Kwaidan & The Seven Samurai

[Guest El Satanico]

I recently watched these two great examples of the Japanese cinema. I'm kinda surprised it took me this long to see any of the critically acclaimed classic Japanese movies. Also i'm sure this isn't anything new to alot of the people around here.

 

 

Kwaidan is basically just a collection of old ghost stories. However, they are handled in a mature fashion and the whole movie looks like moving art work. It also has excellent use of music and sound effects. This is one of those movies where the music IS the atmosphere and it's some very eerie stuff. However the movie would seem slow and boring to those use to cheap scares and instant gratification action scenes. So unless you can enjoy "quiet horror"(i use the very loose meaning of horror here) you may want to keep away.

 

 

The Seven Samurai is about a small farming town that's having trouble with bandits so the town hires Seven Samurai for protection. It has great direction and cinematography with good performances from the actors espiecally the wannabe Samurai guy(Toshirô Mifune). It also features an excellent final battle. However like with Kwaidan this may seem to be slow and boring to people that are use to instant gratification action movies. Also the uninformed will think it an unoriginal rip off since it originated much of the action movie formula that we have come to expect now.

[Zorin Industries 0]

The Seven Samurai should be seen be everybody at least once. I really can't praise it enough.

[Guest Incandenza]

The Seven Samurai should be seen be everybody at least once. I really can't praise it enough.

Neither can I. Toshiro Mifune is my Lord and Savior.

 

I haven't seen Kwaidan, though I should do something to rectify that.

[Guest El Satanico]

I fully agree. Some may argue that it's not the greatest movie ever, but it's definately up there amoung the greats.

[Guest ArkhamGlobe]

The Seven Samurai, ever since I first saw it has been one of my personal top five favorite movies. The delicate handling of the quieter moments contrasted with the epic sweep of the battle scenes, the beautiful cinematography, the well-written characters, all brought together by the masterful direction. It all just fell into place perfectly. A month ago at my beloved local film festival I had the chance to see it in a restored copy on a big screen, and, along with when I got to see Dr Strangelove on a big screen the year before at said film festival, that is pretty much THE greatest experience I've ever had inside a movie theater. So, in conclusion, the Seven Samurai rules and everybody should see it.

[Guest razazteca]

was Seven Samurai directed by Kurasawa? And I love the remakes especially the 70s Western ones.

[Guest El Satanico]

Yes, it was directed by Kurasawa.