RIFLE RANGE BOY

Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (Tamil, 2018) This film is supposed to have elements of Akira Kurosawa's 'Ran' in its storyline. And Kurosawa's 'Ran' is supposed to have similarities to King Lear. Unfortunately, the similarities end at the level of a man of power and the power struggle between his three sons over his ruling empire. Here, the struggle is for the position of 'Don' between three sons. Each suspects each other of sabotage and try to outdo each other with wit and the might of gunpowder. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, after much killing, the sufferings of their loved ones, the death of the few and the double-crossing of their most trusted ones, the thugs realise that one who lives by the gun dies by one.  Not much of a film. Just another movie that depicts India as a land of lawlessness with a corrupt police force where everything and everyone has a price. Sadly, they try to sell the idea that even the immigration is under the thumb of...

Dodes'ka-den (Japanese; 1970) Director: Akira Kurosawa Even the great director Kurosawa had his moments when he was slumped. His popularity was on the decline as TV became more popular. More than 5 years after his last film, Red Beard in 1964, he had nothing to show. His relationship with his prized actor and composer was down. To top it all, even this film was a financial flop. The general masses did not care if it was artistically brilliant, they just wanted entertainment and fun; not a film which takes place in a city dumpster! It seems Kurosawa's chips were so low after this movie that he attempted to end his own life afterwards. Make believe tram driver! The whole lay out of the film is somewhat unconventional. There is no protagonist, antagonist or a typical story with issues, climax and resolution. It is actually a compilation of occurrences in the day of the life a group of social discards who put up in the city dump as their place of abode. Their pessimistic o...

Madadayo ( まあだだよ   Not Yet, Japanese; 1993) Director: Akira Kurosawa This sombre offering is Kurosawa's swan song. Ironically, it is a comedy but the subject deals something as depressing as life after retirement, war and essentially waiting for death! If fact, the title of film is a joke often told the main character referring to his life whose time (end of it) has reached yet - not yet! Professor Uchida (whom his students address fondly as Sinsei) is a lovable German language professor in Japan who is at the tail end of his teaching career. It is set at a time just before the second World War. After his retirement, he continues entertaining his students at his humble home sharing his own trademark jokes. The students, even after growing old continue his acquaintance. Periodically, he gather for his birthday. They even help him out when his home is raged by shell after the war. The movie shows the cordial respect between teacher and student. Just when the student think the...

The Quiet Duel (静かなる決闘, Shizukanaru Kettō, 1949) Director: Akira Kurosawa Fancy seeing a scrubbed up surgeon with a cigarette on his lip? If Toshiro Mifune is usually seen as rash hotblooded gangster or samurai in most movies, this Kurosawa's regular star is seen portraying a quiet tight-lipped conscientious doctor. His co-star is another regular, Takashi Shimura as his father. The quiet duel in the title refers to the constant struggle within one's self whether to satisfy his own desires versus the moral codes set up by the society or conscience. And sometimes the price to pay can be enormous.  The story starts in a rundown military hole-ridden leaking hospital where an overworked sleep-deprived surgeon who is fighting against his biological needs of sleep and rest tries desperately to save his war-stricken patients. With limited helping hand, he somehow pulls through. In one of these stressful situations, he injures himself with an open scalpel. Fearing for t...

One Wonderful Sunday (Japanese, 1947) The theme in this movie is somewhat similar to that of Kurosawa's 'Stray Dog'. Set in the post WW2 Japan where poverty is the order of a day, it narrates a day a couple who have big dreams for their future together spend a Sunday together, the only day they meet in a week before they head different directions at the end of the day for their respective job requirements. It is an extremely slow moving movie but the pace is essential to aptly portray the trying times of the war ravaged country. People are generally poor. The only short cut way to quick success is black marketeering. The law abiding conscientious ones had to slog it out with their measly paying jobs. Isao Numasaki, a disillusioned war veteran, is an obvious victim of PTSD. He has no faith in humanity, is  frustrated with the system and has no desire in life. His fiancé and childhood girlfriend,  Chieko Nakakita, seem to be the only good thing that is happening...

Ikimono no kiroku (I Live In Fear,  生きものの記録, aka Record of a Living Being or What the Birds Know, Japanese; 1955) Director: Akira Kurosawa You work hard all through your life, earning for your family, ensuring that they do not lose out on you did not have. You want there to be no obstacles along the way so that they can explore their own true potential. You secretly hope that they would scale heights which were unattainable by you in your lifetime. You play your part to the tilt hoping that they would do theirs. What you get instead is the title of being a workaholic madman who cannot keep still and let the younger generation take charge! Your other half who used to be the better one, decide to take sides and you can see all your life's hard work crumbling right in front of you. The world is not on your side, and all the accusing finger is pointing at you, only you. And you know they are so wrong. So, what do you do? They use the same knowledge that you try to impart on ...

