RASHOMON (1950)

Opening in a fierce rainstorm we find two men (a woodcutter and a priest) taking shelter in the dilapidated ruins of a old city gate.  A third man (a commoner) runs in from the rain and sees that both men look very troubled and deep in thought.  They tell him of a rape and murder that happened a few days ago.  This is where RASHOMON makes movie history, because instead of just telling a straightforward story it tells the same story from multiple viewpoints.

The woodcutter and the priest tell the commoner about how earlier in court (yes, these stories themselves are told secondhand) the bandit, the wife, the police agent and the victim (who's story is told via a medium!) all told their versions of the story and we, the viewer, see them played out.  Added to this the priest and the woodcutter also saw some of what happened in person and they tell the commoner.  So in all we get six different people telling the story (or a portion of the story) and for all we know they could all be incorrect!

Added to this novel approach at storytelling we get some masterful cinematography by Kazuo (UGETSU, FLOATING WEEDS) Miyagawa, great acting by an impressive cast (I was especially blown away by Machiko Kyo who I thought was fantastic!), haunting music by Fumio (UGETSU, SEVEN SAMURAI) Hayasaka, great editing (by Kurosawa himself), a legendary script by Shinobu (SEVEN SAMURAI, HARAKIRI) Hashimoto and Akira Kurosawa and the best direction by Kurosawa up to this point in his career.

I doubt that younger audiences will care for it, but anybody interested in Cinema history, especially Japanese Cinema history should check it out.  Highly recommended.

SANJURO (1962)

The movie gods were pretty good to us back in 1962. Not only did they give us THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? they also gave us SANJURO. The lighter and more action packed sister film to the previous years YOJIMBO. Once again the story starts with a nameless drifter samurai innocently wandering to ongoing feud. And once again the main bad guy is played by the brilliant Tatsuya Nakadai!

The film opens with nine inexperienced samurai secretly talking about corruption in the leadership of their clan. They think it's one dude, but then Toshiro who was trying to sleep in the other room enters. He overheard their conversation and suggests that it's actually another person who is the corrupt official. They get all pissed over over this accusation, then suddenly the building is surrounded by men wanting to kill them. They hide as Toshiro goes outside and faces the massive group alone. After an awesome fight, the leader of the group (Nakadai) calls off his men and invites Toshiro to join them. This proves that he was correct. The samurai are extremely grateful to him and he agrees to help them solve their problem. Lots of sword fighting and asskicking follows.

I don't even know what else to say, SANJURO like YOJIMBO is a awesome movie and a lot of fun to watch. Once again Mifune and Nakadai lead the pact, but the entire cast is great. The story is straightforward, the direction is excellent and the look of the entire film is perfect. And that final boss fight...holy shit!!!! If I'd seen that scene in the theater back in 1962 I would have probably popped three boners, shit myself and passed out at all at the same time.

Highly recommended. Double feature it with YOJIMBO.