"The enemy is everywhere. Inside and out."

Rating: 8/10 (7 April 2017)

I find myself in the same quandary with Akira Kurosawa's movies as I do with Hitchcock. I find some of them great and others just so-so, even if they're heralded by the professional critics. Having just watched Yimou Zhang's "Curse of the Golden Flower", I was pretty well conditioned for another film about Orientals in a dysfunctional family attempting to take each other out. The disconnect I have here is why all of a sudden the three brothers would have turned on each other without their father, Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai), having an inkling that they were so mercenary and self serving. I'm also put off by the histrionics and aping aspect of some of the principals. As an example, the facial contortions of Hidetora reminded me of John Belushi doing his eye squints as the Samurai character on 'Saturday Night Live'. Somehow it takes away from the seriousness of the character, as when Hidetora jumps off the cliff and winds up none the worse for wear in the valley below.
Maybe it's just the frame of mind I was in when I watched this film. I didn't have a total appreciation of "The Seven Samurai" until a second viewing, so that might be the case here as well. But with so many movies and so little time, it will probably be a while before I get back to this one.