Years ago a friend and I saw Throne of Blood in a theater and he said it fucked him up for weeks, a story about a dude whose ambition destroys himself and everyone around him. That friend is now a crypto startup CEO.
Kurosawa was a fascist but also a great artist. IMO Hidden Fortress is his most fun, most rewatchable movie, the one Star Wars was based on.
This is a bizarre take. Kurosawa was certainly no communist, yes, but he was not a fascist in any sense of the word. He made a film with the Soviet Union for Christ's sake! The Bad Sleep Well is a movie about the backroom squabbles of high flying CEOs and how the wealthy can get away with everything. Ikiru is about the soulless monotony of work under capitalism and modern Japan that can only be fixed by seeking out meaning through helping others. Red Beard is about the social ills of 19th century Japan and a selfish man realizing that other people have real lives that are worth caring about and caring for. High and Low is about how social deprivation and inequality can lead to societal disharmony and murder, as well as about how the rich don't give a fuck about their hired "help." The explicit plot of Seven Samurai is about a bunch of samurai who reject the strong preying on the weak and instead teach a town how to defend themselves from those that prey on them, showing that anybody can learn the ways of the samurai, even peasants. His films are existential and humanist and to see fascism in something like Seven Samurai is a confusing misuse of the term entirely.
No worries comrade! I don't think you're entirely wrong anyway since Kurosawa did make films during WWII for the Japanese government and definitely didn't make films that directly examine Japan's wartime atrocities like some other Japanese filmmakers, so there's some reaction in him yet. Definitely not a fascist though.
Throne of Blood is an amazing movie! It's actually an adaptation of Macbeth.
fun facts!
Climate and weather are massive themes and devices in Kurosawa films. for Throne of Blood he wanted a steady supply of fog. His solution was to demand that rather have smoke machines in a studio, he would have a replica castle built on Mt Fuji, as fog is common at certain elevations.
Towards the end of the movie Toshiro Mifune's character is threatened by a team of archers. Rather than using film tricks like arrows being sent via wire and sped up in post, he commissioned Japan's Olympic archery team to simply shoot around the actor! This is the reason why the character flails his arms in front of him before moving in a new direction, to telegraph to the archers that his position is changing and not to shoot where he would be going!
I don’t know if he ever explicitly called himself a fascist but his movies are all about samurai rescuing peasants who are too weak, stupid, and worthless to care for themselves. It’s cape shit / cowboys in medieval Japan. Ikiru is a little different though and worth a look.
his movies are all about samurai rescuing peasants who are too weak, stupid, and worthless to care for themselves
I see that you haven't watched very many Kurosawa films.
The guy was certainly influenced by fascism and its aesthetics (he grew up during its rise and got his first real directorial work during WW2), but I don't think he or his films are fascist.
Chamabara movies are about Samurai by default. In the highly class stratified and violent world of medieval Japan peasants had very little agency. That said;
7 Samurai is a meditation on how badly the military and militarism of Japan failed the common people. The Samurai explicitly acknowledge that their class are predators who cause harm to the peasants and farmers, and that the peasants are justified in killing samurai to protect themselves. Kikuchiyo is a peasant masquerading as a Samurai who launches in a an emotional indictment of the Samurai class, telling his own painful story and saying that every vice the peasants have comes not from them, but from the oppression of the Samurai. And the Samurai react to this with deep, deep shame, recognizing the truth of his words.
Ran is just Macbeth
Rashomon is a mind bending mystery movie that provided one of the best examples of "unreliable narrator" in cinema
The Hidden Fortress is the movie Star Wars cribbed it's entire plot off of.
Years ago a friend and I saw Throne of Blood in a theater and he said it fucked him up for weeks, a story about a dude whose ambition destroys himself and everyone around him. That friend is now a crypto startup CEO.
Kurosawa was a fascist but also a great artist. IMO Hidden Fortress is his most fun, most rewatchable movie, the one Star Wars was based on.
Edit: I am wrong.
This is a bizarre take. Kurosawa was certainly no communist, yes, but he was not a fascist in any sense of the word. He made a film with the Soviet Union for Christ's sake! The Bad Sleep Well is a movie about the backroom squabbles of high flying CEOs and how the wealthy can get away with everything. Ikiru is about the soulless monotony of work under capitalism and modern Japan that can only be fixed by seeking out meaning through helping others. Red Beard is about the social ills of 19th century Japan and a selfish man realizing that other people have real lives that are worth caring about and caring for. High and Low is about how social deprivation and inequality can lead to societal disharmony and murder, as well as about how the rich don't give a fuck about their hired "help." The explicit plot of Seven Samurai is about a bunch of samurai who reject the strong preying on the weak and instead teach a town how to defend themselves from those that prey on them, showing that anybody can learn the ways of the samurai, even peasants. His films are existential and humanist and to see fascism in something like Seven Samurai is a confusing misuse of the term entirely.
My face is red, I stand corrected!
No worries comrade! I don't think you're entirely wrong anyway since Kurosawa did make films during WWII for the Japanese government and definitely didn't make films that directly examine Japan's wartime atrocities like some other Japanese filmmakers, so there's some reaction in him yet. Definitely not a fascist though.
Throne of Blood is an amazing movie! It's actually an adaptation of Macbeth.
fun facts!
Climate and weather are massive themes and devices in Kurosawa films. for Throne of Blood he wanted a steady supply of fog. His solution was to demand that rather have smoke machines in a studio, he would have a replica castle built on Mt Fuji, as fog is common at certain elevations.
Towards the end of the movie Toshiro Mifune's character is threatened by a team of archers. Rather than using film tricks like arrows being sent via wire and sped up in post, he commissioned Japan's Olympic archery team to simply shoot around the actor! This is the reason why the character flails his arms in front of him before moving in a new direction, to telegraph to the archers that his position is changing and not to shoot where he would be going!
I love Throne of Blood!
Never heard anyone discuss Kurasawa's politics before. That sucks.
I don’t know if he ever explicitly called himself a fascist but his movies are all about samurai rescuing peasants who are too weak, stupid, and worthless to care for themselves. It’s cape shit / cowboys in medieval Japan. Ikiru is a little different though and worth a look.
I see that you haven't watched very many Kurosawa films.
The guy was certainly influenced by fascism and its aesthetics (he grew up during its rise and got his first real directorial work during WW2), but I don't think he or his films are fascist.
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Thanks for tagging me. Good post.
Chamabara movies are about Samurai by default. In the highly class stratified and violent world of medieval Japan peasants had very little agency. That said;
7 Samurai is a meditation on how badly the military and militarism of Japan failed the common people. The Samurai explicitly acknowledge that their class are predators who cause harm to the peasants and farmers, and that the peasants are justified in killing samurai to protect themselves. Kikuchiyo is a peasant masquerading as a Samurai who launches in a an emotional indictment of the Samurai class, telling his own painful story and saying that every vice the peasants have comes not from them, but from the oppression of the Samurai. And the Samurai react to this with deep, deep shame, recognizing the truth of his words.
Ran is just Macbeth
Rashomon is a mind bending mystery movie that provided one of the best examples of "unreliable narrator" in cinema
The Hidden Fortress is the movie Star Wars cribbed it's entire plot off of.