Kurosawa

At first I thought Kurosawa was kind of a weird director. With the first film Stray Dog, I realy didn't like it at all. The plot was subpar, and it was hard to find yourself rooting for the main character to find his gun that was stolen. Going into Yojimbo I had low expectations and just wanted to get the unit overwith. BUT, Yojimbo hit a home run with me. SO many awkward funny moments. And unlike Stray Dog, you find yourself really wanting Toshiro Mifune to kick ass. And he does.... often. I also loved the music and sound effects in Yojimbo. Sometimes a good soundtrack can change the whole feel of a movie. I really, really enjoyed Yojimbo alot and then going into RAN, I didn't know what to expect, after Kurosawa hit a home run with Yojimbo but struck out looking in Stray Dog. With mixed emotions going in, I thought RAN was pretty good for the most part. Color helped a little bit, and doing a story that is based on the King Leer story made the plot better than the other movies. BUT MAN how depressing is the last seen in this movie. The blind brother is left on a cliff with nowhere to go and the camera keeps emphasizing his aloneless but zooming out over and over. Overall, I liked the Kurosawa unit becuase of Yojimbo and RAN. The thing is though, I dont know if I could take another movie of his with all the subtitles, foreign screaming, and pissy characters.