A while back, I posted my 5 Movies That Should Be Made Into An Anime which turned out to be a huge hit. Now, with Akira Kurosawa month all but over, I’m going back in for another edition of movies that should be made into an anime. And while Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai has already recieved the anime treatment, there are plenty of other Kurosawa films that could make for an excellent animated watch. So whether I’m flirting with success (or disaster), I give you 5 Kurosawa Films That Should Be Made Into An Anime. More »

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Wait, wasn’t it just Sunday? Well, it’s Sunday once more so it’s time for another installment of The Weekly Bento. This past week saw the nearing conclusion of Rekuru’s Akira Kurosawa Tribute Month, so if you haven’t been checking out the plethora of posts on the famed director’s work, do so now. In addition, there were plenty of other posts this past week such as the next installment in Jacob’s popular Japanese travel guide series, news of a new Inuyasha compilation album soon to be released, two Playstation 2 game reviews in celebration of the PS2’s 10 year anniversary, and even an interesting look at the growing trend of people sleeping in the streets of Japan. All fascinating stuff, check it out. More »

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Stereotypically, one might expect Japan’s greatest filmmaker to craft intricate, mysterious, emotionally opaque films with a subtly previously unknown to the West. And if you think that greatest filmmaker is Yasujiro Ozu, you’d be correct. But Kurosawa wears his heart on his sleeve, and his films, however stylistically intricate (and not being a film expert, I’m more or less blind to these subtleties) are political, emotionally raw, moralistic, at times even sentimental. In fact, Kurosawa was taken less seriously in his time by certain Japanese critics who found his sensibility “too Western.” Nowhere is this more evident than in my personal favorite, Ran (”Chaos”). More »

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So far, there are only a few high definition releases of Kurosawa works. There’s a 2007 French HD-DVD version of Ran and a Criterion Collection Blu-ray of Kagemusha. In February, this will all change with a slew of Kurosawa films being released, to hi-def Blu-ray, with more coming in March. More »

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Cinephiles rejoice! One of cinema’s greatest directors of all time is getting the Rekuru special treatment this month. More »

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