Kurosawa Film Trailers (Part 2 of 5)

Here is part 2 of 5 of Akira Kurosawa Film Trailers in English.

Seven Samurai (1954) 

From Wikipedia:

Seven Samurai (七人の侍 Shichinin no Samurai  is a 1954 Japanese film co-written, edited and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in Warring States Period Japan (around 1587/1588). It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai (ronin) to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.

Seven Samurai is described as 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. It is the subject of both popular and critical acclaim; it was voted onto Sight & Sound's list of the ten greatest films of all time in 1982 and 1992, and remains on the directors' top ten films in the 2002 poll.

Throne of Blood (1957)

From Wikipedia:

Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Its original Japanese title isKumonosu-jō (蜘蛛巣城), which means "Spider Web Castle". The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth to feudal Japan.

Hidden Fortress (1958)

(This is the film that George Lucas said inspired Star Wars.)

From Wikipedia:

The Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人 Kakushi toride no san akunin) is a 1958 jidai-geki film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshirō Mifune as General Rokurota Makabe and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki. A literal translation of the Japanese title is The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress.

Marketing Japan: Akira Kurosawa and Other Short, Fun Japanese Videos Online!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

A lot of cinema fans in the west just love Japanese movie director Akira Kurosawa, but did you know that he is more famous in the west than he is in Japan? Actually, that happens a lot with artists and musicians from Japan; they are popular in the west, but not so much in Japan.

Kurosawa didn't become even remotely popular in Japan until years after Seven Samurai was released in 1954 and remade in the USA as "The Magnificent Seven," starring Yul Brenner, Eli Wallach and Steve McQueen in 1960. 

Many people believe that Seven Samurai is one of the ten greatest movies ever made and is the very first action movie. 

Japanese poster for Seven Samurai

So, today, for your Sunday morning pleasure, I wanted to show you  few things that I found that are very nice and I thought very culturally interesting for your enjoyment. The first is a one minute short film montage of Japanese posters of the films directed by Akira Kurosawa, played to the theme music of "Yojimbo." It is only one minute long and very fun!

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

Here is also a great Akira Kurosawa documentary (about 11 minutes) that talks about the director's life with much detail about Seven Samurai.

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

This material is from an Internet site that I often enjoy going to and searching around. It is called the Internet Archive - it is absolutely free - and it is full of rights free materials that can be used for student films and other non-profit uses. To show you what can be done using the materials here, I used one here for a Punk Rock and Horror video that I made with Ken Nishikawa a few years ago. It is for the Kyoto girl's punk band, The Soap. Watch it here:

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

Pretty cool, eh?

Anyway, I digress... The Internet Archive is full of great films, short and long and I highly recommend it.

The Internet Archive is here.

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Keywords:
Japan, Akira Kurosawa, Eli Wallach, Mike Rogers, Seven Samurai, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, The Soap, Kyoto, Ken Nishikawa, Punk Rock, horror video, Yojimbo, Internet, Internet archive, cinema, Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, Magnificent Seven