The Bad Sleep Well (Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru, Japanese; 1960) Director: Akira Kurosawa Films are made day in and day out but a classics like Kurosawa's stays eternally in the minds of film lovers. This is another movie highlighting the evils that corporations do to syphon off public funds for their own interest but what makes it an evergreen is the depth of the plot. It is supposed to have elements of Shakespeare's Hamlet in its narrative. The movie starts with journalists waiting patiently passing sarcastic remarks of a wealthy tycoon, the Vice President of a public listed company which develops public land, daughter's wedding reception. They are hoping to pick up a scoop to report. Their moment of truth comes when one of his assistants get arrested for corruption during the reception through some embarrassing moments for the guests. The story gets very complicated but becomes crystal clear at the end. Nishi (Toshiro Mifune), a dashing young man who is the Vi...

Sanshiro Sugata (   ( 姿三四郎 , aka Judo Saga; 1943 ) Director: Akira Kurosawa Japan was at the pinnacle of spreading the influence of The Land of the Rising Sun over its Eastern and South East Asian minions. Back home it was business as usual, art and culture wise. Movies were still made and Kurosawa made his directorial debut through this movie. To keep to the wartime sensitivities of the nation, the censors slashed 1845 feet (17 minutes) of the film footage prior to screening without the consent of the producers. This debut effort shows unique characteristic camera work of Kurosawa. The story is simple. A rogue but talented street fighter, Sanshiro Sugata, tries to learn martial arts from a master who refuses. First, he has to learn humility and discipline. He transforms into a conscientious and respected Judo fighter. A shady character appears to challenge him to a square fight but his master denies that. The fight eventually happens at the end. Before that he has fig...

Shubun (Scandal, Japanese; 1950) Director: Akira Kurosawa The theme of this movie is still relevant today. The talk of the need for the public to know everything versus the space for citizens and people in authority to safeguard their secrecy is an ongoing debate. Where the line should be drawn on the Truth is anybody's guess. With the recent leakage of supposedly private intimate poses of celebrities to the media is proof of this ongoing debate on this debacle. The boundary of what is indeed trash and what is news is progressively blurred as the public gets all excited with trivial unimportant happenings or smut that happens to people in the limelight or are the people in the press simply sensationalizing these trivial non events? Again, Kurosawa had chosen a modern looking post war Japan with a Western outlook. People are dressed in Western clothes, jackets, pants and dresses and the ladies were donning cropped modern hairstyles. The recreational activities mirror their Weste...

Tengoku to Jigoku (Japanese, High and Low, a.k.a. Heaven and Hell; 1963) Director: Akira Kurosawa This suspense-filled police procedural film must be well ahead of its time. Because Kurosawa directed it, the suspense and investigations were painstakingly detailed. On top of all that, the director usually highlights the differences in the social classes. High and low in the title probably denotes the two halves of the offering -the first half in the relaxed ambience of the quiet high-class home of the protagonist, Kingo Gondo, a self-made shoemaker who had climbed the rank and files to an enviable status in the National Shoe Company; the second half among the decadent life forms of the night, drug addicts and drunken revellers of the night scene of town. Gondo shoots down the idea by fellow company shareowners to cut costs and compromise the quality of their shoes. He passionately says that shoes have to be respected as they support the whole body's weight. Furious, his detra...

Red Beard (赤ひげ Akahige, Japanese; 1965) Director: Akira Kurosawa The message in this 1965 film is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. It explores humanity, our existence and the true path of how the practice of medicine should be. It tries to drive the point that people involved in this noble profession should be socialist at heart and capitalism may be their enemy. That poverty and ignorance is the real reason why people remain sick and become ill because medical service desert the very people who logically need more attention. Every individual who appears helpless and unimpressive at the end of his life may actually have a heart wrenching tale associated with his life. There may be a string of mourners or well wishers crying behind him or they may carry a secret to their grave. If we understand the dynamics of the life of an individual, we would understand why he is acting the way he is acting. This 3 hour movie is set in the early 19th century Japan where modern medicin...

Throne of Blood ( 蜘蛛巣城   Kumonosu-jô,  Spider's Web Castle, 1957; Japanese) Written and Direction by: Akira Kurusawa Since I have not been lucky enough to endowed in an environment splashed with culture and art, nevertheless, I try to educate and enrich the right side of the brain through the back door. Instead of reading and digesting the moth filled papyrus scrolls, I choose to watch movies instead. Through my latest escapade, I managed to venture into Shakespeare's darkest tragedy, Macbeth. This, I discovered about watching Kurosawa's 1957 offering of 'Kumonosu-jo', which is quite closely based on the former. The story is set in the 16th century feudal Japan, a tumultuous and violent times indeed. Washizu and Miki are victorious generals returning to meet their Lord in Spider's Web Castle through a fog filled forests only to be lost and to come face to face with a spirit. Unprovoked, the spirit foretold their futures, that Washiku would be a Commander...

