poignant and witty dialogue--a range and depth of human emotions that most filmmakers spend an entire film or even an entire career trying to communicate... without succeeding.

• By Tam Tran
  March 23, 2010
  08:45 PM

  "Sergio Leone stole from him."

• By Samuel
  March 23, 2010
  08:47 PM

  Any Kuwosawa film is better then most of the shit that Hollywood is churing out these days.

• By Doug Warren
  March 23, 2010
  08:47 PM

  "Dude, he made this really weird movie with ghosts and killing and stuff called THRONE OF BLOOD!" If I said that in a cool enough voice, they'd probably go for it.

• By Corey Bellows
  March 23, 2010
  08:47 PM

  Kurosawa is the only person that has delivered so many great films that manage to please and draw you as the viewer in, both through the visuals and raw emotion, captured on such a large scale in a time without CGI.

• By Shiran Vyasa
  March 23, 2010
  08:48 PM

  Watch Rashomon and you will see what the contemporary film making giants consider to be their master class movie.

• By Beatrice Wang
  March 23, 2010
  08:48 PM

  You may be enchanted by Japanese tradition, stimulated by their cutting edge style, in love with the fresh food and amazing presentation, but to understand the essence of the Japanese psyche, you need to watch Kurosawa.

• By Thomas
  March 23, 2010
  08:52 PM

  If you ever find yourself in a park, rocking back and forth on a swing (like the protagonist in Ikiru), and NOT used it as an opportunity to reflect on what you have contributed to the world (instead thinking about, say, the mystery that is Donald Trump's hair), it will once again demonstrate how your "If I wanted to read at the movies, I'd bring a book" policy (despite NEVER HAVING FUCKING READ A BOOK IN YOUR LIFE) has tangible, real world consequences.

• By Michael Deeter
  March 23, 2010
  08:53 PM

  Loving movies and not knowing Kurosawa is like loving literature and not knowing Shakespeare!

• By Mark Gross
  March 23, 2010
  08:56 PM

  Forget cinema, consciousness, creativity or influence; the first time I saw a film by Kurosawa, in spite of the harsh and dark world he described, I felt part of a world of possibility, and even more surprisingly, possibly because of the ultimate cohesion of his characters, a sense of community.

• By W. David Lichty
  March 23, 2010
  08:56 PM

  We watch Kurosawa's movies not just because we revere them, like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but because we enjoy them... like The Empire Strikes Back.

• By Sam Francis
  March 23, 2010
  08:57 PM

  Before Kurosawa I was blind, but through his camera lense i can now see. Your perspective on life and art can change from a mere glance at his illustrious body of work.

• By Jeff Vaicunas
  March 23, 2010
  08:57 PM

  THIS *points at the collected works of AK* is cinema!

• By Paul Moran
  March 23, 2010
  08:59 PM

  Outside of life itself, there's no better way to experience the thrill of being alive!

• By SLEEPWELLWITHAK
  March 23, 2010
  09:01 PM

  Martin Scorsese has said, "Let me say it simply, Kurosawa was my Master.”

• By Linda Moran
  March 23, 2010
  09:02 PM

  Explore the realm of the human spirit with bravery, tenderness, honesty, and grit.

• By Linda Moran
  March 23, 2010
  09:02 PM

  Explore the realm of the human spirit with bravery, tenderness, honesty, and grit.

• By Nathan Hartwick
  March 23, 2010
  09:03 PM

  If you can see the good in something most vile, offer a second chance to a three-time loser or read a book by it's cover and say, "what the hell," you are part of a Kurosawa movie.

• By Peter Charles
  March 23, 2010
  09:04 PM

  High art and vengeful action, mournful sympathy and extravagant jubilation, comedy and solemnity, perfectly realized individualism and ensemble masterpieces, period films which are thoroughly attached to a specific moment in time and yet seem urgently relevant even today across any cultural barriers, art house intellectualism and pop culture excess-Kurosawa covers this enormous spectrum of emotion, style and influence over the course of his career... or, for that matter, over the course of "the Seven Samurai".

• By David Pursel
  March 23, 2010
  09:06 PM

  If you allow yourself to consciously enter into and absorb a film by Akira Kurosawa your understanding of the essential meaning and purpose in your life may be forever changed.

• By Jason Gardner
  March 23, 2010
  09:09 PM

  You should watch one of his films, or all of his films, for the simple reason that they are absolutely breathtaking!

• By Peter Han
  March 23, 2010
  09:10 PM

  You should see Rhapsody In August because it's the only time you'll see Richard Gere as a Japanese guy.

• By Troy Howarth
  March 23, 2010
  09:11 PM

  If you haven't seen a Kurosawa film, you haven't experienced cinema.

• By Zach Savage
  March 23, 2010
  09:11 PM

  "He made the single greatest film version of Macbeth I've yet seen, and he did so by transposing the story into feudal Japan and subtly altering the ending so that it could be even more bloodthirsty than it already was."

• By Tom House
  March 23, 2010
  09:11 PM

  You know all those times you call and I don't answer? Its because I'm watching this (hand them any Kurosawa film).

• By stella
  March 23, 2010
  09:12 PM

  Omg, FINE, we can watch it with the audio dubbed in English, but trust me, you can have it in Japanese without subtitles, it's that good.

• By Jeremy Slate
  March 23, 2010
  09:13 PM

  Trees, man, trees, trees that walk, you know, like Billy Shakespeare, but Super Awesome!!!

• By Raymond Chow
  March 23, 2010
  09:13 PM

  You have to watch Seven Samurai because you made me watch Avatar.

• By Nigel
  March 23, 2010
  09:14 PM

  For years, I had truly thought that certain persistently compelling memories I've had were my own dreams, only to realize later they were actually scenes from Kurosawa films I had seen long ago.

• By Justin
  March 23, 2010
  09:14 PM

  Stop watching all the knock-offs and start watching the originals!

• By Jeremiah Metzcar
  March 23, 2010
  09:15 PM

  If you liked the Magnificent Seven, A Bug's Life, A Fistful of Dollars, or Last Man Standing, then you will LOVE Kurosawa.

• By Sean Robison
  March 23, 2010
  09:15 PM

  His films are the definition of humanity masquerading as samurais and gangsters.

• By Steven Jacobson
  March 23, 2010
  09:16 PM

  If you wish to be moved deeply by the joys of friendship, the profound impact of education, the satisfaction of having lived a worthwhile life, and the intense sorrow of losing a cherished companion--feline or otherwise--please remember that nobody has, or ever will, do it better than Kurosawa did in Madadayo.

• By Sean Carter
  March 23, 2010
  09:19 PM

  Make yourself proud to be human.

• By Graham MacFarlane
  March 23, 2010
  09:19 PM

  (On a cold march day in Winnipeg...) "Watch 'Stray Dog' with me and you'll swear it's 100°."

• By Stuart Feldstein
  March 23, 2010
  09:20 PM

  The next time you get sideways with someone, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro are instructive in ways to settle the dispute: "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh---YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

• By Matt Joyce
  March 23, 2010
  09:24 PM

  If you like samurai films, westerns, Shakespeare, Star Wars, dramas, thrillers, breathtaking cinematography, internal conflicts, epic scale battles, epic stories, love stories, crime stories, tragedies, stories about honor and respect, stories about deceit and treachery, fights between good and evil, and stories scaling from heroic and seemingly larger-than-life characters to normal everyday people, then you will like the films of Akira Kurosawa...take your pick.

• By dan kinem
  March 23, 2010
  09:25 PM

  You are an uneducated worthless human being if you never experience the greatness of Kurosawa, so do something about it before it's too late.

• By Raymond Chow
  March 23, 2010
  09:25 PM

  Kurosawa films remind you that the human condition is full of rage, depravity, despair, but in the last, hope.

• By Samantha Webb
  March 23, 2010
  09:27 PM

  Give yourself a moment to close your eyes, let go of everything you ever understood, and start from scratch.

• By Matt Poirier
  March 23, 2010
  09:28 PM

  "The reality is, if you don't like black and white movies, or movies you have to read, Kurosawa probably isn't your bag; but that's your loss, and I feel bad for you, because his films have been as moving and entertaining as any I've seen, and you'll never experience that because they're in black and white and you have to read them."

• By Trent Fairbrother
  March 23, 2010
  09:28 PM

  I've worked at a video store now for about 7 years and this is the sentence I've used to get literally hundreds of people to watch Kurosawa's movies... Think of the most important moment of your life (hand them Seven Samurai), this will be number two.

• By David Pierce-Feith
  March 23, 2010
  09:28 PM

  That first time, in science class, you watched the solar eclipse through that handmade cardboard viewer; well, it's like that, only it lasts much longer and affects you more deeply.

