Magic Lantern Video & Book StoreAkira Kurosawa
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Short Profile Links Books Collections & Documentaries Historical-Era Films Modern-Era Films |
World-renowned writer-producer-director of Japan,
award-winning master of the cinema arts.
Akira Kurosawa profile here
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Akira Kurosawa won Oscars for "Rashômon" [1950] {Best Foreign-Language Film, 1952}, for "Derzu Uzala" [1975] {Best Foreign-Language Film, 1976}, and for Lifetime Achievement (1990) |
| He also won BAFTA Awards for Best Direction for "Kagemusha" [1980], for Best Foreign Language Film for "Ran" [1985]; France's César Award for Best Foreign Film for "Kagemusha" [1980]; Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992; Kinema Junpo Awards for Best Film for "Yoidore tenshi" [1948], for Best Film for "Ikiru" [1952], for Best Film & Best Director for "Akahige" [1965]; and Mainichi Film Concours Awards for Best Director for "Subarashiki nichiyobi" [1947], for Best Film for "Yoidore tenshi" [1948], for Best Film & Best Screenplay {shared} for "Ikiru" [1952], for Best Film & Best Screenplay {shared} for "Tengoku to jigoku" [1963], for Best Film for "Akahige" [1965], for Best Film & Best Director & Reader's Choice Award for "Kagemusha" [1980], for Best Film & Best Director for "Ran" [1985] – and many other awards |
Links
VHS Kurosawa catalog at Amazon.com
DVD Kurosawa catalog at Amazon.com
Kurosawa books catalog at Amazon.com
Akira Kurosawa credits at Internet Movie Database
Kurosawa posters catalog at AllPosters [dot] com
Kurosawa films fansite
DK's Kurosawa fansite
British Film Institute Kurosawa webpage
Akira Kurosawa Database: English | Japanese
AF's Kurosawa fansite
Cinema of Japan Page at Magic Lantern
Books On Akira Kurosawa
Collections & Documentaries
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"Postwar Kurosawa" DVD box set [2008] 
Eclipse-Criterion b&w DVD set [1/2008] 5 disks for $48.99 includes "No Regrets for Our Youth" [1946] starring Setsuko Hara; "One Wonderful Sunday" [1947] starring Chieko Nakakita & Isao Numasaki; "Scandal" [1950] starring Toshirô Mifune, Shirley Yamaguchi, Yôko Katsuragi & Takashi Shimura; "The Idiot" [1951] starring Masayuki Mori, Toshirô Mifune, Setsuko Hara, Yoshiko Kuga & Takashi Shimura; and "I Live in Fear" [1955] starring Toshirô Mifune & Takashi Shimura |
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Four Samurai Classics Box Set [2002] Home Vision widescreen DVD [10/2002] 4 disks for $74.96 includes "Seven Samurai" [1954], "The Hidden Fortress" [1958], "Yojimbo" [1961], "Sanjuro" [1962] detail film information below |
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Kurosawa DVD Collection (Individually Numbered Limited Edition) [2002]
contains "Ran" [1985], "Madadayo" [1993], the 100-minute documentary "Kurosawa" [2001] plus posters, photos & other artifacts letterbox & widescreen DVD plus artifacts [9/2002] 3 disks for $99.89 detail documentary information immediately below |
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"Kurosawa" [N.H.K./P.B.S. documentary 2001] Directed by Adam Low, with director Nagisa Oshima Wellspring letterbox DVD [4/2002] for $31.48 Wellspring color widescreen VHS [4/2002] for $24.98 full credits from IMDb P.B.S. program webpages |
"Kurosawa: The Last Emperor" [documentary 1999]
Directed by Alex Cox: video/DVD not available; full credits from IMDb
Early Kurosawa [1999]
includes "No Regrets For Our Youth" [1946], "One Wonderful Sunday" [1947],
and "Sanshiro Sugata" [1955]
Home Vision b&w VHS no longer available from Amazon or B&N
Kurosawa Noir [1998]
includes "Stray Dog" [1949], "The Bad Sleep Well" [1960], and "High & Low" [1963]
Home Vision b&w VHS no longer available at Amazon or B&N
"A.K." [color documentary 1985] Directed by Chris Marker
video/DVD not available;
full credits from IMDb
"Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful To Create My Life In Cinema" [Toho tv docu episode]
A 50-minute documentary on the making of 'Seven Samurai'
| Their collaborations include "Drunken Angel" [1948], "Stray Dog" [1949], "The Quiet Duel" [1949], "Scandal" [1950], "Rashômon" [1950], "The Idiot" [1951], "Seven Samurai" [1954], "I Live In Fear" [1955], "Throne of Blood" [1957], "The Lower Depths" [1957], "Hidden Fortress" [1958], "Saga of The Vagabonds" [1959], "The Bad Sleep Well" [1960], "Yojimbo" [1961], "Sanjuro" [1962], "High and Low" [1963], & "Akahige" [1965] |
