Sanshiro's Boys - Akira Kurosawa Retrospective

After discussing every Akira Kurosawa film in detail on the show, we conclude our retrospective with the herculean task of trying to rank all of his films. Listeners, you’re in luck, because you’re getting two lists for the price of one! We each have our share of basic and hot takes, and hope that you have enjoyed going through this Japanese master’s filmography as much as we have. If we were able to teach you something new, introduce you to a film you otherwise may not have seen, or even just give you a chuckle every once in a while, we want to thank you for listening to Sanshiro’s Boys.

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/sanshirosboys 

Be sure to leave a comment and let us know how you’d rank Akira Kurosawa’s films! If you want to keep up with what we’re watching now that this project is over you can email us at [email protected] or find us on social media

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Akira Kurosawa’s final film Madadayo (Not Yet) recounts the stories of famed Japanese writer Hyakken Uchida and functions as a meta-commentary of the director’s historic career. Sanshiro’s Boys celebrate the 1993 film’s immaculate vibes, Kurosawa’s unproduced next film The Ocean Was Watching, and sadly, his death. 

Be sure to check in with us for our wrap up episode next week where we rank all of Akira Kurosawa’s films!

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/sanshirosboys

This is the one Richard Gere is in! Yes, that Richard Gere. In 1991, Akira Kurosawa returned one last time to a subject matter that has cropped up several times throughout his filmography: nuclear anxiety. Rhapsody In August, a small, intimate family drama, re-examines the scars of a nation still grieving over the atomic bombing of Nagasaki as their world becomes more interconnected to the West. We won’t lie, this is a difficult film to find, but we did manage to get our hands on a copy of it. Listen to Sanshiro’s Boys to figure out if you should too!

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/sanshirosboys

Despite starting his historic career in the 1940s, Akira Kurosawa was still making movies into the early 90s. He rang in the decade with a unique picture: Dreams, which consists of eight vignettes based on Kurosawa’s actual dreams. It also has one of the most unpredictable cameos of all time. Without much overarching plot to go on, Sanshiro’s Boys delve into the director’s psyche and try to discern if one man’s dream is another man’s nightmare.

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Last week we said goodbye to the OG Kurosawa king, Takashi Shimura. This week, we say goodbye to Tatsuya Nakadai, and boy did he go out with a bang. Nakadai headlines Akira Kurosawa’s third, final, and largest Shakespeare adaptation: Ran. This Japanese version of King Lear was created with a historic budget, vibrant colors, and produced some of the director’s most iconic and incredible imagery. Kurosawa’s final foray into epic filmmaking may be his best yet. 

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After the success of Star Wars, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola teamed up to executive produce Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior), Akira Kurosawa’s triumphant return to large-scale filmmaking that took home the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1980. Sengoku period Japan comes to life with a historic budget and massive, colorful armies to tell the story of the legendary Takeda clan’s downfall. With domestic and international distribution, this is the rare Kurosawa film with multiple versions, the differences between which we go into detail on. 

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/sanshirosboys 

Tim has a particular soft spot for this one and has a published article available on the Asian cinema website Filmed In Ether dissecting Kagemusha’s use of shadows and how they aptly reflect the film’s legacy 40 years later. Read it here: https://www.filmedinether.com/features/kagemusha-40-year-anniversary-kurosawa/

For our not at all subtly teased bonus episode, we’ve decided to shake up the formula and record a full length commentary to the original Star Wars. As much as possible, we discuss real-time comparisons and allusions to Kurosawa’s work in this film and throughout the franchise. If you’ve ever wanted to simulate watching a movie with Sanshiro’s Boys, feel free to pull up the cut of the film available on Disney+ by syncing the film with the timecode 00:04:30. 

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/sanshirosboys

After the darkest period of his life, Akira Kurosawa was able to go abroad and make a film in the Soviet Union. The end result was Dersu Uzala, an adaptation of the touching true story of “Capitan” Vladimir Arseniev and the titular Goldi hunter who mapped the Ussuri region of Siberia together. As his only film shot outside of Japan, his only film not in Japanese, and his only film shot on 70mm, Dersu Uzala certainly stands out amongst Kurosawa’s formidable filmography. It also earned him the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Listen to Sanshiro’s Boys discuss how well it fits in with the rest. 

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/sanshirosboys

Honestly, we have no clue what we’re even talking about this week. This movie is so weird and we can’t believe it even exists. Song of the Horse is Akira Kursoawa’s sole venture into the television world for a… documentary? Sort of… Dubbed a “visual poem” and the director’s “lost masterpiece” by the DVD box, it is truly unlike anything Sanshiro’s Boys have covered before. Special thanks to akirakurosawa.info for providing basically all of the information we could find about this. You can read more about the film here: https://akirakurosawa.info/song-of-the-horse/ 

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/sanshirosboys

Last week we said goodbye to Toshiro Mifune, but this week we’re saying hello to color! Dodes’ka-den, which translates to “clickity-clack,” launched the last act of Akira Kurosawa’s career, yet isn’t talked about much. After watching it, we can certainly confirm that it is, indeed, difficult to talk about. Tune in to Sanshiro’s Boys and hear us try to make sense of it!

Listen here: https://linktr.ee/sanshirosboys