Drunken Angel (Japanese, 1948) Director: Akira Kurosawa  It is a depressing little town with a dirty, swampy pond right in the centre of things. It is a sad time too, post-war Japan. People are sick, life is hard, and cleanliness takes a back seat. People actually dump their refuse into the pond and children play in their muddy waters. In the midst of all this is a cranky small-time middle-aged doctor, Dr Sanada. He seems to frustrated with life, the system and his patients for their non-compliance. Dr Sanada is disappointed with his life decisions and appears to find solace in the bottle. Times are bad, and booze is hard to come by, so he dilutes his medicinal 100% alcohol into his beverages for a kick! Deep inside, the small-time physician has a keen interest in treating tuberculosis and goes the extra mile to treat his patient to health. One day, a local thug, Matsunaga, walked into his surgery for a hand-wound after a scuffle. The excellent doctor incidentally found th...

Rhapsody in August (Japanese, 1991) Writer & Director: Akira Kurosawa This film depicts how three generations handle the WW2 bombing of Nagasaki. Grandma is babysitting her 4 grandchildren while their parents go over to Hawaii to visit Grandma's long lost brother who had migrated to US in the 1920s. He is now in his death bed but had established himself as a successful pineapple planter. The grandchildren and their parents are coaxing old lady to visit her brother but she is reluctant. She cannot remember her brother as she had 11 of them and everyone went their own way. Grandma is a hibakusha (survivor of atomic bombing). She lives in memory of her husband, a teacher, who perished in the 1945 Nagasaki bombing while he was at work. The grandchildren, bored with the slow paced life in the village, explore around to slowly appreciate the times of the war. They also understand how the bomb had devastated the lives of innocent dwellers of the city. The 45th anniversary of he...

Dersu Uzala (Russian, 1975) Director: Akira Kurusawa First there was darkness, then there was light. This alternating of night and day was instrumental in developing many of man's inner and outer equilibrium. Internally, the diurnal circadian rhythm was achieved. Pineal gland owed its maturity upon it. Man learnt to live in symbiosis with the elements of nature by learning simple things about them. The wind, moisture, heat, stars, moon and sun were their guides. Then came the ability to produce light at their will. Suddenly, man found that they did not have depend on nature to move around. Slowly their closeness to nature grew far apart. This Oscar winner is a poignant Japo-Russian venture that highlights a unique friendship between a Russian military surveyor and a Goldi nomadic hunter. The Goldis, or Nanai people as they are known now, have their ancestors in Manchuria. Nanai family, Amur region of Russia Captain Arseniev and his men meet up an amusing looking man as th...

Dreams (Japanese, 1990) Director & Story: Akira Kurosawa Of all of Kurosawa's films that I have watched so far, this is one that I found least connected to. It is supposed to narrate a few of the director's dreams. I suppose he is also working in his sleep. It is a series of 8 sequence of dreams. There is minimal dialogue but more of depiction of Japanese cultures and beliefs. In the first, 'Sunshine through the rain', it highlights the folklore that believes that when the sun shines through a heavy downpour, the fox is getting married. People are expected to stay indoors. Failure of complying may prove fatal, as the young protagonist soon discovers. 'The Peach Orchard' displays the importance of peach in the Japanese culture. The Dolls which are the pillars of the peach festival are upset with the boy who chopped his peach tree. In 'The Blizzard', the spirit of the mountain in the form of a beautiful woman, saves 4 dispirited mountainee...

Sanjûrô (椿三十郎, Japanese; 1962) Director: Akira Kurosawa This film is actually a sequel to Kurosawa's 1961 release of  Yojimbo . In fact, this one is more entertaining than the former. It is not as violent, and the samurais here use wits and trickery to outbid their opponents rather than brute force. It also showcases many meaningful dialogues like the one stated above - that the best swords are the ones kept in their sheaths. After watching this offering do you understand why samurai movies were so popular back in the days? The story is basically about 9 young hot-blooded samurais who are disgruntled with their chief (lord chamberlain) who did not entertain their petition on organised crimes. They think that he may be corrupt. Whilst discussing their predicament, one of them informed that their Superintendent will look into it. Out of nowhere, a rōnin appears at their rendezvous suggesting that it may be the Superintendent who is the corrupt one after all. The rōnin (a samur...