Kwaidan is comprised of four Japanese ghost stories, each inspired by one of the stories in Lafcadio Hearn's 1904 anthology, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. At the time of filming, Kobayashi's Kwaidan was the most expensive Japanese film ever produced. Its high cost of production is up on the screen. As the film … Continue reading #90. Kwaidan. Dir., Masaki Kobayashi
A DVD copy of Sanjuro was gifted to me. If I had purchased a hard copy myself, I definitely would never have skipped buying Yojimbo, the first in the pair of films about Sanjuro, the ronin who names himself “30 years old”. Sanjuro is a film for the those--investors and samurai fans alike--who wanted more … Continue reading #53. Sanjuro. Dir., Akira Kurosawa
Seven Samurai was not the first criterion in my collection, but it probably should have been. When I first watched this film--a loan from my library--I started to see my ignorance of cinema history clearly, without bias or defensiveness. If it had taken me this long to see Seven Samurai, there must be so many … Continue reading #1. Seven Samurai. Dir., Akira Kurosawa
notes on cinema 