1:30pm ET& 8:30pm ET
Toshirô Mifune is confidence supreme and humility incarnate as the mature samurai master Musashi Miyamoto in the final film of Inagaki's sprawling trilogy. Now a legendary swordsman whose latest quest is to save an isolated village from rampaging brigands (shades of Seven Samurai), he remains haunted by the memory of Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa). Meanwhile the ruthless and increasingly jealous Kojiro Sasaki (Koji Tsuruta) plots his battle royal with Musashi to prove who is the finest fencer in Japan. Inagaki weaves the web of subplots into a series of grand confrontations, among them the most exciting battles of the trilogy: Musashi's skirmish with the army of cutthroats while the village erupts in a fiery inferno around him, and the sunset duel between Musashi and Kojiro on an isolated beach, the two warriors taking on mythic dimensions silhouetted against the sun setting over the surf. Inagaki's delicate use of color throughout the series becomes most pronounced in this final sequence, where the glow of orange and red adds dramatic flourish to the twilight battle. Inagaki's reserved, restrained style and Mifune's melancholy performance--his granite face and stocky stance the very essence of somber wisdom and sad assurance--bring a gravity and seriousness to the drama that ultimately illuminates the personal cost of Musashi's supreme skill as his story ends on an elegiac but hopeful note. --Sean Axmaker
Description
The most exciting and tension filled of Inagaki's trilogy, Duel at Ganryu Island provides samurai fans with some of the most scintillating swordplay and battle sequences ever filmed. It is the final showdown for Musashi Miyamoto and his arch-rival Kojiro Sasaki. Favorably compared to both Cool Hand Luke and Shane when it was first released, Samurai III brings this great epic to a close with its famous sunset scene--a stunning visual climax both in terms of action and photography.
3:30pm ET & 10:30pm ET
This samurai classic, set in 18th-century Japan, combines great acting and thrilling action with thoughtful writing and direction. The magnificent Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai, The Samurai Trilogy) stars as Isaburo, a renowned swordsman who is the essence of samurai loyalty until his overlord demands the return of a former mistress, Isaburo's beloved daughter-in-law. The injustice to his family forces Isaburo to take a heroic stand for individual freedom and moves him toward a revolt he can never win. Written by Shinobu Hashimoto (Rashomon) and directed by Masaki Kobayashi (Harakiri, Kwaidan), Samurai Rebellion is "a clear departure from the norm...a compelling legend stressing one man's opposition to tyranny in an age when such opposition was unthinkable" (The New York Times). The bloody climax rages with power and emotion.
12pm ET & 7pm ET
This 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa is more than a classic: it's a cinematic archetype that has served as a template for many a film since. (Its most direct influence was on a Western remake, The Outrage, starring Paul Newman and directed by Martin Ritt.) In essence, the facts surrounding a rape and murder are told from four different and contradictory points of view, suggesting the nature of truth is something less than absolute. The cast, headed by Kurosawa's favorite actor, Toshiro Mifune, is superb. --Tom Keogh
Description
A cinema classic, Rashomon introduced the Western world to the greatness of Akira Kurosawa and paved the way for fellow masters of the Japanese film industry. Using an innovative narrative style, this eloquent director reveals how the truth in any situation depends on your point of view. Four different narrators describe the same brutal act--a woman's rape and her husband's consequent death--yet the facts elude us because each interprets the story to make himself appear in the best light. Machiko Kyo and Toshiro Mifune turn in magnificent performances as the lady and her savage attacker.
