Kurosawa

Just finished watching Ran, a samurai style treatment of Shakespeare's King Lear by Akira Kurosawa. The only other movies by Kurosawa I had seen before this one were Seven Samurai (later remade as a western which became a TV show: The Magnificent Seven) and the often copied Rashomon, both of which I enjoyed quite a bit.

So I have no idea why I waited so darn long to watch this movie, and why I haven't seen more Kurosawa movies. The battle sequences in Ran constitute some of the most beautiful and compelling film I've ever seen, and the acting is spot on. I particularly enjoyed the costumes: you can tell where films like House of Flying Daggers get their sense of color.

I discovered when I went to rate the movie at Netflix that Kurosawa had done a film long before Ran called Throne of Blood based on another of Shakespeare's works, Macbeth, which just happens to be my favorite Shakespeare play. Needless to say, I've moved the movie to the top of my queue.