A man scowling while other onlookers appear behind him then pushing his way through the crowd in order to have a better view of a samurai trying to rescue a child held hostage by a thief: this is how Kikuchiyo, the would-be samurai of peasant stock and the figure at the emotional centre of Seven […]
Tag: Samurai
Masaki Kobayashi’s whole oeuvre is marked by his lifelong preoccupation with the complex relationship between the individual and society, the longing for freedom, and the struggle against oppression. Both as a member of the Japanese Imperial Army (the pacifist Kobayashi was posted to Manchuria during World War II) and as an artist, the filmmaker resisted […]
Red Lion (Akage), co-produced by Toho and Mifune Productions, is one of eight films Kihashi Okamoto made with Toshirō Mifune. The action takes place in the 1860s when the feudal system of the Tokugawa Shogunate was on the brink of collapse, and follows Gonzo, a peasant sent back to his native village with the mission […]