Dersu Uzala - now T*H*A*T*S What I'm Talkin' About!

[Chang Style Novice]

Akira Kurosawa is a god and a half.

[GeneChing]

Not a martial arts movie, but a truly epic film, timeless and beautiful, an enduring classic. It might be a bit slow for this crowd (most here can't go much ****her than Yojimbo (http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/movakkurmify.html)), but I'm with you 100% CSN, DU is a Kurasawa masterpiece.

Did you ever see Do Des Ka Den? His first color film. It was a financial disaster, touted by critics, but I found it strangely beautiful in the same way as DU, although not quite as powerful.

[Chang Style Novice]

No, I haven't caught that one yet, but Vulcan Video (http://www.vulcanvideo.com) has an excellent suggestion and I intend to eventually see all the Kurosawa I can, so I should get to it at some point.

It seems like everytime I watch a Kurosawa film I keep saying "okay, now that's the most beautiful shot in the history of film. No, wait, this one is just as good and maybe better. Or this one." And this lasts for 90 minutes to 3.5 hours. Particular favorites in DU: the two men flanked by a setting sun and a rising moon, the troops marching out of an abandoned yurt and under a rainbow, the icesheets ferociously cracking and flowing in the spring, Kapitan throwing himself onto the pile of cut grass as the blizzard begins to blow, Dersu shouting his confused worry at the hiding tiger, oh hell, most of the film.