• By Rhett Stroupe
  March 23, 2010
  09:29 PM

  Watching a film by Akira Kurosawa is being engulfed by a new, foreign land, wanting never to leave come the film's end.

• By Erik A
  March 23, 2010
  09:35 PM

  "Throne of Blood" is a retelling of Macbeth set in Medieval Japan; it starts with a chant and ends in a rain of arrows.

• By Stoogey
  March 23, 2010
  09:37 PM

  He makes you forget it's a foreign language.

• By Daniel Shank
  March 23, 2010
  09:39 PM

  For my upcoming birthday I'll probably just stay home by myself and watch a movie called "The Lower Depths".

• By Walter
  March 23, 2010
  09:39 PM

  Watching the Kurosawa oeuvre is a enthralling experience full of passionate characters, timeless stories, and ethical dilemmas that will leave one trembling with the desire to lead a purposeful existence that is inculcated with sporadic and feeble attempts to draw some sense out the insane theater we call of 'life.'

• By Roy
  March 23, 2010
  09:41 PM

  Whenever I start a new film club, I always show a Kurosawa film first.

• By Chris
  March 23, 2010
  09:41 PM

  RAN means "Chaos".

• By Sean Keeley
  March 23, 2010
  09:44 PM

  No matter what mood you're in, there's a Kurosawa movie for it - no other director has managed to so skillfully balance art and entertainment, cynicism and humanism, tradition and originality, grand themes and intimate details.

• By Eric McLaughlin
  March 23, 2010
  09:44 PM

  "Oh no no no, don't worry: You've all ready seen this movie. In every movie you've ever seen."

• By Richard Schwarz
  March 23, 2010
  09:45 PM

  To understand the true nobility of man watch " The Seven Samurai"

• By Martin Keller
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 PM

  He's not the best Japanese director, just the most important.

• By Mikko Lamberg
  March 23, 2010
  09:47 PM

  You just haven't seen acting before you've witnessed Nakadai, Shimura, Mifune or any other doing their job at Kurosawa films, you haven't witnessed a master director at work before seeing Ran, Nora inu, Seven samurai or Ikiru, you haven't seen me being so overjoyed about a film before you watch it with me and most of all, you haven't discovered yourself to be so drawn into a film's style, themes and characters before you have seen a Kurosawa flick and the most fun thing is that we can enjoy this together - let's watch some Kurosawa!

• By Timothy
  March 23, 2010
  09:48 PM

  Have you ever thought to yourself, 'Shakespeare needs more Samurai!'... so did Kurosawa!

• By David Skalicky
  March 23, 2010
  09:50 PM

  To Anyone: Criterion recently released a $319 retrospective of his work. What more do you want? Watch his damned movies.

• By Valerie Griffin
  March 23, 2010
  09:54 PM

  You'll be gently surrounded - and then sucked deep inside - by a whirlpool unlike any other.

• By Rachael
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 PM

  Must see (period).

• By ROBERT SWEIGERT
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 PM

  You can't pass up this movie which has not just one swordfighter, but SEVEN SAMURAI, one of them played by Toshiro Mifune who was enough of a bad-ass to survive being trapped on an island with Lee Marvin.

• By Nathalie
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 PM

  Before experiencing a film by Akira Kurosawa, we are mere prisoners in Plato's Cave, mistaking the shadows for what is real.

• By Kristopher Snyder
  March 23, 2010
  09:55 PM

  He's influenced more people than films you'll see.

• By Ed Taylor
  March 23, 2010
  09:56 PM

  Kurosawa's films are like candy for the senses, nourishment for the mind, and sustenance for the soul.

• By arthur
  March 23, 2010
  09:58 PM

  To enter a world where you can truly experience another life, unbounded by the limited storytelling methods of traditional film, I would highly recommend the crafts of Kurosawa Akira.

• By TJ
  March 23, 2010
  09:59 PM

  There is no object nor affection, no majestic mountain nor visceral valley, no melodic music nor sonic sound, no placid pond nor osmotic ocean, no grandiose garden nor desolate desert, no gracious gift nor priceless possession, no furious flame nor idiosyncratic icicle, no fantastic food nor divine drink, no rustic ruins nor tantalizing technology, no ponderous painting nor captivating comic, no pedestrian prose nor alliterative allegory as blissful as, or as beautiful as, a film by Akira Kurosawa

• By Bryce Hensley
  March 23, 2010
  10:00 PM

  You should watch an Akira Kurosawa film because his films are among the few that have truly captured human nature and spirit, while maintaining a sense of the wonderful atmosphere of the world, as well as the entertaining and enriching stories that Kurosawa has created.

• By Jason Tucker
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 PM

  The murder victim himself gives testimony of the events leading up to his death, in an inquest consisting of four conflicting versions of the same murder.

• By Erik Ringen
  March 23, 2010
  10:01 PM

  To know Kurosawa is to know the very soul of film.

• By Viet Dinh
  March 23, 2010
  10:02 PM

  Some films make you feel better about yourself; other movies make you feel like a smarter person -- but the films of Kurosawa make you want to be a better person.

• By James McGowan
  March 23, 2010
  10:03 PM

  What's that? You like film? Oh, And Philosophy? And Literature? Perhaps a little History and Culture? Well, I have just the thing for you!

• By Brad Stephenson
  March 23, 2010
  10:05 PM

  Any film by Kurosawa says, “Here is what it means to be a human being.”

• By Paul M. Malone
  March 23, 2010
  10:05 PM

  Kurosawa's heroes are often flawed samurai: samurai too noble for their own good, men too good but not noble enough to be real samurai, men born too late to be samurai, or samurai born too early to be anything else.

• By THOMAS TAKANO
  March 23, 2010
  10:06 PM

  If the Seven Samurai had been at Iwo Jima, WWII might have had a different ending.

• By Josh Reese
  March 23, 2010
  10:07 PM

  Oh, you're a Star Wars fan...well Lucas ripped 90% of his characters and 100% of his camera tricks off of Kurosawa...let's watch Hidden Fortress.

• By Matt Triest
  March 23, 2010
  10:17 PM

  If you want to see how the seeds for the modern blockbuster were planted, you need to get familiar with Kurosawa's work.

• By Mitchell Corner
  March 23, 2010
  10:18 PM

  Think about it like this, you wouldn't have excellent storytelling in films today without Kurosawa, heck, his movie even invented a word...Rashomon.

• By Jun Zuniga
  March 23, 2010
  10:19 PM

  Imagine the cinematic equivalent of the celestial "Big Bang", that's Kurosawa.

• By Bob Kass
  March 23, 2010
  10:19 PM

  If you read the 1383 great comments above, you will be convinced!

• By Eric Ellenberg
  March 23, 2010
  10:20 PM

  Friend: I'm not all that familiar with Kurosawa. Me: (a generous pause to let the words hang in the air) What you've just told me is you've never seen how beautiful and rich cinema can be.

• By Freeman Williams
  March 23, 2010
  10:20 PM

  Along with Hitchcock, Kurosawa is the most blatantly imitated director in cinema.

• By Daniel Hartman
  March 23, 2010
  10:21 PM

  If you don't watch "Yojimbo", you're gonna need "Two coffins... No, better make that three".

• By Charles Bruin
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 PM

  To love film is to love Akria Kurosawa.

• By Jed Pruett
  March 23, 2010
  10:22 PM

  Wanna watch a hall of mirrors?

• By Jamier Sale
  March 23, 2010
  10:28 PM

  These films will change both the way you view life and make you want to live it more fully.

• By Kerry Nghiem
  March 23, 2010
  10:29 PM

  Ever seen a movie that made you think 3&1/2 hours just isn't long enough?

• By cy
  March 23, 2010
  10:30 PM

  K U R U S A W A : Kurusawa Undeniably Reigned Over Sinema Attributing Wisdom Ambiguously.

• By Gustavo Moya
  March 23, 2010
  10:31 PM

  Allow yourself to find the true definition of existentialism and surround it with beauty! Watch DREAMS!

• By Brendan Flaherty
  March 23, 2010
  10:35 PM

  Consider this: Criterion recently released a box set of 25 of his films and even THAT can't contain his greatness.

• By James Mendez Hodes
  March 23, 2010
  10:38 PM

  Warriors stored their souls In their swords, but in this man's Films, they sealed their hearts.

• By Logan Zillmer
  March 23, 2010
  10:42 PM

  Because he doesn't need people or chairs or instruments to show you an ochestra, and make you believe the orchestra is real.

• By John Jones
  March 23, 2010
  10:42 PM

  In 'Seven Samurai,' an archer takes a bow and shoots a real arrow into the chest of a real stuntman (who had a board under his shirt); put that in your 'Transformers 2: Revenge of the CGI' and smoke it.

• By Chris Faupel
  March 23, 2010
  10:44 PM

  Take your glasses off. You're about to watch a film by the only director who will never need 3D.

