Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I was really eager to check it out again. To be honest, I didn’t remember that this movie was so long (it would be in fact Akira Kurosawa’s longest directing effort) but it didn’t matter since the damned thing was so entertaining. Thanks to the long running time, we had indeed the opportunity to understand what was going on with this village, what was their struggle and how they would try to find a solution. In the following acts, they really took their time to show the strategy developed by the samurais instead of giving us some non-sensical action scenes like you usually get in a Michael Bay movie for example. Eventually, it is one of these rare movies which, even though it is more than 60 years old, still feels so modern and it was basically a major milestone in motion picture history as it is usually considered as the first action movie ever made. At the end of the day, even though it might not be my favorite movie directed by Kurosawa, I still really enjoyed the damned thing and it is much better than its remake which was still a worthy movie though. Anyway, to conclude, it is a major classic and it is pretty much a must-see for any decent movie buff. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I saw this flick and I should probably re-watch it at some point. First of all, when ‘The Hunger Games’ was released, many fans of this movie claimed that this new blockbuster starring Jennifer Lawrence was a huge rip-off of this cult-classic. Well, eventually, I did watch ‘The Hunger Games’ but, even though the 2 movies shared some elements, they were in fact vastly different in my opinion. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, of course, the plot was rather preposterous but there was definitely something quite spellbinding about the damned thing. One of the masterstroke was to have Takeshi Kitano playing the teacher and the guy was as usual pretty awesome. To be honest, I have to admit that the whole thing was slightly too over the top for my taste and I think it would have worked better if I would have been more straightforward. Anyway, they did make a sequel a few years later, I never saw it but since the ratings were really weak, I don’t think I did miss much. To conclude, it is now considered as a cult classic, it really deserves this status and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, this flick is one of Akira Kurosawa’s most famous movies and probably his last masterpiece. In fact, the guy apparently spent decades prepping for this movie and I think it definitely shows on the screen. Indeed, he began writing the film 10 years before its release and he spent also ten years storyboarding every shot in the film as some paintings. This preparation went so far that ‘Kagemusha’, his previous directing effort, was actually some kind of 'practice' for the great Japanese master before creating this piece of Art. Still, I don’t think it is really one of his most accessible movies though. Indeed, even though it is definitely a gorgeous flick, I have to admit that it is also rather long and pretty slow. In fact, it is even a rather basic story about a ruthless Lord who has to deal with his legacy which ends up being pretty tricky since he has 3 sons. Still, if you are patient enough, it is a really rewarding experience with some beautiful scenes and some really strong performances. Anyway, to conclude, it is pretty much a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Kurosawa’s work.