Akira Kurosawa — Playwright (41)
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Movie

Madadayo (1993)
まあだだよ IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
Akira Kurosawa actor: Tatsuo Matsumura / Kyōko Kagawa …
other title: Madadayo - Il compleanno / まあだだよ …
Based on the life of Hyakken Uchida, a Japanese author and academic. The film opens with Uchida resigning his job as a German professor at the onset of WWII. The story is told mostly in vignettes as he is cared for by former students in his old age.
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Movie

Rhapsody in August (1991)
八月の狂詩曲 IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
Akira Kurosawa actor: Sachiko Murase / Hidetaka Yoshioka …
other title: Rapsodia in agosto / 八月の狂詩曲 …
The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, whose husband was one of 80,000 human beings killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him before he dies.
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Movie

One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
素晴らしき日曜日 IMDb TMDB Douban
Akira Kurosawa actor: Isao Numasaki / Chieko Nakakita …
other title: Una meravigliosa domenica / 素晴らしき日曜日 …
Yuzo and his fiancée Masako spend their Sunday afternoon together, trying to have a good time on just thirty-five yen. They manage to have many small adventures, especially because Masako's optimism and belief in dreams is able to lift Yuzo from his realistic despair.
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Movie

Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
姿三四郎
Akira Kurosawa actor: Denjirō Ōkōchi / Susumu Fujita …
other title: Sanshiro sugata / A Saga do Judo …
A hotheaded youth in 1880s Meiji Japan apprentices to judo master Shōgorō Yano, trading brute jujutsu bravado for discipline and humility. As Sanshirō matures, he proves judo’s spirit against old-guard challengers—including a deadly duel—while falling for his vanquished opponent’s daughter. Based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita, son of Tomita Tsunejirō, the earliest disciple of judo.
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Movie

The Lower Depths (1957)
どん底 WikiData IMDb TMDB NeoDB
Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Isuzu Yamada …
other title: I bassifondi / どん底 …
Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.
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Movie

The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
悪い奴ほどよく眠る
Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Masayuki Mori …
other title: I cattivi dormono in pace / O Mal Dorme Bem …
In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.
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Movie

Yojimbo (1961)
用心棒
★ 8.0 15 ratings
Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Tatsuya Nakadai …
other title: La sfida del samurai / Livvagten …
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
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Movie

Sanjuro (1962)
椿三十郎
★ 8.4 7 ratings
Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Tatsuya Nakadai …
other title: 椿三十郎
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
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Movie

Stray Dog (1949)
野良犬
★ 8.0 5 ratings
Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Takashi Shimura …
other title: Cane randagio / Cão Danado …
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
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Red Beard (1965)
赤ひげ
★ 9.3 6 ratings
Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Yūzō Kayama …
other title: Barbarossa / Rødskæg …
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
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Movie

Throne of Blood (1957)
蜘蛛巣城
★ 8.5 8 ratings
Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Isuzu Yamada …
other title: Il trono di sangue / Blodets trone …
Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.
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Movie

Seven Samurai (1954)
七人の侍
★ 9.2 25 ratings
Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshiro Mifune / Takashi Shimura …
other title: I sette samurai / De syv samuraier …
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
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Movie

Ikiru (1952)
生きる
★ 8.6 14 ratings
Akira Kurosawa actor: Takashi Shimura / Haruo Tanaka …
other title: Vivere / At leve …
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
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Kagemusha (1980)
影武者
★ 8.1 8 ratings
Akira Kurosawa actor: Tatsuya Nakadai / Tsutomu Yamazaki …
other title: Kagemusha the Shadow Warrior / Kagemusha - L'ombra del guerriero …
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.