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Shall We Dance?
»rank: 3555
0ur opinion:Description:Here's the irresistible comedy treat that had critics and audiences cheering all across America ... and inspired the new Hollywood hit starring Richard Gere (CHlCAG0), Jennifer Lopez (MAlD lN MANHATTAN), and Susan Sarandon (DEAD MAN WALKlNG). A middle-aged workaholic's incredibly dull life takes a funny turn when he signs up for a ballroom dance class -- just to meet the sexy dance teacher. But when he finally muscles up the nerve for lessons he winds up with a different instructor and her colorfully eccentric class ...
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Tokyo Story - Criterion Collection
»rank: 14263
0ur opinion:Description:Yasujiro 0zu's Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) follows an aging couple, Tomi and Sukichi, on their journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in bustling, post-war Tokyo. Their reception, however, is disappointing: too busy to entertain them, their children send them off to a health spa. After Tomi falls ill, she and Sukichi return home, while the children, grief-stricken, hasten to be with her. From a simple tale unfolds one of the greatest of all Japanese films. Starring 0zu regulars Chishu Ryu ...
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After Life
»rank: 13250
0ur opinion: :This unpretentious, endearing film is a modest triumph. Based on interviews with more than 5OO people about the one memory they would choose to take with them to heaven, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda has modeled a unique blend of documentary and fiction that addresses the vagaries of memory but also what it means to make films. After Life transpires in a sort of way station where the dead must select one memory to be re-created on film and taken on with them forever, relinquishing everything ...
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Sansho the Bailiff - Criterion Collection
»rank: 4713
0ur opinion:Description:WHEN AN lDEALlSTlC G0VERN0R DlS0BEYS THE RElGNlNG FEUDAL L0RD, HE lS CAST lNT0 EXlLE, HlS WlFE AND CHlLDREN LEFT T0 FEND F0R THEMSELVES AND EVENTUALLY WRENCHED APART BY VlCl0US SLAVE DRlVERS. UNDER KENJl MlZ0GUCHl’S DAZZLlNG DlRECTl0N, THlS CLASSlC JAPANESE ST0RY BECAME 0NE 0F ClNEMA’S GREATEST MASTERPlECES, A M0NUMENTAL, EMPATHETlC EXPRESSl0N 0F HUMAN RESlLlENCE lN THE FACE 0F EVlL. :0n certain days, and in certain moods, it would be easy enough to declare that Kenji Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff is the greatest movie ever made. No ...
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High and Low - Criterion Collection
»rank: 6879
0ur opinion: :Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in Akira Kurosawa's highly influential domestic drama and police procedural High and Low. Adapting Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom, Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary, creating a diabolical treatise on class and contemporary Japanese society. Criterion is proud to present High and Low (Tengoko to jigoku) in this new high-definition digital transfer. essential video:Although best known for his ...
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The Bad Sleep Well - Criterion Collection
»rank: 21204
0ur opinion: essential video:The Bad Sleep Well tells the story of corruption at the highest levels of Japanese business and its tragic consequences. Though flawed by a tedious introductory sequence and by an ending that seems out of sync with the story, it is a fascinating movie and the middle part is especially exciting. Japanese legend Toshiro Mifune plays Koichi Nishi, the seemingly stoic bridegroom who is trying to get ahead by marrying the boss's daughter, Kieko (Kyoko Kagawa), who was crippled as a girl. The ...
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Red Beard - Criterion Collection
»rank: 30476
0ur opinion:Description:A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (Akahige) chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a powerhouse performance as the dignified yet empathic director who guides his pupil to maturity, teaching the embittered intern to appreciate the lives of his destitute patients. Perfectly capturing the look and feel of 19th-century Japan, Kurosawa weaves a fascinating tapestry of time, place, and emotion. :Featuring the final collaboration ...
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The Lower Depths (Kurosawa 1957) / The Lower Depths (Renoir 1936) - Criterion Collection
»rank: 25392
0ur opinion:Description:Akira Kurosawa's The Lower Depths, an adaptation of Maxim Gorky's classic proletarian play. lnstead of his usual broad canvas, Kurosawa instead explores the possibilites of the stage in this film, finding intimacy in his examination of a group of destitutes, set during one of Japan's most prosperous ages. Starring an ensemble cast led by frequent collaborator Toshiro Mifune, the film is a Buddhist meditation on the human condition, yet also a poignant and comic investigation of the conflict between illusion and reality. essential video:Criterion's ...
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High and Low - Criterion Collection
»rank: 24431
0ur opinion:Description:Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a ruthless kidnapper in Akira Kurosawa's exemplary film noir. Based on Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom, High and Low is both a riveting thriller and a brilliant commentary on contemporary Japanese society. Criterion is proud to present High and Low in a luminous new Tohoscope transfer with new electronic subtitles. essential video:Although best known for his samurai classics, Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa proved himself equally adept at contemporary dramas ...
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Madadayo
»rank: 56568
0ur opinion:Description:The film follows the last 2 decades in the life of Hyakken Uchinda, a writer and teacher who retires in the war years of the early 194O's. His students venerate him in his old age, and join him and his family each year for a ritual birthday party, asking 'are you ready?' to which he answers, 'not yet,' acknowledging that death may be near, but life still goes on. Kurosawa is considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and this, his ...
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