Rubbish film, okat transfer on DVD

Rating: 10/10 (13 November 2003)

Some people should really stop knitpicking. Get a life, really. All this moping about the destruction and disregard for Kurosawa's unfailing and precise "vision" (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean).

The man's ouevre isn't that wonderful.... there's nothing too terribly Japanese about the films (except for the uneasy superimposition the traditional lore, pomp and pageantry). Also: no American director would get away with filming only battles and their contexts. It's no surprise that vacuous 'thrill' artists like John Sturges and George Lucas used K's films as 'inspiration' for their empty Hollywood confections. There' just nothing else there. Would it surprise you to know that his films were despised and UNPOPULAR in JAPAN (!!). Patently overrated. That's how Kurosawa's unfathomable influence started, with a bunch of pseudo-art conscious Americans in the fifties confusing 'exoticism' with blatant and planned pandering to American tastes.
Watch Ozu's "Tokyo Story" out on Criterion (at least we won't have too much moaning about THAT transfer, he?). Stop wasting your money on Kurosawa's one-note junk.