@@hachidori1065 "...and tired artists steal from themselves." But Picasso didn't say what's attributed to him; according to Quote Investigator (.com) no one did.
Right: "That's not how I remember it." Kurosawa very influential on some of the best directors: anyone notice how the walk of the hunter in the wood at the beginning of RASHOMON is very similarly shot to E.T.'s woodland walk at the beginning of that film...?
Rashomon is based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s literature. He also wrote a short story called Rashomon, but the movie is based on Akutagawa’s Yabu No Naka (In the bush).
This is what I consider Rashomon the greatest movie of all time, and Altman explains it well. More than that, any movie that encourages me to think beyond the screen and doesn't give me answers but gives me a lot of questions, is a great film. PTxS
Brings to mind mystic Robert Anton Wilson's idea that we all live in our own "reality tunnels". "You are the master who makes the grass green", and "the map is not the territory".
I got here by way of " Cry me a River", sung by Julie London,written by her husband, a friend of Altman who had three lines in M.A.S.H. God what great lines, what a great movie.
He trashed both Titanic and American Beauty, calling them the worst films he's ever seen. Altman could have created Titanic, and there would be no difference, so he must've been really jealous of James Cameron.
He is wrong to criticise Mifune's character acting. Japanese people (who reject, or are ejected from the stifling conformist society) are like this. They are uncivil out of control personalities, animalistic and strangely attractive.
The commentary I heard on the DVD explained that it was done on purpose, but I can't remember the explanation the critic gave. But I'm pretty sure Kurosawa wasn't intending to comment on the whole of "Japanese people" by directing the character in that way.
Dionysus I will say that Kurosawa likely aimed for a theatrical style with his characters. That being said, Japan (or at least, traditional Japan without its industrialized elements), and indeed most of the world today, are members of a collectivist, agonistic society, which means that uniformity is key, and that honor/shame is a central social dynamic. People in these societies possess a dramatic orientation that appears strange to those who live in a Western individualistic society. This characteristic may have also been an important influence on Kurosawa’s characters. If you would like to know more about this subject, I suggest the following books: “The Japanese Mind” by Roger Davies and Osamu Ikeno, and “Honour, Family and Patronage” by J. K. Campbell.
I'm hopeful one day Hollywood will get back to making strictly American films. You do not need to make a film inclusive for every country. Example: When Kurosawa was a kid he watched John Ford films that were strictly American and Kurosawa's films were strictly Japanese. Altman points out that a person from Japan will see a Kurosawa film differently from an American, just as an American will see a Western or Film Noir movie differently than someone in Japan or elsewhere.
