Thought my favourite Japanese director was Mizoguchi, then I watched High and Low and fell in love with Kurosawa again.
This is interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa#Reputation_among_filmmakers
Look at the renowned directors who have been influenced by him: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Satyajit Ray, John Woo, Zhang Yimou, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, J. J. Abrams… He’s also praised by other masters of cinema such as Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Federico Fellini…
But what I find really interesting is that people’s favourite Kurosawa films can be quite different. I imagine that if you ask people about their favourite Fellini films, the answers are pretty predictable: 8 ½, La Dolce Vita, La Strada, Amarcord. Perhaps someone would say Le notti di Cabiria (as I do), but those are the usual answers. With Mizoguchi, Ugetsu Monogatari would always be mentioned, then perhaps The Life of Oharu, Sansho the Bailiff, Miss Oyu, The Crucified Lovers.
The 3 favourite Kurosawa films would be quite different—he after all made many masterpieces*. Personally, my choices are Ran, The Bad Sleep Well, and High and Low.
What about yours?
*: Same for Ingmar Bergman, actually. My 3 favourite Bergman films are Persona, Cries and Whispers, and either Wild Strawberries or The Seventh Seal.
Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Ran. Not a very original choice, I know.
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