Kwaidan: The Illusion of Life
Photo: Toho There were two massively influential Japanese horror films released in 1964. Onibaba put an unsettling hanniya mask at the center of a grim civil war story; Kwaidan is…
Harakiri: A Gut-Wrenching Challenge
Photo: Shochiku After completing his epic ”Human Condition” trilogy of films in 1961, Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi turned to the samurai. His own family hailed from a samurai and he…
High and Low
When his driver's little boy is kidnapped, wealthy businessman Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) has to decide if he's willing to put his entire career and fortune at stake to save…
Yojimbo: The Ultimate Sushi Western
Toshiro Mifune. Photo: Toho Some would say that Seven Samurai (1954) is Akira Kurosawa's finest samurai movie, but I'll have to go with Yojimbo. One reason is that unlike Seven…