10:30am ET & 5:30pm ET
As critic Roger Ebert observed in his original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. It's a film for the ages--one of the few genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great director's career. In this version of the Shakespeare tragedy, the king is a 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora) who decides to retire and divide his kingdom evenly among his three sons. When one son defiantly objects out of loyalty to his father and warns of inevitable sibling rivalry, he is banished and the kingdom is awarded to his compliant siblings. The loyal son's fears are valid: a duplicitous power struggle ensues and the aging warlord witnesses a maelstrom of horrifying death and destruction. Although the film is slow to establish its story, it's clear that Kurosawa, who planned and painstakingly designed the production for 10 years before filming began, was charting a meticulous and tightly formalized dramatic strategy. As familial tensions rise and betrayal sends Lord Hidetora into the throes of escalating madness, Ran (the title is the Japanese character for "chaos" or "rebellion") reaches a fever pitch through epic battles and a fortress assault that is simply one of the most amazing sequences on film. --Jeff Shannon
Samurai Saga
Toshirô Mifune is confidence supreme and humility incarnate as the mature samurai master Musashi Miyamoto in the final film of Inagaki's sprawling trilogy. Now a legendary swordsman whose latest quest is to save an isolated village from rampaging brigands (shades of Seven Samurai), he remains haunted by the memory of Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa). Meanwhile the ruthless and increasingly jealous Kojiro Sasaki (Koji Tsuruta) plots his battle royal with Musashi to prove who is the finest fencer in Japan. Inagaki weaves the web of subplots into a series of grand confrontations, among them the most exciting battles of the trilogy: Musashi's skirmish with the army of cutthroats while the village erupts in a fiery inferno around him, and the sunset duel between Musashi and Kojiro on an isolated beach, the two warriors taking on mythic dimensions silhouetted against the sun setting over the surf. Inagaki's delicate use of color throughout the series becomes most pronounced in this final sequence, where the glow of orange and red adds dramatic flourish to the twilight battle. Inagaki's reserved, restrained style and Mifune's melancholy performance--his granite face and stocky stance the very essence of somber wisdom and sad assurance--bring a gravity and seriousness to the drama that ultimately illuminates the personal cost of Musashi's supreme skill as his story ends on an elegiac but hopeful note. --Sean Axmaker
Description
The most exciting and tension filled of Inagaki's trilogy, Duel at Ganryu Island provides samurai fans with some of the most scintillating swordplay and battle sequences ever filmed. It is the final showdown for Musashi Miyamoto and his arch-rival Kojiro Sasaki. Favorably compared to both Cool Hand Luke and Shane when it was first released, Samurai III brings this great epic to a close with its famous sunset scene--a stunning visual climax both in terms of action and photography.
3:30pm ET & 10:30pm ET
This samurai classic, set in 18th-century Japan, combines great acting and thrilling action with thoughtful writing and direction. The magnificent Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai, The Samurai Trilogy) stars as Isaburo, a renowned swordsman who is the essence of samurai loyalty until his overlord demands the return of a former mistress, Isaburo's beloved daughter-in-law. The injustice to his family forces Isaburo to take a heroic stand for individual freedom and moves him toward a revolt he can never win. Written by Shinobu Hashimoto (Rashomon) and directed by Masaki Kobayashi (Harakiri, Kwaidan), Samurai Rebellion is "a clear departure from the norm...a compelling legend stressing one man's opposition to tyranny in an age when such opposition was unthinkable" (The New York Times). The bloody climax rages with power and emotion.
12pm ET & 7pm ET
This 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa is more than a classic: it's a cinematic archetype that has served as a template for many a film since. (Its most direct influence was on a Western remake, The Outrage, starring Paul Newman and directed by Martin Ritt.) In essence, the facts surrounding a rape and murder are told from four different and contradictory points of view, suggesting the nature of truth is something less than absolute. The cast, headed by Kurosawa's favorite actor, Toshiro Mifune, is superb. --Tom Keogh
Description
A cinema classic, Rashomon introduced the Western world to the greatness of Akira Kurosawa and paved the way for fellow masters of the Japanese film industry. Using an innovative narrative style, this eloquent director reveals how the truth in any situation depends on your point of view. Four different narrators describe the same brutal act--a woman's rape and her husband's consequent death--yet the facts elude us because each interprets the story to make himself appear in the best light. Machiko Kyo and Toshiro Mifune turn in magnificent performances as the lady and her savage attacker.
10:30am ET & 5:30pm ET
As critic Roger Ebert observed in his original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. It's a film for the ages--one of the few genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great director's career. In this version of the Shakespeare tragedy, the king is a 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora) who decides to retire and divide his kingdom evenly among his three sons. When one son defiantly objects out of loyalty to his father and warns of inevitable sibling rivalry, he is banished and the kingdom is awarded to his compliant siblings. The loyal son's fears are valid: a duplicitous power struggle ensues and the aging warlord witnesses a maelstrom of horrifying death and destruction. Although the film is slow to establish its story, it's clear that Kurosawa, who planned and painstakingly designed the production for 10 years before filming began, was charting a meticulous and tightly formalized dramatic strategy. As familial tensions rise and betrayal sends Lord Hidetora into the throes of escalating madness, Ran (the title is the Japanese character for "chaos" or "rebellion") reaches a fever pitch through epic battles and a fortress assault that is simply one of the most amazing sequences on film. --Jeff Shannon
