Rashomon
1950 · Akira Kurosawa
Four tellings of one crime — the film that taught the world to doubt the witness.
Find it on Amazon →Ikiru
1952 · Akira Kurosawa
A dying bureaucrat searches for meaning — his most quietly humane masterpiece.
Find it on Amazon →Seven Samurai
1954 · Akira Kurosawa
The template for every team-assembled epic since — three hours of perfection.
Find it on Amazon →Throne of Blood
1957 · Akira Kurosawa
Macbeth as Noh nightmare, ending in an unforgettable hail of arrows.
Find it on Amazon →The Hidden Fortress
1958 · Akira Kurosawa
A rollicking adventure George Lucas openly mined for Star Wars.
Find it on Amazon →Yojimbo
1961 · Akira Kurosawa
Mifune's wandering ronin plays two gangs against each other with a smirk.
Find it on Amazon →Sanjuro
1962 · Akira Kurosawa
The wittier Yojimbo sequel, ending on cinema's greatest geyser of blood.
Find it on Amazon →High and Low
1963 · Akira Kurosawa
A kidnapping morality play in two halves, newly restored in 4K by Criterion.
Find it on Amazon →Kagemusha
1980 · Akira Kurosawa
A thief impersonates a warlord in Kurosawa's late-career color epic.
Find it on Amazon →Ran
1985 · Akira Kurosawa
King Lear as sixteenth-century catastrophe — his final, blazing masterpiece.
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