Movie #28: Released in 1954, directed by Akira Kurosawa, 207 minutes. Seen it before.

LetterBoxd Score: 5 stars

I don’t find this super emotionally compelling compared to the rest of the classics of Japanese cinema. But it’s obviously an innovative masterpiece. So that letterboxd score, for whatever it’s worth, is more like “I don’t love you, but I respect the hell out of you.”

The movie is like nothing else on the list so far, in terms of its scope. It’s a sort of epic procedural, working through a series of problems and solutions to those problems. “What are we going to do about the bandits?” “How do we hire samurai?” “How do we win the trust of the town?” “How do we defend a village?” “How do you execute a plan in a changing and dynamic setting?” It’s a big problem, and the movie is expansive in covering how it is solved.

Additionally, the movie is stuffed with fully developed characters. In some ways, it feels like a modern TV mini-series, in terms of the number of characters and sub-plots, and even in its episodic nature (the part recruiting samurai, the part planning defense, the first day attack, the last night, the climax). And also it’s length (7 half hour shows?).

A few other scattered observations:

• First major use of slow-mo I’ve seen in one of these
• Despite that, the violence is quite brutal; not filmed to be exciting. Every chop you fear for someone’s life.
• Once again, golden age Japanese cinema takes place in evil times.
• Manzo sucks

Why would someone think it’s one of the ten greatest movies ever made?

What if you made a giant epic, but you handled all the components fantastically?

Next: Rear Window