Akira Kurosawa: Four Samurai Classics

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune’s artistic partnership was one of cinema’s most rewarding. The dozen-plus movies they made together from 1948 to 1965 were some of the most influential of the period, and this quartet— The Seven Samurai , The Hidden Fortress , Yojimbo and its sequel Sanjuro —comprise the bulk of the two men’s samurai action films. They’re a highly entertaining showcase for Mifune’s rich physical expressiveness and Kurosawa’s masterful editing and deft cultural translation of American pulp-fiction forms into Eastern styles. Seven Samurai in particular has a resonant emotional depth, but even the breezy trifle Sanjuro shouldn’t be missed. Kurosawa was often criticized in Japan’s film community for being too Western in method, but we prefer to think he was able to distill a universal experience that cut across national boundaries. Maybe that’s also a reason why the English-language remakes of the first three—to wit, The Magnificent Seven , Star Wars , and A Fistful of Dollars —also stand out in their genres. The DVD extras here are rather thin: Seven Samurai has an erudite commentary track by film scholar Michael Jeck, Hidden Fortress a video interview with George Lucas. But a great film is a great film, and if these aren’t already in your collection, this box set is a good excuse to correct that error.