ONLINE: A Zoom invitation link will be sent one day before each class session begins.
Note: Both films are in Japanese with English subtitles.
Two Films by Akira Kurosawa: Rashomon and Yojimbo
Akira Kurosawa directed some sixty-one films in his distinguished career and frequently wrote their screenplays. In Rashomon (1950), a woman has been raped and her husband killed. We view the events as remembered by four witnesses, each of whom offers contradictory and self-serving details. The movie questions whether it is possible to ever know the full truth about any event. Yojimbo (1961) is less philosophical. Instead, it offers clever non-stop action with a touch of dark humor. An unfortunate village is under attack from rival criminal gangs. A lone samurai arrives and agrees to defend the villagers by pitting the gangs against each other. The films exemplify Kurosawa’s fondness for visual storytelling with reduced dialog. John Stewart is a retired software developer with degrees in biology from the University of Michigan. He is not a movie maven, but he enjoys films with a foreign touch and he believes these two will appeal to Elderwise cinema lovers.
