Kurosawa Centennial 1910-2010

In honor of the centennial of incomparable director Akira Kurosawa (1919-1998), Film Forum is celebrating with a month-long retrospective of all off his history-making films, as well as his lesser-known classics and his earliest endeavors, including his wartime directorial debut. The festival runs January 6–February 4, 2010, followed by a two-week run of Ran, starring Tatsuya Nakadai.

The festival opens with a 9-day run (Jan. 6-14) of Stray Dog, starring Toshiro Mifune as a cop searching for his stolen service revolver through post-war Tokyo. Other films include the landmark Seven Samurai, the inspiration for The Magnificent Seven; Throne of Blood, Kurosawa's take on MacBeth; Rashomon, the film that made him a world-class name; Hidden Fortress,which, as everyone knows by now, inspired Star Wars; Yojimbo, High and Low, Ikiru, Ran, as well as his lesser-known The Bad Sleep Well and I Live in Fear.

His first movie with actor Mifune, Drunken Angel, launched one of the greatest collaborations in movie history, not only as a team with remarkable output, but resulting in the best, most time-honored films in the canons of both artists.

Stray Dog (1949) Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
January 6-14 (9 Days) New 35mm Print

Throne of Blood (1957) Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada
January 15 Fri

The Hidden Fortress (1958) Toshiro Mifune, Misa Uehara
January 16 Sat

The Idiot
(1951) Toshiro Mifune, Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori
January 17 Sun

Sanshiro Sugata I (1943)
Sanshiro Sugata II (1945)
January 18 Mon

One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
They Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945)
January 19 Tue

Ikiru (1952) Takashi Shimura
January 20 Wed

I Live in Fear (1955) Toshiro Mifune
January 21 Thu

High and Low
(1963) Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai
January 22 Fri

Drunken Angel (1948) Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
January 23 Sat

The Quiet Duel (1949) Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
January 24 Sun

Scandal (1950) Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
January 24 Sun

The Most Beautiful
(1944) Yoko Yaguchi (The Future Mrs. Kurosawa)
No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) Setsuko Hara
January 25 Mon

The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa
January 26 Tue

Kagemusha (1980) Tatsuya Nakadai
January 27 Wed

Rashomon (1950) New 35mm Restoration
Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo
January 28 Thu

Dreams (1990) Martin Scorsese
January 28 Thu

Seven Samurai (1954) Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
January 29/30 Fri/sat

The Lower Depths
(1957) Toshiro Mifune, Bokuzen Hidari
January 31/February 1 Sun/Mon

Rhapsody in August
(1991) Sachiko Murase, Richard Gere
February 1 Mon

Dodes'ka-den (1970) New 35mm Print!
February 1 Mon

Red Beard (1965) Toshiro Mifune
February 2 Tue

Yojimbo (1961) Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai
Sanjuro (1962) Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai
February 3 Wed

Dersu Uzala (1975)
February 4 Thu

Ran (1985) Tatsuya Nakadai
February 5-18 (2 Weeks) New 35mm Print

More details can be found at www.filmforum.org.

Film Forum
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New York City
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