• By Robin Jones
  March 23, 2010
  10:47 PM

  "Throne Of Blood" is much funnier than "Macbeth"- well, the Polanski one anyways.

• By Chris Faupel
  March 23, 2010
  10:48 PM

  Take your glasses off, you're about to watch a film by the only director who will never need 3D.

• By Mark Gowdy
  March 23, 2010
  10:49 PM

  Honey, of course this is the new Gerard Butler movie. It just happens to start off in 16th century Japan.

• By Doug
  March 23, 2010
  10:54 PM

  All those Star Wars movies you love find their cinematic origins in Akira Kurosawa films.

• By Auron Carter
  March 23, 2010
  10:54 PM

  "That empty feeling you get when you think about all that movies could be, that hole you've always had but never could express, let's fill it."

• By Heather Rylander
  March 23, 2010
  10:56 PM

  Kurosawa offers epic battles, aesthetic fighting, samurai skills, visual poetry, and an overall sense that you have been transported to feudal Japan.

• By Becca T
  March 23, 2010
  10:57 PM

  "Let's watch a movie." Okay. How about trying the Random Movie Generator at www.RandomMovieGenerator.com

• By Matt Kovar
  March 23, 2010
  10:59 PM

  You're never likely to see a better all around film than Red Beard.

• By General Tso
  March 23, 2010
  10:59 PM

  If you ache for life's meaning, watch his films.

• By Jordan Nader
  March 23, 2010
  11:04 PM

  "Dude, we're having a Kurosawa film extravaganza this month because my wife won't watch this epic 25-film-Kurosawa set with me, and I figured it would look amazing on your 52" LED anyway,

• By Jordan Nader
  March 23, 2010
  11:05 PM

  "Dude, we're having a Kurosawa film extravaganza this month because my wife won't watch this epic 25-film-Kurosawa set with me, and I figured it would look amazing on your 52" LED anyway!

• By Jared Kruchowski
  March 23, 2010
  11:05 PM

  From the contemplative Ikiru in which a pencil-pusher past his prime confronts the very fabric of his own existence (and, in turn, discovers both death in life and life in death) to the multi-perspective Rashomon which expertly depicts the illusory pursuit of objectivity in the wake of tragic crime (and the malleability of the human mind and its recollection of daily minutiae, however seemingly trivial), Akira Kurosawa's oeuvre masterfullly encompasses no less than the entire spectrum of the human condition, and is as integral to cinema as Shakespeare to literature.

• By Chien Yuan
  March 23, 2010
  11:07 PM

  "You know when you wake up from an awesome dream where you had all these great visions and you wish that you could see imagery like that in real-life somehow, somewhere? That's what watching a Kurosawa film is like. Now, put down 'Grandma's Boy' and watch 'Ran' instead, punk."

• By Thomas Hall
  March 23, 2010
  11:09 PM

  All Kurosawa's films have as their theme the three things which the Buddha said could never be hidden: The Sun, The Moon and The Truth.

• By Joseph Dunn
  March 23, 2010
  11:09 PM

  No matter what age, mood or level of cinephile you happen to be at any given time, there is a Kurosawa film that will resonate with you.

• By Dave Heaton
  March 23, 2010
  11:10 PM

  I read Macbeth in high school and don't remember a thing from it, but I'll remember scenes from Throne of Blood until the day I die.

• By Logan C
  March 23, 2010
  11:14 PM

  You know how much I love film and he's the reason why.

• By Russ
  March 23, 2010
  11:16 PM

  There are many films that can let you experience the magic of cinema, but only one director can keep doing it again and again in so many different ways.

• By Adam Maldonado
  March 23, 2010
  11:18 PM

  Because there would be no Clint Eastwood without Yojimbo, and Eastwood is still a badass actor and director, thanks to Kurosawa.

• By Gil Tam
  March 23, 2010
  11:19 PM

  Kurosawa didn't just make films you watch, he draws you in and you experience it.

• By Jonathan Glass
  March 23, 2010
  11:19 PM

  To me the greatest line of all Kurosawa masterpieces comes from "Seven Samurai", that all the people who make this world safer for common good of the village go unnoticed, but probably not in so many words.

• By Alex Newman
  March 23, 2010
  11:20 PM

  A Kurosawa film captures the best experiences in life in the beautiful world of a true creator's mind.

• By Steven N.
  March 23, 2010
  11:20 PM

  One of my favorite film moments occurs in "Red Beard": after some punks harass Mifune's character, he lays a beat down on them and then after the brief melee, being a good doctor, he immediately begins tending to the injuries of his unconscious assailants.

• By Wes Hunt
  March 23, 2010
  11:22 PM

  You've seen Jordan score, Montana pass, Gretzky skate, Streep emote, Springsteen play, and Eastwood shoot --- now watch Kurosawa direct.

• By Dalton
  March 23, 2010
  11:25 PM

  You must watch Kurosawa in order to fully appreciate your life.

• By My Nguyen
  March 23, 2010
  11:26 PM

  No actor could be equal parts badass and dramatic as well as Toshiro Mifune.

• By FRANCEL
  March 23, 2010
  11:27 PM

  Kurosawa can give you tons of violence and still make you feel hopeful for humanity. He's that good.

• By mike moore
  March 23, 2010
  11:31 PM

  there are no words to describe akira kurowasa films....you must watch to understand.

• By Chris
  March 23, 2010
  11:33 PM

  Worst case scenario, it will be the best film you've ever seen.

• By Samir Arora
  March 23, 2010
  11:35 PM

  Scorsese to plays Vincent Van Gogh in the film, yes, Scorsese!

• By Noah Koon
  March 23, 2010
  11:36 PM

  Kurosawa's films are too great and too many to wait for the inevitable love affair, so sit down and start with whichever title you like most - you can't go wrong.

• By Albert Baier
  March 23, 2010
  11:38 PM

  I hope you don't mind reading subtitles because in order to see the work from the master of western cinema you're going to have to.

• By Charlie
  March 23, 2010
  11:41 PM

  Baseball has Babe Ruth, rock and roll has The Beatles, the movies have Akira Kurosawa.

• By Charlie
  March 23, 2010
  11:41 PM

  Baseball has Babe Ruth, rock and roll has The Beatles, the movies have Akira Kurosawa.

• By matthew
  March 23, 2010
  11:42 PM

  greatest directer ever.

• By Zane Clarke
  March 23, 2010
  11:43 PM

  To watch Kurosawa's films is to witness the meeting of genius and sublime artistic vision - few have tread where Kurosawa boldly wlaked.

• By spider
  March 23, 2010
  11:45 PM

  Film is like a battleground. Love. Hate. Action. Violence. Death. In one word . . . Kurosawa.

• By Lawrence
  March 23, 2010
  11:46 PM

  You will never get your ass kicked so hard.

• By James
  March 23, 2010
  11:48 PM

  Seven Samurai is a 3 1/2 long Japanese movie in black and white from 1954 that feels less than 1 1/2 long and is more exciting than every Michael Bay movie combined.

• By N. Anne Minik
  March 23, 2010
  11:48 PM

  I could promise you dinner, money, marriage, or sex if you watched a Kurosawa, but I confidently know that 20 minutes in you will be too enthralled to remember and I would never have to pay up.

• By Jason Whiton
  March 23, 2010
  11:49 PM

  Kurosawa's films are an international meeting place of the imagination, where you'll find the deeply human experience of a Shakespeare mixing with Japanese tradition and the soul of a Samurai.

• By Shawn Kehoe
  March 23, 2010
  11:50 PM

  Seven Samurai is a rare treasure: a film of monumental impact that can be enjoyed by modern viewers who are entirely ignorant of its history.

• By Steven Smith
  March 23, 2010
  11:50 PM

  All your favorite directors love Kurosawa; he's the patron saint of everyone who believes that great entertainment can be great art, and that movies still have the power to be a source of good in the world, plus... samurais!

• By Benjamin Pelletier
  March 23, 2010
  11:50 PM

  I would like to say something to convince you, but it is unnecessary: watching one of his films will do the job.

• By Randall Cyrenne
  March 23, 2010
  11:51 PM

  If you can't afford to go to film school, just watch this film-school-in-a-box.

• By John Galobich
  March 23, 2010
  11:51 PM

  Akira Kurosawa and his films are what pushed me into cinema, opened my eyes to a hundred directors, a thousand films and countless ideas, emotions and experiences, if I'd never taken the chance to see his films I'd be all the poorer for it.

• By Tiffiny Snyder
  March 23, 2010
  11:51 PM

  The Hidden Fortress makes Stars Wars IV look like Spaceballs.

