Format: Blu-ray
Genre: Action, Drama
Location: Fi13b
Akira Kurosawa: Samurai Masterpiece Collection – Box 2 (2021)
This collection contains:
Ikiru (1952)
Kanji Watanabe is a civil servant. He has worked in the same department for 30 years. His life is pretty boring and monotonous, though he once used to have passion and drive. Then one day he discovers that he has stomach cancer and has less than a year to live. After the initial depression, he sets about living for the first time in over 20 years. Then he realizes that his limited time left is not just for living life to the full but to leave something meaningful behind.
High and Low (1963)
A wealthy businessman is told his son has been kidnapped and he will have to pay a very large sum for him to be returned safely. It is then discovered that his son is safe at home: the kidnapper took his chauffeur’s son by accident. The kidnapper says this makes no difference: pay up or the child dies. This leaves him with a moral dilemma, as he really needs the money to conclude a very important business deal.
Red Beard (1965)
It’s the early nineteenth century, and young Dr. Noboru Yasumoto has been summoned for a reason unknown to him to rural Koishikawa Medical Clinic from Nagasaki, where he has been stationed for three years completing his internship. The clinic, headed by the outwardly stern Dr. Kyojô Niide – nicknamed “Red Beard” for that attribute – under his very strict guidelines, treats the poor and disadvantaged of the region. Much to his surprise and dismay, Yasumoto is told he is to start work there immediately, staff, including doctors, living on site. As he was expecting a position as a physician for a shogunate in his privilege, Yasumoto shows his displeasure at this fate at every turn. He believes this fate was either orchestrated directly by Red Beard in solely wanting access to his detailed professional notes – Yasumoto believing he a much better doctor than his new, more experienced superior – or by the father of a female acquaintance in an effort to get rid of him. Yasumoto may get a different perspective of life as a doctor at the clinic in getting to view Red Beard’s methods first hand, as he gets to know the stories of some of the in-patients at the clinic, and as he is assigned his first patient, Otoyo, a twelve-year-old orphaned girl who was raised in an abusive brothel environment in an effort to seal her supposed future.
Dodeskaden (1970)
Episodes from the lives of a group of Tokyo slum-dwellers: Rokkuchan, an intellectually disabled boy who brings meaning and routine to his life by driving an imaginary streetcar; children who support their parents by scrounging or by tedious and ill-paying endeavors; schemers who plot or dream of escaping the shackles of poverty.
Kogemusha (1980)
When a powerful warlord in medieval Japan dies, a poor thief recruited to impersonate him finds difficulty living up to his role and clashes with the spirit of the warlord during turbulent times in the kingdom.
Ran (1985)
Japanese warlord Hidetori Ichimonji decides the time has come to retire and divide his fiefdom among his three sons. His eldest and middle sons – Taro and Jiro – agree with his decision and promise to support him for his remaining days. The youngest son Saburo disagrees with all of them arguing that there is little likelihood the three brothers will remain united. Insulted by his son’s brashness, the warlord banishes Saburo. As the warlord begins his retirement, he quickly realizes that his two eldest sons are selfish and have no intention of keeping their promises. It leads to war and only banished Saburo can possibly save him.
