akira kurosawa

SEVEN SAMURAI Trailer: Janus Films Unsheathes A 4K Restoration For Limited Theatrical Release In The U.S.

Janus Films is proudly flying the flag for its 4K restoration this year of Akira Kurosawa’s classic jidaigeki epic, Seven Samurai. Deadline broke the news on Thursday with plans to screen in New York at the Film Forum on Friday, July 5, before holding its Los Angeles premiere at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre on Sunday, July 7, and then opening wide on July 12 in Los Angeles at Laemmle Royal. One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, SEVEN SAMURAI tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits. This three-hour ride from Akira Kurosawa—featuring legendary actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura—seamlessly weaves philosophy and entertainment, delicate human emotions and relentless action, into a rich, evocative, and unforgettable tale of courage and hope. Cannes hosted the 4K restoration – reworked by Toho Co. Ltd. – last […]

LOST IN THE STARS, THE SEA IS WATCHING And ZATOICHI Lead The Way For Australia’s Imprint Asia Launch In March!

Lee B. Golden III

Aussie label Imprint Films is kicking off its Imprint Asia shingle on March 27 with a trio of lauded titles on limited edition Blu-Ray. Pre-orders are now available for each title both seperately, or as a bundle over at the Imprint website, and I’ve included them in the gallery below with full details and specs on Chen Sicheng’s Lost In The Stars, Akira Kurosawa’s The Sea Is Watching, and Takeshi Kitano’s rousing iteration of The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi. We are kicking off with 2023 Chinese blockbuster LOST IN THE STARS, a Hitchcockian crime mystery thriller produced by Chen Sicheng, “one of the giants of contemporary Chinese Cinema” (Variety). The film follows the disappearance of He Fei’s wife, Li Muzi. When she returns, he insists that she is not his wife… THE SEA IS WATCHING (2002) is coming to Blu-ray for the first time worldwide, a Japanese romance based on the […]

Kurosawa Classic, RASHOMON, To Stir Episodic Mystery And Intrigue For Amblin TV

Lee B. Golden III

Amblin Television announced on Tuesday that it has optioned the rights to Akira Kurosawa’s highly-acclaimed Toshiro Mifune starrer, Rashomon. Based originally off of Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s 1922 short story, “In The Grove”, the film serves as a hugely celebrated classic – initially met with negative reviews at home before its international recognition a cornerstone of cinematic history and film academia. The 12th century-set groundbreaking and iconic 1950 film depicting the mystery and intrigue surrounding recount of events centered on a bandit accused of raping a woman and murdering her samurai husband, will serve as the basis for a new series from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin’s television banner. Ryan Faughnder at the Los Angeles Times reports that the news comes at a momentous moment for the TV shingle which, in the wake of the proliferation of streaming services such as Netflix and the like, is ponying up more than $50 million in equity […]

Martin Scorsese To Possibly Sit With Yuen Woo-Ping And Donnie Yen To Discuss SEVEN SAMURAI

Lee B. Golden III

I have pretty much lost count as to the amount of films international action star Donnie Yen is racking up on these days. It feels like he is planning on staying as busy as possible for the next two years, laying out more and more movie announcements every week. And although today’s report from Deadline may not count as an official announcement, there is plenty of reason for this to possibly exist somewhere down the line. Mike Fleming Jr. writes: “Right after my Deadline Hollywood colleague Pete Hammond moderated a Weinstein Company panel this morning on Big Eyes, the film that Tim Burton will direct with Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams, I moderated another on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Destiny, a sequel to the 2000 film that won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and at the time became the biggest grossing foreign language film in America. I was joined […]