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THE TOP 5 AKIRA KUROSAWA FILMS:
view full results see how points are awarded
| Rank |
Film |
Points |
L |
#1 |
| #1 |
Seven Samurai (1954) |
84 |
22 |
8 |
| #2 |
Ran (1985) |
49 |
15 |
4 |
| #3 |
Ikiru (1952) |
46 |
15 |
4 |
| #4 |
Rashomon (1950) |
42 |
16 |
2 |
| #5 |
Throne of Blood (1957) |
40 |
12 |
3 |
L=How many lists each film appears on
#1=How many number one votes each film recieves
As should come as no great surprise to anyone who has looked at other "best of" film lists, Seven Samurai - clearly Kurosawa's most favoured work - came in first place by a rather whopping margain, with 84 points (and being listed on 22 out of 26 ballots). Second place though was a surprise (at least I thought so), with Ran just edging out Ikiru, 49 to 46. Rashomon - the film thought by the more standard canon to be the big wig along with Samurai (and my guess at which film would end up in second) - ended up in fourth with 42 points and Throne of Blood (the best retooling of Macbeth I have ever seen) - came in fifth with 40 points. Overall, just have of Kurosawa's thirty films were voted for, with Yojimbo and High and Low (my personal favourite) coming in sixth and seventh.
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Individual lists:
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Michael Wilmington
Film Critic, Chicago Tribune
Professor & Film Scholar, University of Chicago
Seven Samurai (1954)
Yojimbo (1961)
Ran (1985)
Rashomon (1950)
(tie) Ikiru (1952) and Dersu Uzala (1975)
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David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics
Throne of Blood (1957)
Ikiru (1952)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ran (1985)
Rashomon (1950)
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David Ehrenstein
Film Critic &
Entertainment Writer
Author, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998
Ikiru (1952)
Ran (1985)
Three Bad Men in a Hidden Fortress (1958)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
Madadayo (1993)
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Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic & Freelance Entertainment Writer
Las Vegas Weekly, Oakland Tribune
Okay, make it a Top 7 this week:
Throne of Blood (1957)
High and Low (1963)
Ikiru (1952)
Rashomon (1950)
Madadayo (1993)
Ran (1985)
Stray Dog (1949)
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Christopher Null
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com
Seven Samurai (1954)
Rashomon (1950)
Ran (1985)
Stray Dog (1949)
The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
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Rick Curnutte
Film Critic
& Editor,
The Film Journal
High and Low (1963)
Rashomon (1950)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Stray Dog (1949)
Yojimbo (1961)
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J.E. Snavely
Law Enforcement Cinephile
Ikiru (1952)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Rashomon (1950)
High and Low (1963)
Akahige (Red Beard) (1965)
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Peter Sobczynski
Film Critic, eFilmCritic.com
Ran (1985)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Yojimbo (1961)
The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
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Film Prophet
Film Critic, FilmProphet.com
Ran (1985)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ikiru (1952)
Yojimbo (1961)
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Michael Parent
Film Student
Being 23 years old, I had to discover some directors and some old
movies by myself. When I first looked at Seven Samurai 2 years ago, It was like
rediscovering cinema. Since that day, I put Kurosawa in my Top 5 of
directors of all times. Even if I haven’t seen Ran (1985), High and Low (1963), The Lower Depths (1957) or The Bad Sleep Well (1960) I think I can call myself a Kurosawa enthusiast.
Kagemusha (1980) - Everything in this movie is perfect, the photography, the actors and the direction (for sure!). My personal favourite of all Kurosawa’s that I’ve seen.
Red Beard (1965) - A very touching story and the best performance by the duo Mifune & Kurosawa altogether.
Seven Samurai (1954) - The Epic movie that now stands as a standard for a lot of genre (Westerns, Adventures, Epic, Samurai etc…). The most popular of all Kurosawa’s. I’m pretty sure this one will be the first place for this week so that’s why I didn’t put it in first spot.
Ikiru (1952) - If Rashomon is the Masterpiece this one is the second best by Kurosawa. Personally I think it’s one of his best artistically.
Rashomon (1950) - The Masterpiece. It put K. on the map internationally and as I know it influenced a lot of the most inspired directors of today; off the top of my head there is Robert Altman.
Some movies like Sanjuro (1962) or Yojimbo (1961) that have inspired Leone’s westerns and The Hidden Fortress (1958) that inspired some elements on the writing of the Star Wars saga deserve their spot too. Kurosawa’s vision had an impressive impact on today’s Cinema.