• By PJ
  March 23, 2010
  11:51 PM

  If you could only watch the films of one more director in this lifetime, one that would show that life even in its darkest hour would reveal the virtues of humanity, one that would let you leave this world knowing that you too were human, and that to have been human, despite all tragedy, was a miraculous thing: watch Kurosawa.

• By J. Bergdoll
  March 23, 2010
  11:52 PM

  Kurosawa managed to create films that could simultaneously (and accurately) be compared to Citizen Kane and Die Hard.

• By John Tate
  March 23, 2010
  11:54 PM

  If you really think I'm hanging on whether or not you're gonna watch it with me then you've got another thing coming, it's going in the DVD player whether you're sitting next to me or not.

• By William Boddy
  March 23, 2010
  11:54 PM

  Akira Kurosawa crafted films that not only captured the full range of the human condition, he did so in a manner that translated over into different cultures, and in a time when Japanese cinema was barely recognized in the West.

• By William Boddy
  March 23, 2010
  11:55 PM

  Akira Kurosawa crafted films that not only captured the full range of the human condition, he did so in a manner that translated over into different cultures, and in a time when Japanese cinema was barely recognized in the West.

• By Matieu Breton
  March 23, 2010
  11:55 PM

  Watching a masterpiece could never be more fun because not only is Akira Kurosawa a great artist, he also is one of the greatest entertainers in cinema history.

• By Jerry F
  March 23, 2010
  11:58 PM

  Kurosawa's films are collectively a psychically challenging, kaleidoscopic adventure that profoundly alter your preconceptions of reality, love, death, humanity, and inhumanity and how we connect, or don't connect, with one another.

• By Aerith Arden
  March 23, 2010
  11:59 PM

  There will come a point in this movie when you turn to me, your eyes puffy and red, your parched lips searching for the right words, when I put my hand on your shoulder and whisper, "It's okay, you're welcome."

• By Joshua Sheffield
  March 23, 2010
  11:59 PM

  It is the closest you will come to enlightenment in this lifetime!

• By Karl R.
  March 23, 2010
  11:59 PM

  If you will only watch one foreign film, a film by Akira Kurosawa, the most American of foreign directors who is also the most celebrated in his own country, is the movie for you.

• By Brian
  March 24, 2010
  12:00 AM

  Watching your first Akira Kurosawa film will open your eyes to so much; seeing the entire oeuvre will profoundly change your life and you will never look at the world, let alone cinema, the same again.

• By Gordon Inman
  March 24, 2010
  12:02 AM

  The moment in Ran when Hidetora, now half-mad, descends the stairs to his sons' red- and yellow-clad samurai below, it looks as though hell itself has opened up to welcome him, and that one shot might be the best moment in film--ever.

• By Scott Handler
  March 24, 2010
  12:02 AM

  You are asked do you pray to God or to Akira Kurosawa, but you cannot answer because Akira Kurosawa is God, and watching any one of his films will change your religious views to model this fact.

• By J.B.
  March 24, 2010
  12:03 AM

  To fully enjoy any artform, you need to experience the works of those influential few whose methods became the foundation on which the art's language was built, and just as Shakespeare is one such founder of modern theatre, Mark Twain is a founder of literature, and Picasso is a founder of painting, Akira Kurosawa is a founder of cinema. [Author's note: I actually do talk like this.]

• By Susan Lalonde
  March 24, 2010
  12:03 AM

  Every filmmaker after Kurosawa's introduction to movies have been directly influenced by him; that speaks volumes.

• By Joshua May
  March 24, 2010
  12:03 AM

  Because great movies are like magic and Akira Kurosawa made plenty of magic.

• By Free
  March 24, 2010
  12:05 AM

  Mark with me, one hundred years of Akira Kurosawa who, humbly cultivated and transformed a thousand years of storytelling into his own medium aspiring to honor all upon whose shoulders he stands by bearing upon his own shoulders all those who follow.

• By Mark G
  March 24, 2010
  12:08 AM

  Because he is the emperor.

• By Mark G
  March 24, 2010
  12:08 AM

  Because he is the emperor.

• By Andrew N.
  March 24, 2010
  12:11 AM

  Using exquisite and forceful film language to manifest a Japanese ethos from the age of the samurai to the 20th century, Kurosawa employs the vocabulary of myth and legend, the grammar of the human heart, and the punctuation of graphic violence to realize a cinematic cosmos in which human existence is essentially that of passionate beings struggling in a world of battered goodness and enduring beauty, entertainingly evincing this truth through Shakespeare tragedies, detective stories, existential dramas, and samurai epics.

• By Jay Legaspi
  March 24, 2010
  12:12 AM

  A quote to get your friend to watch Kurosawa... given my friends, it would probably be: "Using a two tone palate, Kurosawa created works of art that directors today with millions of colors, millions of dollars, and apparently, a third dimension strive to replicate, but can't."

• By Jay Luna
  March 24, 2010
  12:18 AM

  Come on, you know if you won a set of 25 movies that I would watch them with you!

• By Thomas Goodnow
  March 24, 2010
  12:20 AM

  Kurosawa is so good that he even one upped Shakespeare by taking one of the bard's most problematic plays, King Lear, and turning it into the flawless, action-packed epic Ran.

• By Scott
  March 24, 2010
  12:20 AM

  Don't worry, Kurosawa's films have non-stop action—you'll think they were realistically rendered in CGI.

• By danielle the g
  March 24, 2010
  12:21 AM

  Everything you know about life... from an angle you'd never considered before.

• By NIR SHALEV
  March 24, 2010
  12:21 AM

  If there's a more influential or competent, more entertaining, and more classy filmmaker then Kurosawa I'd like to see their films. But I'd be dead by then.

• By Rama G.
  March 24, 2010
  12:22 AM

  In 1977, NASA's Voyager project sent a golden record into space that included the music of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, but if Earth's scientists had married these sounds to the images of Akira Kurosawa, our extraterrestrial neighbors would have found no more essential a vessel of our human race: its hopes, its dreams, its light.

• By Joe
  March 24, 2010
  12:22 AM

  So if you like seeing someone who is a better actor than Robert De Niro chop people up with samurai swords watch some Kurosawa movies.

• By Jeremy Bacharach
  March 24, 2010
  12:23 AM

  Kurosawa's vision of humanity is a truly global cultural experience, like a tragic Shakespearean drama set in the black-ink washes of a sumí-e painting.

• By Helen Flakser
  March 24, 2010
  12:26 AM

  Kurosawa will plunge you into a world of thrilling, subtle, complex, deeply human stories , frequently harrowing, often hilarious, always confronting, and emotion and thought provoking; unpredictable and yet ultimately inevitable.

• By Helen Flakser
  March 24, 2010
  12:26 AM

  Kurosawa will plunge you into a world of thrilling, subtle, complex, deeply human stories , frequently harrowing, often hilarious, always confronting, and emotion and thought provoking; unpredictable and yet ultimately inevitable.

• By Adam Yim
  March 24, 2010
  12:27 AM

  "Advancing age, the death of his wife, deteriorating eyesight, and a ten year production cycle couldn't stop Kurosawa from creating Ran, one of his most powerful and visually arresting films."

• By Frank Y.
  March 24, 2010
  12:28 AM

  Both radiant and fading, human lives are just like the flowers we leave in remembrance of them, and Akira Kurosawa was one whose life and art shone as much as any other.

• By Gavin Breeden
  March 24, 2010
  12:29 AM

  The art of filmmaking will continue to make advancements in technique and technology, but it will never cease to be a series of footnotes to the work of Akira Kurosawa.

• By david schwem
  March 24, 2010
  12:32 AM

  It's like watching an oil painting.

• By Steven D
  March 24, 2010
  12:32 AM

  Kurosawa turns Picasso's old adage of "Bad artists copy, good artists steal" on its head by being the artist everyone steals from yet nobody ever can steal his views on the human condition.

• By COREY G.
  March 24, 2010
  12:33 AM

  "No, dude, his name is 'Kurosawa'; and his films are waaaaay better than ski-dooing"

• By ANA PATRICIA DIAZ
  March 24, 2010
  12:33 AM

  To watch Kurosawa is to understand the language of film and revel in its power to reflect the depths of human existence.

• By Nkosi Anderson
  March 24, 2010
  12:33 AM

  Kurosawa's Unique Revelations Of Society Assemble our World Anew.

• By Thiago
  March 24, 2010
  12:34 AM

  Rashomon changed every expectation I ever had of classic film.

• By Mark Tinkler
  March 24, 2010
  12:35 AM

  To see a Kurosawa film will inspire delight enrich and entertain viewers - has and will influence filmmakers

• By jeannie
  March 24, 2010
  12:37 AM

  Kurosawa film emotion-thought-words light-image of human soul

• By David Hundley
  March 24, 2010
  12:38 AM

  While the testimonials of some 1500 strangers (and counting) in the span of one day should be convincing enough, you'll just have to trust me: pick any genre, I'll pick the film, and you'll be on your way to a long friendship with a beautiful 100-year-old soul.

