I watched Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story twice, and only during the second viewing did I understand who the characters were and how they were related to each other. Such is Ozu’s style, explains David Desser, editor of Ozu’s Tokyo Story, a collection of writings about the 1953 drama. He provides the audio commentary and describes [...]

“It’s human to lie. Most of the time we can’t even be honest with ourselves.”
So says a nameless commoner (Kichijiro Ueda). He has come upon a priest (Minoru Chiaki) and a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura) in a broken-down gatehouse identified by an overhead sign: Rashomon. It is Akira Kurosawa’s celebrated 1950 mystery, set in feudal Japan, [...]

Note: This review contains spoilers
Enough cannot be said about the man who brought the Japanese Cinema to the attention of the world with his philosophical, action-packed, darkly comic movies that were to inspire countless ones later (including Sholay, the most popular Indian movie ever). Yojimbo is one of the manifestations of Akira Kurosawa’s genius (but [...]

Director: Kihachi Okamoto
Many movies have been made in Japan on Samurai, (and swords) and with a name like “Sword of doom” – that is bound to make one discard it off as a silly video-gameisque Japanese movie all about fighting – one may be tempted to skip it. However do not be misled by [...]