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Adam Trovillion
Film Enthusiast
Ran (1985)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Kagemusha (1980)
Rashomon (1950)
Ikiru (1952)
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Jeff Cardarelli
Film Enthusiast
Rashomon (1950)
Throne of Blood (1957)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
Ran (1985)
Ikiru (1952)
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Lewis Tice
National Press Liaison, TLA Releasing
Ran (1985) - A retelling of King Lear, I was lucky enough to see a restored print in 2000. The sound, the image was pristine. A film like this really reminds us how important repertory cinemas because this is the type of film you see in an old fashioned movie palace with an audience.
Kagemusha (1980) - I got to see this at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco and was blown away the imagery and glorious production. One of the few times I felt like I had disappeared into the world of a movie and forgot about the world outside.
Yojimbo (1961) - I know as a kid, I wanted to be Toshiro Mifune after watching the film because his presence is so strong here but revisiting the film as an adult, I realized I was really moved by his character’s loyalty to himself, and how crafty he was. I know most folks say this film is a Western but with its action, drama, some comedy and a strong musical score by Masaru Sato, YOJIMBO is a complete Kurosawa experience.
Rashomon (1950) - Kurosawa really shows a strength in visual storytelling along with coaching strong performances from his cast. The film provides a little nostalgia for me because we performed the play in high school. I got to play the woodcutter and wore a really cool kimono.
Dreams (1990) - A tone poem dealing with all aspects of life, encouraging the viewer to see beyond what may appear on the surface of things.
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Kevin Cassidy
Film Enthusiast
High and Low (1963)
Ran (1985)
Seven Samura (1954)
Stray Dog (1949)
Throne of Blood (1957)
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Dan Jardine
Film Critic, Cinemania
Ikiru (1952)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Red Beard (1965)
Ran (1985)
High and Low (1963)
Throne of Blood (1957) - (sorry, no Kurosawa list is complete without mentioning it)
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Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic
Seven Samurai (1954) - One of the many things I love about Seven Samurai is how skillfully Kurosawa establishes the spatial relations among the various areas of the village. Understanding the layout of the village is important, especially when the bandits begin attacking from every direction, and like a master topographer, Kurosawa clearly and meticulously delineates the geography of the village, ensuring there’s never confusion as to where an event is occurring at any given moment. After watching this movie, you could easily make your way around the village without the assistance of Shimura’s map! But I suppose this is just another quality element of the film’s overall excellence. And it is one of the greatest movies ever made, an ambitiously conceived, flawlessly executed epic with rich characterizations, peerless action sequences, and a memorable story, told with impeccable rhythm, amazing clarity, and a potent visual style.
Ikiru (1952) - Watanabe’s soul-crushing beaurocratic job has already left him emotionally dead long before he learns about his terminal cancer. But then a strange thing happens: in the face of death, he rediscovers life by finally finding a purpose. His desire to convert the cesspool into a playground, to accomplish something (literally) constructive for the first time in his life, animates him, revives “the mummy,” and gives meaning to his otherwise meaningless existence. Also, in circumventing the same kind of beaurocratic red tape he used to enforce, he “sticks it” to the very system responsible for sapping the life out of him for thirty years! There’s a poignant redemptive quality about Watanabe’s final hours. The image of him swinging in the park, alone and dying, singing a sad song about life’s brevity, is incredibly moving – at once profoundly elegiac and oddly comforting.
Yojimbo (1961) - The Western genre may have influenced Kurosawa, but there was never a town like the one in Yojimbo, or a hero like Sanjuro, on the old Hollywood studio back lots. Carving up Western movie clichés like so many of his hapless opponents, Sanjuro is no clear-cut “good” guy who arrives in town to clean up the bad element and restore order. Yojimbo was radical precisely because it completely dispensed with the simplistic moralizing of the traditional Hollywood Western and replaced it with an altogether more nihilistic vision. Where no goodness exists, the only option open for any self-respecting anti-hero is to play both sides against the middle, and eliminate everyone! Kurosawa/Sanjuro takes the old western saying, “this town ain’t big enough for the two of us” and replaces it with “this town ain’t big enough for either of you.” Three years later, Sergio Leone remade Yojimbo as A Fistful of Dollars, which pretty much spelled the end of the traditional Hollywood western.