• By Adam Carston
  March 24, 2010
  12:46 AM

  This cat, Kurosawa, is so good that he could remake a Paulie Shore movie, like Son in Law, into a poignant and powerful masterpiece.

• By Andrew Jung
  March 24, 2010
  12:49 AM

  While directors all over the world look up to Spielberg, Spielberg looked up to Kurosawa, go watch Ran.

• By Ken Ronning
  March 24, 2010
  12:51 AM

  I promise that you will change your mind about films with subtitles and beg for more from this box.

• By John Pastuch
  March 24, 2010
  12:52 AM

  "I want to show you the original version of all your favorite films."

• By Tim Miles
  March 24, 2010
  12:52 AM

  Kurosawa's movies are the missing link between Frank Capra and Sam Peckinpah.

• By Robert Kugler
  March 24, 2010
  12:54 AM

  Kurosawa is to modern cinema what the blues is to rock & roll...the origin, the inspiration, and the soul.

• By SquashMaster
  March 24, 2010
  12:58 AM

  Kurosawa will teach you the value of wisdom, the value of compassion, the value of humanity, the value of righteousness, the value of fidelity, the value of perseverance, the value of friendship, the value of love, the value of life.

• By Kara Kardozi
  March 24, 2010
  12:58 AM

  if you want to watch life, watch Kurosawa.

• By jacob ferguson
  March 24, 2010
  01:00 AM

  I don't care, shut your mouth, we are going to watch a film by Akira Kurosawa!

• By Zachary Phillip Brailsford
  March 24, 2010
  01:01 AM

  Yes, it's a foreign film, and it's in black and white, and it's from the 1960's, but gosh dammit, man, you are about to see something so full of beauty and insight into the nature of men that the next film you watch will look like a cold, hard stone by comparison. Savvy

• By Gray
  March 24, 2010
  01:02 AM

  It's the meaning of life...at 23 frames per second.

• By Josh Pitney
  March 24, 2010
  01:06 AM

  Never mind that it's foreign, the human condition is universal and Kurosawa understands this.

• By ANDY NELSON
  March 24, 2010
  01:08 AM

  Much like Achilles being dipped into the river Styx for immortality, great modern filmmakers have such powerful visionary styles and weave such strong tales because they were dipped into the river Kurosawa and drank deeply (even if some of their heels may have been missed).

• By Wyatt S.
  March 24, 2010
  01:08 AM

  F***ING SAMURAIS!!!

• By Jane S
  March 24, 2010
  01:09 AM

  That was great sex, now time to do what I want...

• By Robert
  March 24, 2010
  01:12 AM

  Watching the films of Kurosawa made me remember that I was human and that I mattered, and I want to show you that you to are important and loved in this world.

• By Kevin Lyon
  March 24, 2010
  01:18 AM

  You made me listen to Robert Johnson so I'd understand Eric Clapton, so you've got to watch Kurosawa to understand Scorsese, Peckinpah, Sturges, Speilberg and Lucas.

• By Jason Black
  March 24, 2010
  01:19 AM

  Kurosawa, a grand story teller with a touch of the fantastic ordinary.

• By Matt McDaniel
  March 24, 2010
  01:21 AM

  Watch this movie or I'll cut off your hand and feed it to my dog.

• By Kevin Vasquez
  March 24, 2010
  01:21 AM

  Kurosawa came the closest to putting the energy and excitement of a single man’s visions up on the screen.

• By TERRY GILMER
  March 24, 2010
  01:26 AM

  Rashomon is a classic study on the nature of truth... at least that's how I remember it.

• By CLNew
  March 24, 2010
  01:26 AM

  Kuroswaw - check him out, you won't regret it, and you won't forget him.

• By Andrew
  March 24, 2010
  01:27 AM

  You started adventuring the Japanese culture by watching anime, the next step is to start going through their past and the best way to start is by watching Kurosawa films, starting with Seven Samurai.

• By Lucas Horne
  March 24, 2010
  01:33 AM

  Yojimbo, the classic tale of a rogue warrior with no past or future by fate is tossed into a mob war that only he can end.

• By Cory Morgan
  March 24, 2010
  01:37 AM

  This is the one film which, if you needed to reconstruct the art form after The Apocalypse, you would really want to save. (This is a pitch for The Seven Samurai)

• By Michael G.
  March 24, 2010
  01:39 AM

  Watching Kurosawa saves you years of contemplation, putting the wisdom right up there on the screen.

• By Cory Morgan
  March 24, 2010
  01:40 AM

  This is probably the best example of, well, whatever genre interests you most. (Another vote for The Seven Samurai)

• By B Baukol
  March 24, 2010
  01:45 AM

  Fine, don't watch it and continue to live in darkness.

• By Nathan Ward
  March 24, 2010
  01:46 AM

  "If men don't trust each other, this earth might as well be hell."

• By Cory Morgan
  March 24, 2010
  01:46 AM

  Oh, you probably wouldn't be able to follow what's going on in this film. (None of my friends would pass up that challenge)

• By Zarian Pouncy
  March 24, 2010
  01:47 AM

  High & Low is one of the best Films to learn about a Rite of Passage for Money. I'm doing 2 different reports for H&L and also Sunshine Through the Rain.

• By MARC LIU
  March 24, 2010
  01:47 AM

  If you've ever wanted to truly understand Japanese culture and the Japanese worldview, you only have to watch a single Kurosawa film to find the depth of breadth of all of that knowledge encapsulated in an artfully crafted cinematic package.

• By George Esguerra
  March 24, 2010
  01:56 AM

  Seven Samurai is better than Avatar...and it dosn't need to be in 3D.

• By Joe Mitacek
  March 24, 2010
  01:57 AM

  Criterion was very upset to hear that you hadn't seen a Kurosawa film, so they sent me this box set to give to you.

• By Kathy B
  March 24, 2010
  02:04 AM

  Seven Samurai will allow you to understand that Kurosawa is more than one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he is one of the greatest storytellers and artists of all time.

• By Jim Moore
  March 24, 2010
  02:05 AM

  With Toshiro Mifune as a master swordsman and wandering samurai who pits two rival gangs against each other, Yojimbo is a classic Western in a feudal Japanese setting, a very funny black comedy, Kurosawa’s most popular film in Japan, and his most beautifully shot film, making the most of the widescreen compositions and even spawning the spaghetti Western and Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name.

• By Stephen
  March 24, 2010
  02:12 AM

  From the grandeur of lofty ambition to the pain lonely heartbreak, Akira Kurosawa's films show us in compellingly universal terms, transcending language and culture, the profound dilemma of being human.

• By Matt
  March 24, 2010
  02:14 AM

  it's a work of genius, it's a boring foreign film, it's a meditation on truth, it's just confusing - any way you should watch it.

• By cassian
  March 24, 2010
  02:14 AM

  A Shadowmaster, dangling archetypes suffused with heroic morality, common sensibilities and human frailness, Kurosawa immortalized a genre cast first in Samurais, then Gunslingers, in perpetuity.

• By Samuel Mantsz
  March 24, 2010
  02:18 AM

  Dude, I will suck your dick if you don't love this movie.

• By Matt Sheardown
  March 24, 2010
  02:22 AM

  Akira Kurosawa is to film what William Shakespeare is to literature and theatre: neither invented their chosen art form, but both were such masters of their art that they forever changed the way that it was done around the world.

• By Gordon Miller
  March 24, 2010
  02:24 AM

  Can't imagine having a friend unfamiliar with Kurosawa but here goes: Your life will be incomplete if miss seeing one his masterpieces.

• By Andrew Sikes
  March 24, 2010
  02:25 AM

  You won't be gambling with your time if you watch Yojimbo. (Criterion: I'll take half the box set now, and the other half when the job is done.)

• By Franziskus
  March 24, 2010
  02:27 AM

  They are simply great films, just pick one, there are many!

• By Sam Bennett-Williams
  March 24, 2010
  02:27 AM

  Yojimbo has the five S's - Swords, Sake, Samurai, Schemes, and Swords.

• By Mike Liang
  March 24, 2010
  02:30 AM

  All Kindred spirits are Inspired and Roused by this Altruistic King of cinema whose Undertakings Rise way above and Over famous and infamous Stunningly creative and visual Artists will Warmly be recognized always and forever as Akira.

• By Garan Best
  March 24, 2010
  02:36 AM

  May we all be inspired by something beautiful and profound today.

• By Jim Moore
  March 24, 2010
  02:37 AM

  One of the most inspiring films ever made, Ikiru contains a unique narrative structure, with flashbacks starting halfway through its length, and tells the moving story of a career bureaucrat who learns he will soon die from cancer and only then begins to truly live.

