Had the great director Akira Kurosawa not died in 1998, today would have been his 103rd birthday. In his honor, Hulu is offering 24 of his movies free on streaming video—but only through Sunday. The link is here, and you should watch at least one.
My very strong recommendation is Ikiru, in my opinion one of the best five movies ever made (see my list of favorite movies here). It gets an astonishing 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes (31 critics), and Roger Ebert’s review is right on the money.
My nephew Steven, a movie buff with a master’s degree in film, called the Kurosawa site to my attention, and added this note:
Of course there’s Ikiru, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, etc, but also some lesser known works. His final feature, Madadayo, is a quiet gem.
But if you haven’t watched Ikiru, do it. Please. For me.
Thank you for this!!! I love and own Seven Samurai but have not seen Ikiru. I greatly enjoyed Dreams as well.
Totes going to watch it.
Unfortunately UK peeps don’t get access to Hulu.
All non-USAians are excluded – unless you use a proxy service.
Ha! Watched Ikiru and Seven Samurai last night. This is treat for me as I’m watching Hulu in sunny Anaheim. I live in Calgary and normally can’t watch…
Agree about Ikiru. Great cinema.
Warning: Hulu is interrupting the films with commercials. Is that usual for them?
I found ‘Ikiru’ bloody depressing on the whole. The final sequence is wonderful, however.
Not available in Canada – very disappointing
Not available in Australia either – I was going to watch Ikiru, damn!
Anonymous proxies based in the USA do the job fine. I suspect some may even have free trials.
And, all the Star Trek series are currently free on Hulu until the end of the month in honour of Shatner’s birthday (unfortunately, the original series is the “remastered” version with CGI).
“Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States”
This makes me a sad panda 🙁
I was all set to watch Rashomon.
As a consolation, I signed up to Quickflix in Australia and put Ikiru/Rashomon/Seven Samurai on my queue. I’ll see them, eventually…
Ikiru is one of my top 10 favourite movies as well. Kurosawa is my favourite director of all time though he did tend to overuse long lenses and some of his shots didn’t quite match up.
I highly recommend his autobiography.
For US use only! I’ve just seen last night Kagemusha –piracy is cute– and last weeks La Règle du Jeu (1939), La Grand Illusion (1937), The Lady with the Dog (1960). The past … they do things differently there.
Thank you for the link Jerry!
Rashomon is a masterpiece!
Not available in Australia!
You really are a tease, Jerry!
Not available in France. Sanglots!
Kurosawa has been one of my favourite directors since I was a kid. Kagemusha and Ran were my favourites back then (and I recently had the pleasure of watching them again with my teenage nephews), later I started to appreciate the non-samurai ones. I fully agree, Ikiru is probably his best (together with Rashomon). In a way, Kurosawa is, for non-Japanese like me, a perfect gateway drug to great Japanese cinema. Without him, I would never have been tempted to watch any Ozu, probably one of the best directors of all time.
I just checked your 2010 list of favorite films you linked to above, and saw that Ozu figures prominently, too. And Herzog and Wenders are listed as well. And Lawrence of Arabia and Chinatown. Excellent.
Ikuru is one of the greatest movies ever made. I watched it once. It’s so emotionally powerful (in all kinds of ways) I just can’t watch it again.
Great movie. Highly recommend one of Kurosawa’s relatively underappreciated movies, High and Low.
Was it Roger Ebert who cunningly noted that *Madadayo* was Kurosawa’s most Ozu-like film?
A moving subplot involves a lovely kitteh, to which even dour feline skeptics like myself could not fail to respond.
In the comically absurd scene of railway stations enumeration, a subtle illustration of the Japanese notion of loyalty hits home harder than any samurai film.
Kurosawa takes the fewest possible shots to describe the American occupation, and American perceptivity about the Japanese in general; the economy of means, the seeming casualness, could be John Ford’s.
As I’m doubly stricken: the yearly pneumonia (manageable), but no reliable broadband link (unmentionable), I’d miss the Kurosawa cycle even if it were available in Europe. But I’ve seen them all, several times, and the impressions are still so vivid that I can recall them in my fevery dreams.
In the meantime, the neighbour’s cuddly little black-and white kitty sneaks in to visit me, so all’s not lost. Madadayo!
Amazing coincidence; I’ve been alternating Satyajit Ray and Kurosawa every night for spring break!
Alternating *between*
I knew it was Kurosawa’s birthday, but not about the free Hulu streaming. Certainly one of the greats. I enjoy almost his whole body of work, but in particular Rashomon, Ran, Throne of Blood, Stray Dog, High and Low, Ikiru (waiting for a Blu-ray upgrade) Yojimbo, and The Bad Sleep Well. (and I, too, have an MFA in film). Most directors are lucky to have a few great films. Kurosawa’s list of greats is staggering.
I bought a copy (used) of Ikiru after you last post on favorite movies. But we haven’t watched it (worried about the downer subject matter.) However, this post and Ebert’s review have convinced me to watch it this weekend!