This movie is brilliant and beautiful.The story is perfect, and it only gets better as the trilogy goes on. One thing that made my jaw drop completely was the scenery. The way that some of it was made just completely blew me away. Also, some of the towns that they chose to film at are also beautiful, and give a soothing feel that completely fits with the feel of the movie. In my opinion, perfect, but don't stop at the first installment, see them all!
shareYes I agree, Im still puzzled how they did some of those shot's as well.
"We kill each other everyday....but we want to go to Mars.....
Now I have to admit that I've only seen the first two, and I'm watching the third shortly, but I was only impressed by a few shots. The cinematography has a few stunning moments, and yes I understand that color was extremely primitive and it was done very well in this, but honestly I'm glad Kurosawa avoided color for so long. It truly isn't up to his standards, and I almost wish that the Samurai trilogy had been in B&W. In Samurai 2 the color fades across basically the whole rainbow in the last 10 minutes of the film. Also the filters used for synthetic nightshots destroy the swordfights. All you can see are glittering sabres, and you lose all sense of who's who and where's where. I'm also not too crazy on the story. It's very simplistic in a cool way, definitely what it was going for. But when people call it "epic" I just don't feel it so much. The Seven Samurai feels a whole lot more like an epic than this trilogy because the characters are quite a bit more complex. I really enjoy these movies, but they don't seem as amazing as people make them out to be.
shareThe main reason for the beauty of these films is that the director trained as a painter for the earlier part of his life. This translated very well to film. Many great directors begin their training in the visual arts. Most notably, Stanley Kubrick. He was a photographer.
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One of the best Samurai movies.
shareThat's good to know director Hiroshi Inagaki trained as a painter. I'm assuming you are talking about the color and compostion of the scenery, e.g. the opening title sequences in Samurai II. The cinematography was wonderful in framing a shot such as the river and bridge scenes in part II. Yet one would have to have an understanding of color, hue and texture to get all the dramatic effects the scenes achieved.
I saw the Criterion version and can accept some of the change of light and blotchiness in the film because of the age, but I do have to complain about the darkness, especially in the fight scenes. I was thinking why didn't they fight in the daytime, but then it wouldn't have been as authentic I suppose.
This movie wasn't directed by Kurosawa. Your right about everything else though.
shareDon't judge the story by merely watching this movie trilogy. Like pretty much any movie based on a book, it lacks in the storytelling dept. -- Just read Yoshikawa's books, and fully appreciate this beautiful tale & legend. The characters are also well rounded in the books. :]
This is just one man's opinion. What's so great about this movie? I got the criterion collection and I saw the first and 2nd movies and they weren't all that great. I am actually reading the book and I found the book quite convoluted. The book is kinda insulting in a way b/c all the female characters are weak and useless. Musashi is totally obsessed with his selfish goal. It just seems like a big mass. The best samurai movie that I saw so far is the twilight samurai.
I can see the book as a decent literary work (although the ideas are so outdated), but the movies just is plain simple and silly.
6 out of 10 considering the time it was made.
My life isn't any better than yours.
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I don't think it's totally crap as Vetch-2 states. The movie begins well and the direction is quite good. Also I found Mifune's acting better than in Kurosawa's Rashomon where he was too over the top a lot of the time. The story is good right up until Mifune is captured then it becomes silly and the editing is a mess as the story goes all over the place and why did we have the scene with Mifune watching Kabuki? That was a complete waste of time. Anyway I think 7/10 for the first two thirds of the movie plus a great score.
shareAgreed. Beautiful films. I got the samurai trilogy movies for Christmas the other day, and i've got to say they're some of the best gifts i've gotten in years.
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True. It's even more wonderful how the colors pop out in the blu-ray release, gives a whole new perspective of something I only seen on tape years ago.
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