Kurosawa's Modern-Era Films
"No Regrets For Our Youth" [1946]
full credits from IMDb
"One Wonderful Sunday" [1947]
full credits from IMDb
"Drunken Angel" aka 'Yoidore tenshi'
[Japan April 1948; US release Jan 1960]
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In a post-WWII slum, a doctor diagnoses TB in a young yakuza just before the former gang boss gets out of prison. Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Takashi Shimura, Toshirô Mifune, Michiyo Kogure, Chieko Nakakita, Noriko Sengoku, Eitarô Shindô & Reisaburo Yamamoto
Home Vision b&w VHS [6/2000] for $19.95 full credits from IMDb |
"Stray Dog" aka 'Nora inu'
[Japan Oct 1949; US release Aug 1963]
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Japanese film noir: A young Tokyo police detective loses his pistol to a pickpocket.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura & Keiko Awaji Criterion b&w DVD [5/2004] for $35.99 Home Vision b&w VHS [6/2000] for $28.45 full credits from IMDb |
"The Quiet Duel" aka 'Shizukanaru ketto'
[Japan March 1949; US release Nov 1979]
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A young doctor returns home after the war, having contracted syphillis while operating on a patient. Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Miki Sanjo, Kenjiro Uemura, Chieko Nakakita & Noriko Sengoku
Brentwood b&w DVD [9/2006] for $18.98 full credits from IMDb |
"Scandal" aka 'Shubun'
[Japan April 1950; US release July 1964]
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The chance encounter of a young painter and a famous singer is blown out of proportion by national tabloids.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Shirley Yamaguchi, Yôko Katsuragi & Takashi Shimura
Home Vision b&w VHS [6/2000] for $19.95 full credits from IMDb |
"The Idiot" aka 'Hakuchi'
[Japan May 1951; US release April 1963]
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Following treatment for a mental breakdown, a young man becomes involved with two women, one of whom comes to love him. She in turn is loved by the violent Akama (played by Mifune).
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on Dostoyevsky's novel; starring Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori, Toshirô Mifune, Yoshiko Kuga & Takashi Shimura New Yorker Films b&w VHS [3/2001] for $19.95 full credits from IMDb |
"Ikiru" aka "Doomed"
[Toho Japan Oct 1952; U.S.A. March 1956]
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When a city bureaucrat learns that he is dying of cancer, he searches for some meaning in his life.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Takashi Shimura & Miki Odagiri; won Kinema Jumpo Award for Best Film; won Mainichi Film Concours awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay & Best Sound
Criterion subtitled b&w DVD [1/2004] 2 disks for $38.99 Homevision subtitled b&w VHS [6/2000] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"I Live In Fear"
aka 'Record of A Living Being' or 'Ikimono no kiroku'
[Japan Nov 1955; US release Jan 1967]
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Mifune plays an industrialist riven with fear of the atomic bomb; his family wants him ruled incompetent for his irrational behavior.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune & Takashi Shimura
Home Vision b&w VHS [6/2000] for $19.95 full credits from IMDb |
"The Bad Sleep Well"
aka 'Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru'
[Toho Japan Sept 1960; US release Jan 1963]
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A young man in post-war Japan attempts to expose the corrupt corporate executives responsible for his father's death.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kamatari Fujiwara, Takeshi Katô, Kô Nishimura, Kyôko Kagawa, Takashi Shimura & Tatsuya Mihashi
Criterion widescreen b&w DVD [1/2006] for $26.99 Homevision b&w VHS [9/2001] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"High and Low" aka 'Tengoku to jigoku'
[Japan March 1963; US release Nov 1963]
