The Criterion Channel subscription service is showing 27 films by the great Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa.
Where to begin? I would start with Yojimbo, a samurai film that has lots of action and is surprisingly funny. The good guy is so tough and the bad guys are so inept and weak. It’s sequel, Sanjuro, is not as good but also worth seeing. I prefer them to his better known earlier epic Seven Samurai.
Among his dramatic films set in the Japan of the 1950s and 1960s, I suggest Ikiru, which is about a terminally ill bureaucrat. I also recommend High and Low which is about a ransom effort and police investigation.
Sad! 