Sanjuro (1962) - Whereas Yojimbo was a rule-breaking original whose (anti) hero couldn’t choose the “good” side because both were bad, Sanjuro is a far more conventional genre piece whose hero clearly sides with the good. But it’s the funniest, most playful film in Kurosawa’s oeuvre, and makes a delightfully lightweight companion piece to the dark nihilism of Yojimbo. Yet it’s precisely the lightweight tone that makes Mifune’s dispatching of the main villain one of the all-time great shock killings. That geyser of blood is so unexpected! Even Sanjuro is visibly shaken by it. And when he turns to his followers and urges them to keep their swords in their sheaths, we understand why he’s so upset: in the blink of an eye (or the thrust of a sword), Kurosawa has turned the yawning, lazy Sanjuro into a tragic figure, a man whose violent nature leaves him no place in civilized society.
High and Low (1963) - The most unconventional part of High and Low is its narrative structure, which is as sharply divided as the hierarchal class structure alluded to in the title. In the first part, wealthy Mifune grapples with a moral dilemma in his luxurious hilltop mansion, while the second part’s police procedural occurs mostly in and around the alleys, bars, and junkie hangouts of the “lower depths.” The result is a unique, fascinating combination of social commentary and exciting thriller.
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Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com
Yojimbo (1961)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Dreams (1990)
Ikiru (1952)
Stray Dog (1949)
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Jesse Richards
Filmmaker
Ikuru (1952)
Yojimbo (1961)
Rashomon (1950)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
High and Low (1963)
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Jay Antani
Film Critic
Throne of Blood (1957) - A thrilling hybrid of Shakespearean paranoia and Japanese Noh theatrics. Gorgeous cinematography and a dream-like atmoshere match up with so many fantastic set pieces that it makes you giddy thinking about it. K's set-pieces -- ranging from encounters with spooky forest-dwelling ghosts, to the creepy interplay between Mifune's Macbeth and his conniving Lady Macbeth, on to the unforgettable death-by-arrows finale -- make this one of cinema's greatest adventure-thrillers.
Stray Dog (1949) - K brilliantly takes on Sam Fuller territory and gives us a fascinating glimpse of post-War Tokyo life and culture in the bargain. With this one, Mifune became one of my favorite actors of the century.
Seven Samurai (1954) - Many would place this as their #1, but it's a touch slow and its gun-for-hire narrative a tad predictable for me. Still, K's genius with samurai action, his flair for atmosphere and for the action set-piece itself, together with Mifune's riveting presence elevate "Samurai" into grander, sublime territory.
The Hidden Fortress (1958) - Not only is it a fun adventure story, but it has this enduring love of the natural world, and it's got Mifune in it. Great action and a nice comic touch make this is a good movie for introducing Kurosawa to kids.
Yojimbo (1961) - Mifune comes into town and kicks ass, backed by a terrific, jazzy score (if I remember correctly -- am I right on this, KK?) and some hilariously drunken shenanigans. Sign me up!
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Graeme Donnelly
Film Enthusiast
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ran (1985)
Ikiru (1952)
Rashômon (1950)
Kagemusha (1980)
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Jeff Vorndam
Film Enthusiast
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ran (1985)
Yojimbo (1961)
Sanjuro (1962)
High and Low (1963)
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Jason Mlinarsik
Film Enthusiast
Seven Samurai (1954)
High and Low (1963)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Ran (1985)
Rashomon (1950)
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Lucas McNelly
Film Enthusiast
Seven Samurai (1954)
Yojimbo (1961)
Rashomon (1950)
Ran (1985)
Sanjuro (1962)
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Jesse Walker
Film Enthusiast and Managing Editor, Reason Magazine
Rashomon (1950) - One of the most humane movies ever made.
Stray Dog (1949) - Not just a chilling noir, but a meditation on how much responsibility the ordinary Japanese citizen bears for the crimes of the militarist government. It has relevance beyond Japan.
Ikiru (1952) - Like Capra crossed with Ozu.
Yojimbo (1961) - It was based on Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, it inspired Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, and, remarkably, it manages to be better than both.
Throne of Blood (1957) - Easily the best of the celluloid Macbeths.
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Ricardo Luis Alvarez
Film Enthusiast
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ikiru (1952)
High and Low (1963)
Yojimbo (1961)
Throne of Blood (1957)
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Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian
High and Low (1963)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Rashomon (1950)
Ran (1985)
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*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created
The Next Topic is:
Name The Top 5 Political Films
e-mail me at
kevynknox@thecinematheque.com
with your picks for week #27,
no later than 6pm on Sunday, November 19, 2006.
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