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A corporate executive learns that his son has been kidnapped for a huge ransom, and then that the kidnapper has mistakenly taken the son of his chauffeur. Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on Ed McBain's 1959 novel "King's Ransom"; starring Toshirô Mifune, Kenjiro Ishiyama, Susumu Fujita, Kyôko Kagawa, Takeshi Kato, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yutaka Sada, Tsutomu Yamazaki & Takashi Shimura
Home Vision letterbox b&w DVD [10/98] for $35.99 Home Vision widescreen b&w VHS [6/2000] for $28.45 full credits from IMDb |
"Do-desu-ka-den" aka "Clickety-Clack "
[Toho Japan Oct 1970; U.S.A. June 1971]
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Co-writer/director Akira Kurosawa first color film, with a rich pallette. The tale is simple but involving, and was perhaps the inspiration for Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing". Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on stories by Shugoro Yamamoto; starring Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai & Junzaburo Ban; Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film
Home Vision color VHS [11/95] with English subtitles for $29.95 full credits from IMDb |
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"Dersu Uzala" [U.S.S.R. 1975]
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on the novel by Vladimir Arseniev; won Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (a film of Russia) full credits from IMDb |
"Dreams" aka "Yume"
[Toho Japan May 1990, U.S.A. August 1990]
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Eight beautiful segments based on dreams of Kurosawa; short films are "Sunshine Through The Rain"; "The Peach Orchard"; "The Blizzard"; "The Tunnel"; "Crows", starring Martin Scrosese as Vincent van Gogh; "Mount Fuji In Red"; "The Weeping Demon"; and "Village of The Watermills"
Co-written & co-directed by Akira Kurosawa & Ishirô Honda
Warner subtitled, semi-widescreen color DVD [3/2003] for $14.99 Warner subtitled color VHS [3/91] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb 11"x17" poster from Amazon for $9.99 |
"Madadayo" [1993]
full credits from IMDb
Kurosawa's Historical-Era Films
"Sanshiro Sugata" aka "Judo Saga I"
[Toho Japan March 1943, U.S.A. April 1974]
Written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on a novel by Tsuneo Tomita
full credits from IMDb
"Zoku Sanshiro Sugata" aka "Judo Saga II"
[Toho Japan May 1945]
Written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on a novel by Tsuneo Tomita
full credits from IMDb
"Rashômon"
[Japan Aug 1950; US release Dec 1951]
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What is truth? After a killing in the woods, police interrogate four people and obtain four conflicting versions of the events. Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura & Minoru Chiaki; won Honorary Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film (1952)
Home Vision b&w VHS [5/94] for $29.95 Home Vision b&w DVD [3/2002] for $29.96 full credits from IMDb |
"Seven Samurai" aka 'Shichinin no samurai'
[Japan April 1954; US release Nov 1956]
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Poor farmers hire a samurai to defend their village from bandits. He brings along six others, who defend the village against 40 attackers in a climactic, epic battle.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Katô, Seiji Miyaguchi & Isao Kimura
Criterion remastered b&w DVD [9/2006] 3 disks for $42.99 Home Vision b&w DVD [3/99] for $31.99 Home Vision b&w VHS [7/93] 2 tapes / out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb remade as a Western: "The Magnificent Seven" [1960] movie & sequels on VHS & DVD • full credits from IMDb |
"Sanshiro Sugata" [1955]
Directed by Shigeo Tanaka; remake of 1943 version, script by Akira Kurosawa from a novel by Tsuneo Tomita
full credits from IMDb
"Throne of Blood"
aka 'Kumonosu jo' and "Spider's Web Castle"
[Toho Japan Jan 1957; US release Nov 1961]
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Based on Wm. Shakespeare's Macbeth. After a great military victory, two noble warriors are promoted by the emperor. Washizu's wife plots with him to take over the throne.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki & Takashi Shimura
Home Vision b&w DVD [5/2003] for $29.66 Home Vision b&w VHS [2/99] for $29.95 full credits from IMDb Japanese color 11"x17" poster from Amazon for $9.99 |
