Sanshiro's Boys - Akira Kurosawa Retrospective

After his noble effort to adapt one of the pillars of Russian literature to the big screen, Kurosawa set his sights on something easier: the meaning of life itself. Ikiru (To Live) is one of the most beloved Japanese films in history; a moving story of an aging bureaucrat finding purpose in his last days on Earth. Sanshiro’s Boys delve deep into the symbolism and unusual story structure of this Akira Kurosawa 1952 classic. 

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For his follow up to Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa chose to adapt his favorite novel, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. The studio tore this film to shreds for its 1951 release and Sanshiro’s Boys are here to try and piece it back together. Chris has read the whole novel and delivers an in-depth book report. How well does this Russian classic translate to Japanese society?

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Welcome to what is probably your first episode of our podcast! We’re happy to have you. This is the big one. Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon is one of the most important and often studied films in history, and with good reason. There’s a lot to talk about in this complicated tale of murder and morality.

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Akira Kurosawa’s Scandal is many things: a courtroom drama, an indictment of fake news, a Christmas movie, but is it good?

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Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog helped create a whole new genre: the buddy cop film. It’s the sweatiest film of 1949. And of all time.

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The Quiet Duel from 1949 is another weird Akira Kurosawa film. It isn’t included in the Criterion Collection with all of his other movies from the time. This week we trade out tuberculosis for syphilis in a small-scale character drama helmed by a subdued Toshiro Mifune performance. Is this a little known film worth digging up? Or should we just have kept quiet about it?

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This is another movie you can watch on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gMQ2gKtS0A&ab_channel=JAHPiRaT

Ladies and gentlemen… Toshiro Mifune has arrived.

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1947’s One Wonderful Sunday marks the end of Akira Kurosawa’s pre-Mifune era. This movie shakes things up for the occasion, giving us a more neorealist tale of a poor couple trying to have a fun day in the city. You’d be surprised how easily you could make the same movie today - rent jokes have been around for years!

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Sanshiro Sugata himself recast as a hot himbo leftist? Famed Ozu actress Setsuko Hara? An artist finally free to express himself in his medium? 1946’s No Regrets For Our Youth is all of these things and more. The boys have plenty of regrets for their youths, but watching this hidden gem in Akira Kurosawa’s filmography isn’t one of them!

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You’d be amazed how hard it is to review a movie that may not even exist, but we’re gonna try! Those Who Make Tomorrow is Akira Kurosawa’s “lost” movie made with Kajiro Yamamoto and Hideo Sekigawa during his brief… Communist phase? While there may not be any story to talk about on screen, there certainly is a lot to talk about behind it.

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