MovieChat Forums > Kiru (1968) Discussion > Why isn't this movie more popular?

Why isn't this movie more popular?

posted 15 years ago by titheruck
7 replies | jump to latest

I think it's equally as funny, cool, and entertaining as Yojimbo.

And I liked this movie better then Sujurno.

But it doesn't seem like this movie is as influential or known as either of the movies.

Maybe because it lacks Toshirô Mifune, or because some people say they didn't get the humor but after seeing a great share of samurai movies, I got the humor.

But what I found most impressive was the sets, landscape, and atmosphere, the area that they gamble in(genta and oldman) is incredible!

I really liked this movie, I keep replaying scenes in my head for inspiration.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] talisencrw 10 years ago

It's simply a case of it's not being as well known. Kurosawa's a household name. Okamoto is not. Consider it a special, secret thing you know about, and share it with people you feel deserve that knowledge. Have you seen The Sword of Doom from 1966? It's by Okamoto, stars Nakadai, is from The Criterion Collection as well, and I believe it's even better than Kill! is.

[–] dbeane 9 years ago

+1 on Sword of Doom

Japanese films weren't generally imported into the US at that time, even for Kurosawa, and thus didn't have a chance to built a cult following until video/dvd.

[–] talisencrw 9 years ago

Good point.

[–] jadavix 9 years ago

Because it's boring and makes no sense.

Sword of Doom rules, though.

[–] davidesama92 9 years ago

At least this film have 1700 ratings and a bunch of comments, some great films from early ozu, mizoguchi or naruse have only a hundrends of ratings and zero comments.

[–] suits_me 8 years ago

I agree with the other poster: This film might make some bit of sense, if not a lot, but it lacks the narrative coherence or conventionally competent editing or more sophisticated cinematography of a Kurosawa film. I'm not sure the fight scenes, few as they are, are even that well done. I think the decent composite end user rating for Kiru at imdb is pretty accurate. [Edit: I mixed up what that rating is. I think the overall user rating is about a point too high.]