"The Lower Depths" aka 'Donzoko'
[Japan Sept 1957; US release Feb 1962]
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A den of beggars and thieves in ancient Japan includes two sisters in love with a thieving yakuza. Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa, based on Maxim Gorky's stageplay; starring Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Kamatari Fujiwara & Kyôko Kagawa Home Vision b&w VHS [4/98] for $29.95 full credits from IMDb |
"Hidden Fortress"
aka 'Kakushi toride no san akunin'
[Japan Dec 1958; US release Jan 1962]
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Well-known to be one of the inspirations for the 'Star Wars Saga'. Gen. Makabe escorts a princess and a cache of gold thru enemy territory, assisted by two silly peasants. Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Misa Uehara, Susumu Fujita, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara & Takashi Shimura
Home Vision widescreen b&w VHS [2/99] for $29.95 Home Vision widescreen b&w DVD [5/2001] for $25.49 full credits from IMDb |
"Saga of the Vagabonds"
aka 'Sengoku-gunto-den' [Japan 1959; US release Oct 1964]
Directed by Toshio Sugie; co-written by Akira Kurosawa;
starring Koji Tsuruta, Toshirô Mifune, Misa Uehara & Takashi Shimura
video not available;
full credits from IMDb
"Yojimbo" ('The Bodyguard')
[Japan April 1961; US release Oct 1962]
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Based on Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest"; A wandering samurai plays off two gangs against each other. Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tono, Seizaburô Kawazu, Kyu Sazanka, Kamatari Fujiwara, Takashi Shimura & Tatsuya Nakadai; listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (10/2005)
Home Vision widescreem b&w VHS [9/94] for $29.95 Home Vision widescreem b&w DVD [9/99] for $25.49 full credits from IMDb remade as a Western: "A Fistful of Dollars" [1964] movie & sequels on VHS & DVD • full credits from IMDb remade as "Last Man Standing" [1996] on VHS & DVD • full credits from IMDb |
"Sanjuro" aka 'Tsubaki Sanjûrô'
[Japan Jan 1962; US release May 1963]
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A sequel to "Yojimbo"; a group of determined, idealistic young men enlist a scruffy, cynical samurai to clean up their town. Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto; starring Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Takashi Shimura & Kamatari Fujiwara
Home Vision widescreen b&w VHS [3/95] for $29.95 Home Vision letterbox b&w DVD [9/99] for $26.96 full credits from IMDb |
"Akahige" aka 'Red Beard'
[Japan April 1965; US release Dec 1968]
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An earnest exploration of duty, honor and compassion.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; based on the novel 'Akahige Shinryodan' by Sugoro Yamamoto; starring Toshirô Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Kyôko Kagawa, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Terumi Niki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Yoshitaka Zushi & Takashi Shimura
Home Vision widescreen b&w DVD [7/2002] for $35.99 Home Vision widescreen b&w VHS [2/99] for $29.95 full credits from IMDb |
"Kagemusha" [Japan 1980]
Directed by Akira Kurosawa; Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film,
won 2 of 4 BAFTA noms, won Reader's Choice & 5 other Mainichi Film Concours Awards
full credits from IMDb
"Ran" ('Chaos') [Japan 1985]
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Based on Wm. Shakespeare's King Lear. An aging warlord decides to split his kingdom between his three sons, who will live in three separate castles.
Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada & Yoshiko Miyazaki; nominated for Best Director, Best Cinematography & Best Art Direction Oscars, won Oscar for Best Costumes; won BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film
Criterion color DVD w/subtitles [11/2005] 2 discs for $29.99 Fox Lorber color DVD w/subtitles [4/2003] for $21.99 Fox Lorber color DVD w/subtitles [8/98] for $21.99 Fox Lorber letterbox VHS w/subtitles [3/98] out of stock/used full credits at IMDb "Ran" art book [1986] by Akira Kurosawa |
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