Betrayal, murder and revenge in the Scotland of the early 17th century. I saw a stage production of Macbeth last semester at the League. Some pretty good acting, some really good action and crisp delivery kept the audience riveted. The lighting was somewhat spotty, though; I would have used two spots to track the leads, and maybe a single focused light for Lady Macbeth's soliloquy 'all the perfumes...'. But I digress.
The point of this is to ask some basic questions about the was some movies are made. Let me, by way of a disclaimer say that I am a longterm Kurosawa fan. He was definitely one of the best things to happen to movies. Seven Samurai is movie that towers above its more recent ripoffs in sheer style and scope. Yojimbo takes one man (the great Toshiro Mifune, for whom there is one and only one comparison: Eastwood. No, on second thoughts make that NO comparison) and throws him at the wolves. The wolves,in question being the dastardly (I have always wanted to use that in a sentence) honchos of the two rival ganglords in a remote town. In a different century, Mifune would come out guns blazing. Here, the pyrotechnics are replaced with some fast swordplay. But scene for scene Sergio Leone would have appreciated the face-off between Mifune and his enemies down to the last detail. But the dialogue delivery! Ye Gods! Do the Japs really speak that way. Every line is delivered in the same guttural, yet staccato style. Nothing changes, from line to line; every sentence seems to come from inside the stomach and bellowed across a street.
I have another bone to pick with Kurosawa, and indeed all Japanese movies of that generation. Why are all the rooms so bare? Is furniture considered to be passe in Japan? The only furniture in one of the 'royal chambers' in Throne of Blood was a blinking samurai sword. I mean, you cannot sit on it for sure!
Somehow, that makes the movie a tad less enjoyable.
1 comment:
That makes two of us. Kurosawa definitely was one the best things to happen to cinema. It's hard to imagine such artistic and creative work being so elegantly being displayed at that time , without all the technology available. But then expressions speak louder than words, and Mifune was a consummate artist at that.
On a diff. note, Leone was sued by Kurosawa for lifting the exact plot for "A Fistful of Dollars" (from Yojimbo). Some of the nerd Americans still think Yojimbo was a lift-off, although Kurosawa did mention as dedicating this film to the Great Wild West genre
Nice blog. Keep up the good wrk
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