Wednesday through Friday
Shoe company exec Toshiro Mifune is in the midst of a mortgage-everything takeover battle when the phone rings with a ransom demand for his son .
Adapted from Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novel King’s Ransom, this is the ultimate kidnap movie, with Kurosawa at the peak of his filmmaking powers: with the cops led by SteveMcQueen-cool Tatsuya Nakadai; the de rigeur money transfer aboard the Shinkansen (bullet train); and a jailhouse interview punctuated by the heaviest steel door closing in film history.
“Undoubtedly the most complex detective film of all … Contains so many nuances of narrative, photographic technique, and acting, that it demands seeing far more than once.” William K. Everson.
Wednesday through Friday (March 10-12) at 7:30.
“I’m not afraid of death—I just do not want to be killed!” An aging factory owner Toshiro Mifune (then 35), obsessed with fear of the Bomb, demands his extended family move to the supposed safety of Brazil.
Every device at Kurosawa’s command is enlisted to enforce the mood of oppression, of unease; with a desperate Mifune’s climactic speech equaling his legendary Seven Samurai monologue. The final effect is overwhelming, and perhaps Kurosawa’s most sweeping statement on the human condition.
Wednesday through Friday at 5:35 and 10:05.
Saturday through Tuesday
Two constantly bickering farmers on the run from clan wars are dragooned by general Toshiro Mifune into aiding his rescue of fugitive princess Misa Uehara and her family’s hidden gold. At the last moment help arrives from a completely unexpected source.
Probably Kurosawa’s most dazzling exercise in pure filmmaking—his first use of Cinemascope—and perhaps Mifune’s most purely swashbuckling vehicle. This richly comic fairy tale for adults is pure entertainment from the master, acknowledged as the source for Star Wars.
“Grand, bold movie-making.” Roger Ebert.
Saturday and Sunday (March 13-14) at 3:00 and 7:30; Monday and Tuesday (Mar 15-16) at 7:30.
“You can’t get ahead in this world unless folks think you’re both a cheat and a killer.” Met at the entrance to a deserted village by a stray mutt sauntering past with a severed hand in his jaws, wandering ronin Toshiro Mifune, realizes a skilled Yojimbo (bodyguard) could rake in the ryo in this town. And after checking out the sake merchant’s thugs squaring off against the silk merchant’s goon squad, twice as much, if he hires out to both sides.
Venice Festival's acting prize went to Mifune. “The best samurai film ever made … a treasure trove of attitude.” J. Hoberman.
Saturday through Tuesday (March 13-16) at 5:30 and 10:00.