By now, I have seen a handful of celebrated Japanese director Akira Kurosowa's movies and I have been impressed. I state this because movies by most ‘celebrated directors’ are usually underwhelming and overhyped. Not Mr. Kurosowa. His movies have been consistently entertaining.
Throne of blood
I may have started with Throne of blood. It is a retelling of Shakespeare drama Macbeth in a Japanese setting. Two warriors get lost in the forest. They encounter a ghostly being who predicts that one of them will become the emperor and the son of the other will follow him. The wife of the first warrior spurs him to kill the emperor and the second warrior who was also his friend. Unfortunately, the seat of power is far from comfortable. Paranoia leads to hallucinations and unsurprisingly madness. It was a gripping tale till the end. The foggy mountains add to the eeriness of the proceedings. Toshiro Mifune as the new emperor is most impressive and Isuzu Yamada as his wife is almost as good.
Seven Samurai
A village is pillaged and ransacked by a gang of robbers just after harvest every year. Tired of this, they decide to get some samurai to help but they do not have the money to pay even one. However, a ronin takes pity on them and enlist five other samurai for the task. A pretender, played by Toshiro Mifune, claims to be a real samurai also joins them.
The Hidden Fortress
Toshiro Mifune plays a samurai in The Hidden Fortress. He is in the service of a princess who is hiding out in the mountains with a limited staff. Tired of waiting in the harsh terrain, the princess and the samurai decide to sneak back to their home country with their treasury gold hidden in firewood. They enlist two unfortunate drifters to carry the firewood past the borders of warring states. (These two jokers spar with each other in the grimmest of situations!) This movie is another winner.
Age rating: 16+