• By Lindsey
  March 24, 2010
  02:39 AM

  If there ever was a movie worth watching, it's a Kurosawa film.

• By Darryl Soon Shiong
  March 24, 2010
  02:41 AM

  Akira Kurosawa is to Samurai films as Martin Scorsese is to Mobster films as James Cameron is to Sci-fi films, he is the essence of Japan and its people put into motion picture.

• By Craig Stubing
  March 24, 2010
  02:44 AM

  Kurosawa did not just make some of the greatest films of all time: Kurosawa's masterpieces are the essence of cinema.

• By Daniel
  March 24, 2010
  02:45 AM

  I could go on for days about how Kurosawa has changed cinema, or how his many masterpieces have changed people's lives, but just watch the freaking movie - you won't regret it.

• By Brad Gills
  March 24, 2010
  02:45 AM

  You may think you've never seen an Akira Kurosawa movie, but you have - every single one of them ten times over - because he didn't just make movies, he IS movies.

• By Keith
  March 24, 2010
  02:52 AM

  You obviously love the comedy duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO, so watch one of the movies that inspired their existence: THE HIDDEN FORTRESS!

• By Jeff Gustafson
  March 24, 2010
  02:53 AM

  Shakespeare paved the way for story, Hawks showed what a director could be, and Ford found truth in the mythic past, but it was Akira Kurosawa brought it all together and saw into the human soul (and really annoyed Ozu along the way).

• By Jim
  March 24, 2010
  02:58 AM

  One of the most influential movies ever made, Rashomon - ostensibly the story of a crime in 12th-century Japan from four conflicting viewpoints - is an often-imitated-but-never-equaled account of how human observation of events always alters their truth.

• By John
  March 24, 2010
  03:02 AM

  "Well, Kurosawa can frame a scene like John Ford, he can tap into sentiment without the blaring enthusiasm of Frank Capra, and he can cut a thriller worthy of Don Siegel or Robert Aldrich...and there's samurai!"

• By Matthew
  March 24, 2010
  03:04 AM

  As grand in scope as David Lean but as introspective as Ingmar Bergman. As violent as Sam Peckinpah but as poetic as Francois Truffaut. As otherworldly as David Lynch but as familiar as Frank Capra. As dramatic as Jean Renoir but as comical as Woody Allen. He's a visionary like Wim Wenders and Stanley Kubrick and an innovator like Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. THAT'S the Genius of AKIRA KUROSAWA! Come, Sit, and Watch the Master with Me.

• By Vu Tran
  March 24, 2010
  03:08 AM

  To watch Kurosawa's films is to understand that stories can be entertainment, that entertainment can be art, that art can be life, and that cinema, at its best, is all of these things (especially when there are samurais).

• By Matthew
  March 24, 2010
  03:11 AM

  (Sorry-one sentence) As grand in scope as David Lean but as introspective as Ingmar Bergman, As violent as Sam Peckinpah but as poetic as Francois Truffaut, As otherworldly as David Lynch but as familiar as Frank Capra, As dramatic as Jean Renoir but as comical as Woody Allen, A visionary like Wim Wenders and Stanley Kubrick and an innovator like Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock- THAT’S the Genius of AKIRA KUROSAWA!

• By Gil Gauvreau
  March 24, 2010
  03:14 AM

  Tatsuya Nakadai IS Henry Silva and see it for yourself by watching Yojimbo!

• By Michael Pfeifer
  March 24, 2010
  03:16 AM

  Seven Samurai: Star Wars without the stars...

• By Gil Gauvreau
  March 24, 2010
  03:21 AM

  Kurosawa is Kinema.

• By Jeremy Lockner
  March 24, 2010
  03:22 AM

  Kurosawa is like Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg put together; The Color Purple and Schindler's List Spielberg.

• By Bryan Jones
  March 24, 2010
  03:29 AM

  If you dont like seven samurai then my friend....you are an idiot.

• By Anthony Henin
  March 24, 2010
  03:30 AM

  Kurosawa's films are a sensory and emotional feast, where incredible compositions and action are matched by moments of extreme tenderness and fragility, the whole paced with a magical weave of poetic speech and musical moods.

• By Roy
  March 24, 2010
  03:43 AM

  Kurosawa is the Michael Jordan of Cinema.

• By Andrew Strauss
  March 24, 2010
  03:45 AM

  He is the greatest Japanese Director ever and has inspired every single director to make films on this planet since the second half of the 20th century.

• By Roy
  March 24, 2010
  03:46 AM

  Kurosawa does for Cinema, what Richard Simmons did for exercise videos.

• By Celia Vera-Cruz
  March 24, 2010
  03:53 AM

  Here is a list of directors that are directly influenced by the work of Akira Kurosawa: Satyajit Ray, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet, Sam Peckinpah, Roman Polanski, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Zhang Yimou, John Milius, Takeshi Kitano, John Woo, Werner Herzog, Antoine Fuqua, Alex Cox, Arthur Penn, Spike Lee, Sergio Leone.

• By Luann Strauss
  March 24, 2010
  03:58 AM

  He is God.

• By Drei
  March 24, 2010
  04:00 AM

  The morning after you watch Rashomon, you'll see the sun rise a thousand different ways.

• By George
  March 24, 2010
  04:00 AM

  His films are an antidote for the ADD generation.

• By Ramkishan Rajan
  March 24, 2010
  04:07 AM

  "If you watch it, I will get a Kurosawa DVD/Blue-ray from Criterion, which may not mean a lot to you, but does so to me"

• By Joe Fontes
  March 24, 2010
  04:15 AM

  At the end of every Kurosawa film that I have seen, I can point to at least one scene that reveals the reason that one man stands behind a camera and points it at another. if that doesn't work you can always try... "Watch Stray Dog, or I will beat up your little brother." But I'm partial to the former. Try that one first.

• By Roy
  March 24, 2010
  04:16 AM

  After more than sixty-five years, Seven Samurai is still one of the best foreign films ever made.

• By B Baukol
  March 24, 2010
  04:23 AM

  I wouldn't be much of a friend if I didn't enlighten you to the films by Kurosawa.

• By Algirdas
  March 24, 2010
  04:26 AM

  You can't say you watched a good movie until you see one of Kurosawa's.

• By Gary
  March 24, 2010
  04:39 AM

  Kurosawa had the courage to keep his eyes open to the realities of the world in his films while others closed them.

• By Michael Mills
  March 24, 2010
  04:43 AM

  Kurosawa is the sword and the blossom.

• By Roy Harris
  March 24, 2010
  04:46 AM

  Even after more than fifty-five years, Seven Samurai is still one of the greatest foreign films ever made.

• By Roy Harris
  March 24, 2010
  04:49 AM

  Friends don’t let friends go without seeing Seven Samurai.

• By Roy Harris
  March 24, 2010
  04:53 AM

  If I could only take one movie with me to a deserted island, it would be Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.

• By Jeff G
  March 24, 2010
  05:30 AM

  Watching a Kurosawa movie is like giving praise to your ancestors & parents for paving the way for your existence; without him, the meticulous craft of making a movie wouldn't have evolved and all the tools of the trade that help you tell a story using film as your medium would've been lost.

• By Roxane Gold
  March 24, 2010
  05:42 AM

  Not until you've seen a Kurosawa film will you realize that films are numerous but cinema is rare.

• By Steven Alexander
  March 24, 2010
  05:52 AM

  Avatar I'm real happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Kurosawa had some of the best films of all time!!!

• By Srdjan Jaksic
  March 24, 2010
  06:45 AM

  After you watch Rashomon, you will say: Domo Arigato Gozaimasu Srdjan-san :D

• By Zack Epstein
  March 24, 2010
  07:12 AM

  The experience of a Kurosawa film is an awakening of your consciousness.

• By Brandon Nowalk
  March 24, 2010
  08:08 AM

  Everything else proceeds from and is contained within Rashomon, the first great thought experiment and the closest cinema has come to expressing the simultaneous wonder and tyranny of living.

• By Simon Jacobs
  March 24, 2010
  08:12 AM

  Loving Kurosawa is all about tweaking and magnifying perspectives, friend-- those of Japan, of history, of war, of honor, of age, of cinema-- and your perspectives are in some desperate need of filmic magnification; here, watch this.

• By Larry Commons
  March 24, 2010
  08:12 AM

  You don't like foreign films, black-and-white, or even action movies -- but you'll forget all that when you watch any Kurosawa picture.

• By Gaby M.
  March 24, 2010
  08:17 AM

  My mother loves him.

• By JR C
  March 24, 2010
  08:31 AM

  You will not be disappointed; I promise.

• By Rob Greene
  March 24, 2010
  08:53 AM

  After watching Dodes'ka-den you'll think, hey, my house doesn't look so bad.

• By Ed Luna
  March 24, 2010
  09:02 AM

  Kurosawa can slay a million Saw or Hostel-style gratuitous film deaths with a single arrow through the neck - in black and white.

• By Roy Harris
  March 24, 2010
  09:05 AM

  Thank you Criterion for having this contest.

• By Brian Rose
  March 24, 2010
  09:15 AM

  Why Not?

• By Ben R.
  March 24, 2010
  09:16 AM

  Kurosawa is not a filmmaker, he is a storyteller, and when was the last time you were told a proper story?

• By Punyaphan Klykoom
  March 24, 2010
  09:46 AM

  If you don't know Kurosawa, you don't know cinema.

• By Roman Petrov
  March 24, 2010
  09:46 AM

  If you like Scorsese, Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Tarkovsky, Bergman, Bertolucci, Fellini, Ray, Altman, Lumet, Polanski, or Herzog, you will like Kurosawa.

• By Peter Gaynor
  March 24, 2010
  10:07 AM

  Kurosawa's ability to excite and move crosses cultures and time, and makes us realise our commonalities far outway our differences.

• By Mark Kaiser
  March 24, 2010
  10:08 AM

  When, WHEN are you going to stop pretending only the US / Canada residents are buying and watching the DVD:s?

• By Peter Gaynor
  March 24, 2010
  10:11 AM

  Kurosawa’s ability to excite and move crosses cultures and time, and makes us realise our commonalities far outweigh* our differences.

• By GT
  March 24, 2010
  10:19 AM

  "When, WHEN are you going to stop pretending only the US / Canada residents are buying and watching the DVD:s?" I don't think they're "pretending". Most likely there are legal/technical issues in having the contest open to those outside U.S. and Canada.

• By Avi Setton
  March 24, 2010
  10:20 AM

  I have tried countless times to persuade others into watching Kurosawa films by declaring Ikiru the finest film ever made but have learned from Rashomon that each cinematic experience Kurosawa offers is as individual as the self and that persuasion fails where Dreams succeeds: Appreciation. Happy birthday, Akira!

• By Daniel Flener
  March 24, 2010
  10:25 AM

  No filmmaker in the history of cinema has made films that are so epic, yet so intimately human and personal.

• By Daniel Plyam
  March 24, 2010
  10:37 AM

  Cinema is story told through image, and Akira Kurosawa was one of the first masters of this art, you can watch it if you like, but you don't have too, it's a persons choice if they want to embark on an epic journey that is Kurosawa's art.

• By ed c
  March 24, 2010
  10:45 AM

  Kurosawa films is what "spaghetti western" did to the american cinema since 60s, it changed the Hollywood; Kurosawa films are known for 1) beautifully crafted shots, almost no shots are in there by mistake, 2) amazing camera movements and angles that were never seen before and now used by many directors (such as slow-motion, reaction shots, reverse camera angles, color saturation and action scenes) and 3) flowing story lines that completely absorbs the viewers and would not let go, including many Shakespearean stories; and recommend the following movies for the beginners: Seven samurai, Ikiru, Ran, The hidden fortress.

• By vinod indukuri
  March 24, 2010
  11:09 AM

  If you want to experience a real detective investigation, forget those thousands of classics from Hollywood and watch Kurosawa's High and Low.

• By Lance Baird
  March 24, 2010
  11:10 AM

  You loved the magnificent 7 right >? My 10 year old fell in love with it as i did at the same age.. well watch "the seven samurai and "yojimbo" to see what inspired the best westerns and some of the better sci fi movies ever made.

• By Scott Stewart
  March 24, 2010
  11:12 AM

  If you fell asleep watching the Criterion Ozu boxed set I loaned you, Kurosawa is the un-Ozu.

• By AHMED KHAWAJA
  March 24, 2010
  11:14 AM

  To my homeless friend, Jay-- he's from Jamaica, and he sings to a rhythm by rattling his cup of coins. The sentence: "There's this moment just before the end of Kurosawa's "High and Low," you'd just wanna watch it over and over: a young medical student, turned drug dealer and one-time-kidnapper, struggles to break free from a few cops-- in the background, you hear the song by Elvis, "It's now or never."

• By yip
  March 24, 2010
  11:18 AM

  the thing about kurosawa is that you dont even have to watch all of his films to understand cinema, just watch one of them - you will sense an uncanny, or even grotesque alien baby creeping into your soul, destroying every parts of your system - soon it will grows in you, It's the spiritual after-shock that makes it the masterpiece. alright i speak too much. lets just watch the film.

• By alex n
  March 24, 2010
  11:21 AM

  Oh darling, sit down a while, there is so much more to japan than hello kitty and godzilla...

• By Chris Martin
  March 24, 2010
  11:24 AM

  Just think, Criterion wouldn't be celebrating the 100th birthday of Akira Kurosawa if he was just another ordinary director.

• By David Kelly
  March 24, 2010
  11:28 AM

  You should watch some of these Akira Kuroswa films in this great Criterion box set, because if you love cinema, then, trust me, every film you've loved, by every filmmaker you've loved from the past couple of generations, has been influenced by these great films.

• By Kanishk Mishra
  March 24, 2010
  11:33 AM

  Kurosawa is to film what Jordan is to basketball, Tendulkar is to cricket, Maradona is to football and so not having seen his movies would be like not having experienced the best the field has to offer.

• By Chuck
  March 24, 2010
  11:38 AM

  To convince a friend to watch Seven Samurai: If you could only see one movie before you died, wouldn't you want it to be the greatest film of all time.

• By Ed Au
  March 24, 2010
  11:39 AM

  Kurosawa's films are so great that Hollywood filmmakers such as George Lucas are getting the inspiration from them for their own work.

• By Tom Hudson
  March 24, 2010
  11:54 AM

  Supposing there was a list of directors that embody cinema and its infinite possibilities Kurosawa would a strong contender for number one.

• By Christina
  March 24, 2010
  12:14 PM

  Throne of Blood is Macbeth but in Japanese and with Samurais instead of Scottish people, so basically Kurosawa found the only way possible to make Shakespeare even more badass.

• By Christian B.
  March 24, 2010
  12:17 PM

  "Let's take a wild ride, let's watch Rashomon."

• By Stephen Shippert
  March 24, 2010
  12:35 PM

  Though we never go to the movies anymore - I know, we don't have the time and it's easier to watch DVDs at home - I want to go see Kurosawa's Derzu Uzala with you as its my favorite buddy movie of all time.

• By David Cortes
  March 24, 2010
  12:39 PM

  Why bother to buy expensive tickets to see your favorite Shakespeare adaptation, just watch Ran: Bigger, Better, Cheaper and also in color.

• By Jason Bullok
  March 24, 2010
  12:45 PM

  To watch a Kurosawa film is to be swept up in a tide of emotion, action, intellect, suspense, understanding, anger, mystery, love; in short, the essence of cinema.

• By DOMINIC TOWERY
  March 24, 2010
  12:55 PM

  Akira Kurosawa's movies are not just moving pieces of cellulose but art flowing at 24fps.

• By April
  March 24, 2010
  01:05 PM

  It is because there are films like Kurosawa's that we love films and believe they are art.

• By Cameron Raecke
  March 24, 2010
  01:05 PM

  Watching Ikiru and Red Beard makes you want to be nice to people.

• By Billy
  March 24, 2010
  01:14 PM

  To watch a Kurosawa drama is to see the beauty in violence, and the violence in love, and the color in death, to drink a beer with your dead grandfather as he tells you old war stories he wouldn't talk about when you were a kid, and you say "You know, everything really went to shit when you died," and he says "Just be glad, kid, you're not the one dead."

• By Stacinator
  March 24, 2010
  01:35 PM

  Dude, trust me... it's good enough to make you forget that you don't know Japanese.

• By Ryan
  March 24, 2010
  01:45 PM

  Honey, many great movie directors such as Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas, Fellini, Bergman, Woo, Polanski, Spielberg, Leone and many more are recommending you to watch the Kurosawa film tonight.

• By Gil Gauvreau
  March 24, 2010
  01:47 PM

  Jean-Luc Godard must have been thinking of Kurosawa when he said "Cinema is truth at 24 frames per second."

• By Laurent B Daubas
  March 24, 2010
  01:50 PM

  In my youth watching Kagemusha stirred my heart and soul, so please let's watch this beautiful film together and so we can share and discuss the beauty of Cinema.

• By phuoc
  March 24, 2010
  01:52 PM

  To know awe, brokeness, shame, courage, tragedy, brotherhood is to watch Kurosawa.

• By Assad Omar
  March 24, 2010
  01:59 PM

  They will stay with you forever.

• By B Taylor
  March 24, 2010
  02:19 PM

  One of the rare directors who can engage both the heart and the mind, and who never wastes a frame.

• By Artin Aghanian
  March 24, 2010
  02:20 PM

  Kurosawa is the ultimate badass American filmmaker who just happened to be born Japanese; now let’s watch Seven Samurai and see if you don’t beg for seconds.

• By Tony Drehfal
  March 24, 2010
  02:27 PM

  You are not watching a film, you're studying a painting, listening to a symphony, and hearing a storyteller, all at the same time.

• By Andrew Patrick Strauss
  March 24, 2010
  02:41 PM

  Akira Kurosawa brought Eastern and Western film together and molded it into a universal language that goes beyond cultural, religious, political barriers for a cinematic experience that reveals the universal qualities of the human soul.

• By Bryan Dempsen
  March 24, 2010
  02:50 PM

  You have to watch this movie because it changed my life.

• By Peter Panacci
  March 24, 2010
  02:53 PM

  Jason, I know you find my taste in movies boring and somewhat obscure, but if there was just one director I had to choose for you to try, one style of classic cinema I think you should experience, even if only once, then it would be Akira Kurosawa; his movies are masterpieces which combine incredible cinematography, unmatched attention to detail and character and groundbreaking style and stories which have been emulated and copied shamelessly for decades; I would be willing to stake our very friendship on the fact that no one can watch a Kurosawa movie without being moved and touched, either by his technical excellence and vision, or the incredible insights into the human spirit he unveils through his craft.

• By Gil Gauvreau
  March 24, 2010
  02:58 PM

  One Wonderful Sunday I went into a video store and saw a clerk with a Red Beard who urged me to rent The Seven Samurai which I did and I thought it was so great I Ran back to the store the next day and there was an Idiot in there who said The Magnificent Seven was better, and I said that was a Scandal and told him be careful of what he said or he could become one of Those Who Tread Upon The Tiger’s Tail, whereupon we stared directly into each others eyes in a Quiet Duel and he backed down, and as he left like a Stray Dog with his tail between his legs, I shouted after him to remember That The Bad Sleep Well, but he didn’t get the irony, and then I asked the clerk for Rashoman and he said all the copies were out and I was instantly plunged into The Lower Depths of despair because I Live In Fear of not having a Kurosawa film available, so we searched High and Low and found a copy and I was so elated that it truly felt like a Rhapsody in August that one of my Dreams had come true, and so it is this film that I urge you to watch with me and if you do you will have The Most Beautiful experience in the world, and both of us will be able to say in later life that we had No Regrets For Our Youth.

• By peter brandwein
  March 24, 2010
  03:02 PM

  simply because his films are some of the most life-affirming works of art I've ever beheld,they changed my entire outlook of how I viewed film as a young person and continue to resonate with me the same way to this day...

• By Roman Petrov
  March 24, 2010
  03:27 PM

  If you love any of the films of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Roman Polanski, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Satyajit Ray, Sidney Lumet, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Andrei Tarkovksy, Sam Peckinpah, Werner Herzog, or Robert Altman, you will be happy to know that all of these directors and many others were influenced in some way, shape or form by the films and ideas of Akira Kurosawa.

• By Chris Olson
  March 24, 2010
  03:36 PM

  Seven Samurai may very well be the apex of cinema, and that is merely ONE of the great films that Akira Kurosawa has directed.

• By Jose
  March 24, 2010
  03:38 PM

  Things blow up, people get killed with swords, poor peasants die, girls pretend to be boys and you still get to think!

• By Bradley Poulos
  March 24, 2010
  03:52 PM

  The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars or Spaghetti Westerns would not exist if not for Akira Kurosawa's Eastern influence on John Sturges, George Lucas and Sergio Leone.

• By Justin Chuan
  March 24, 2010
  04:02 PM

  I would have thought of more clever sentence to convince you to watch an Akira Kurosawa film using allusions, puns, and even poetry -- but Wikipedia is down, so you'll just have to trust me and see Rashomon.

• By Kevin
  March 24, 2010
  04:07 PM

  Kurosawa's films are truly timeless, incorporating universal themes of honor, war, loyalty and betrayal, to inspire generations of fans and filmmakers alike.

• By Chris
  March 24, 2010
  04:12 PM

  The worst film Kurosawa ever made is still better than most films, and the best of his films show you that you have never seen a movie before seeing one of his.

• By Sam Martin
  March 24, 2010
  04:52 PM

  If you ever wanted to know what inspired such director's as Steven Speilberg and others to create not only stunning visuals, but also powerful human narratives that build upon them, you owe yourself the pleasure of unearthing Kurosawa's vast catalog of timeless treasures.

• By Matt Ryan
  March 24, 2010
  05:01 PM

  同じようにボッティチェッリ検討する必要がありますようにバッハに自分自身を吸収する必要がありますように、アンナカレーニナを読む必要がありますは、黒澤明監督の映画を見る必要があります。

• By Amy Highlander
  March 24, 2010
  05:03 PM

  I am unable to convey to you what Kurosawa means to film unless you physically sit and watch at least one, preferably Ikiru or Ran, of his masterpieces.

• By Tim Girard
  March 24, 2010
  05:06 PM

  See why some of the world's best and most beloved director's cite Kurosawa as the main inspiration in their careers.

• By Jonathan Flynn
  March 24, 2010
  05:07 PM

  Akira Kurosawa is a master in the art of cinema, and that can be seen with various different elements, from is perfect compositions, as seen in High and Low, to his gorgeous set designs and camera work in Ran, so do yourself a favor and watch his films.

• By Uba Backonja
  March 24, 2010
  05:11 PM

  Kurosawa was the quintessential master at capturing everything from the most intimate emotion to the widest captivating expanses, creating an experience that draws you in immediately, completely, and effortlessly.

• By Tim Girard
  March 24, 2010
  05:37 PM

  Take ONE WONDERFUL SUNDAY when THE DRUNKEN ANGEL and THE BAD SLEEP WELL, relax with your STRAY DOG (SCANDAL, the one with the RED BEARD, not THE IDIOT one), search HIGH AND LOW, THE LOWER DEPTHS of your HIDDEN FORTRESS for a Kurosawa film (such as THRONE OF BLOOD or SEVEN SAMURAI), and enjoy the work of one of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL filmmakers to ever grace this earth so that I LIVE IN FEAR no longer and you will have NO REGRETS FOR YOUTH or be one of THE MEN WHO TREAD ON THE TIGER'S TAIL.

• By Christina
  March 24, 2010
  06:07 PM

  If you have ever seen a good movie, it is almost a certainty that the director was influenced by Akira Kurosawa, for he is THE director that all good directors pay homage to.

• By Nassim Sabba
  March 24, 2010
  08:32 PM

  Watch Dreams and you will run into the most moving portrait of Van Gogh ever.

• By Brennan
  March 24, 2010
  10:37 PM

  I went, I saw, I cried - Kurosawa

• By Inigo Montoya
  March 25, 2010
  12:03 AM

  Look, these are the ONLY films I will pause and explain from the beginning to that scene, when my wife asks me what I am watching.

• By Inigo Montoya
  March 25, 2010
  12:17 AM

  Dude, better than porn.

• By Nate Sutton
  March 25, 2010
  12:22 AM

  It's as though God is directing before your very eyes.

• By Brandan Tang
  March 25, 2010
  09:27 AM

  As your best friend, I recommend you watch "Red Beard" and I promise that you will understand life so much more, especially about yourself.

• By Ryan J
  March 25, 2010
  10:27 AM

  Look back at your roots and find the foundation; you'll be entertained too.

• By Wayne Kao
  March 25, 2010
  11:53 PM

  Everyone is a Kurosawa Fan, they just don't know it yet.

• By Brian Conlon
  March 26, 2010
  12:08 AM

  Akira Kurosawa made films so real, they probably made people question the validity of their own existence, because they weren't as real as those lives in film.

• By Brian J.
  March 26, 2010
  02:22 AM

  Right now, you most likely will not die happy since you haven't watched an Akira Kurosawa film. As a side comment, I watched The Bad Sleep Well at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, CA. It was amazing.

• By Nic Park
  March 26, 2010
  11:03 AM

  Seven Samurai, a black-and-white old foreign film over three hours long, has probably the highest horrid-on-paper, kick-ass-on-screen ratio of all time.

• By Ordell Rodriguez
  March 26, 2010
  11:46 PM

  You know all those filmmakers you love outta the 60's and 70's? Lucas, Leone, Spielberg, Scorsese, etc. Yeah, they wouldn't be the filmmakers they are without him having come first.

• By Nate W
  July 05, 2010
  06:25 PM

  Seven Samurai .....isn't that enough? I guess 6 would have been ok...but with 7 you open up a whole new kind of whoop -a**...... and really who doesn't love that?

• By Paul Heumann
  April 13, 2011
  02:28 AM

  Every film you've seen is inspired by him.

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