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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Is Akira Kurosawa the key? Ep 3

Discussion in 'Archive: Revenge of the Sith' started by TK327, Dec 28, 2001.

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  1. QuarrellaDeVil

    QuarrellaDeVil Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    May 2, 2003
    Bump, bump, bump!
     
  2. QuarrellaDeVil

    QuarrellaDeVil Jedi Youngling

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    May 2, 2003
    OK, it's out. Some of you have seen it already (I'll see it tomorrow). Any obvious Kurosawa stuff this time around? And did rumour hold true that Yoda rubs the back of his head, à la Takashi Shimura in "Seven Samurai"?



     
  3. Samurai-Jack

    Samurai-Jack Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Nov 9, 2001
    Yes he does.
    In the scene when Mace is saying he doesn't trust Anakin and Palpatine together.
     
  4. SnakeCharmer

    SnakeCharmer Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    May 9, 2004
    Loved the head rub. Almost died of happiness. But the movie was more Dune then anything.
     
  5. Swamp Daddy

    Swamp Daddy Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 1998
    Yeah, the head rub was great. One of many nice little touches in Yoda's performance.
     
  6. Rekka-No-Ryo

    Rekka-No-Ryo Jedi Youngling

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    May 21, 2005
    I have always liked this thread, and on another note, I need to keep better tracks of my accounts, as this is my 3rd one..
     
  7. bad radio

    bad radio Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 26, 1999
    My favorite Kurosawa moments in Revenge of the Sith:

    - When Obi-Wan tricks Padmé into leading him straight to Anakin. This parallels the part of the story in The Bad Sleep Well where the wife is tricked into leading her father right to the air-raid shelter where her husband is hiding out.

    - The whole reveal of Palpatine and the trap he sets for the Jedi. This corresponds to Sanjuro when the Superintendent is secretly trying to take over the clan and sets a trap for the group of boy-samurai. Remember how Sanjuro warns the boy-samurai of his feelings about the Superintendent? How Sanjuro believes the Superintendent ?is the one behind it all? and then later his intuitions turn out to be correct?

    - I like how Anakin was already plotting to destroy Sidious once Sidious gained full control of the Republic. I was instantly reminded of Sanjuro when Muroto explains how he is going to kill the Superintendent once the Superintendent gets control of the clan.

    - The Obi-Wan and Anakin duel and then what Padmé says later about how she feels there is still good in Anakin. This parallels the confrontations between the doctor and the gangster in Drunken Angel where the doctor is always pointing out to the gangster the ways in which the gangster has gone wrong. There even that line where the doctor says how the gangster?s boss has twisted the gangster?s mind. Then there?s the coda at the end of the film after the gangster has died where the gangster?s girlfriend tells the doctor that there was still some good in the gangster.

    - Where Obi-Wan warns Anakin that it?s over right before Anakin looses his arm and legs. This comes from the Sanjuro character and ?This, says Kurosawa, is the way to deal with the world. If possible, avoid the encounter, warn even of the consequences, but if worst comes to worst, then do your worst.? Obi-Wan warned Anakin before he did what he had to do.

    - The biggest Kurosawa moment? This one that comes straight out of Kurosawa?s life and is one which all directors who admire Kurosawa always somehow work into their films. When Kurosawa was kid he lived through the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. Here are some of the things he saw in the aftermath of the earthquake:


    Amid this expanse of nauseating redness lay every kind of corpse imaginable. I saw corpses charred black, half-burned corpses, corpses in gutters, corpses floating in rivers, corpses poled up on the bridges, corpses blocking off a whole street at an intersection, and every manner of death possible to human beings displayed by corpses. When I involuntarily looked away, my brother scolded me, ?Akira, look carefully now.?

    I failed to understand my brother?s intentions and could only resent his forcing me to look at the awful sights. The worst was when we stood on the bank of the red-dyed Sumidagawa River and gazed at the throngs of corpses pressed against its shores. I felt my knees give way as I started to faint, but my brother grabbed me by the collar and propped me up again. He repeated, ?Look carefully, Akira.?

    I resigned myself to gritting my teeth and looking. Even if I tried to close my eyes, that scene had imprinted itself permanently on the backs of my eyelids. In this way, convincing myself that it way in escapable, I felt a little bit calmer. But there is no way for me to describe adequately the horror I saw. I remember thinking that the lake of blood that say exists in Buddhist hell couldn?t possibly be as bad as this.[?]

    As far as the eye could see there was not a living soul. The only living things in this landscape were my brother and I. To me we seemed as small as two beans in all this vastness. Or else we too were dead and were standing at the gates of hell.[?]

    The night we returned from the horrifying excursion I was fully prepared to be unable to sleep, or to have terrible nightmares if I did. But no sooner had I laid my head on the pillow than it was morning. I had slept like a log, and I couldn?t remember anything frightening from my dreams. This seemed
     
  8. DARTHJOSEPH

    DARTHJOSEPH Jedi Youngling star 2

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    May 11, 2005
    Kurosawa is 1/2 of the answer the other 1/2 is Joseph Campbell. Lucas' story comes from Mythology/Campbells' books. His style comes from Kurosawa. I don't know if it's been mentioned before but Toshiro Miffune originaly auditioned to be OB1 in ANH.
     
  9. R2_kill_bot

    R2_kill_bot Jedi Youngling

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    May 12, 2005
    Outstanding observations bad radio, and to the others who have actually seen Kurosawa movies! Ran is amazing for it's battle sequence and we all know the Hidden Fortress connections. Yojimbo influence of conflicts, etc. I wish there was a Jedi based on Sanjuro.

    I'm not sure how many of you have seen Dreams but this is one of the more surreal movies Kurosawa made. Some of the GL's aliens, scenes and other character interaction has overtones from Dreams. i.e the Sunshine through the Rain aka. the fox's wedding, The Blizzard, Mount Fuji in Red, the Weeping Demon.
     
  10. DARTHJOSEPH

    DARTHJOSEPH Jedi Youngling star 2

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    May 11, 2005
    "I wish there was a Jedi based on Sanjuro."

    In a way there is...Anakin. Like Sanjuro, Anakin played both sides to get his way. He succedeed in killing the Jedi, destroying the empire and made sure his offspring were the only ones left in the galaxy with knowledge of the Force.

    It's kind of a stretch but think about it and you have your Sanjuro Jedi!
     
  11. TravCon12

    TravCon12 Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 7, 1998
    Please forgive the cut-and-paste from another thread but I could not quite find a perfect fit for my comments but wanted to see what others thought.

    Anyone else notice what appreared to me to be a nod to Terence Malick and The Thin Red Line?

    Note that in the making of The Thin Red Line several actors said that Malick would run them through a scene several times and then for the last take he would make them do the scene but not actually say their lines. Malick would have the actors just move around, look at each other, say the lines in their heads, assume the other actor is doing the same and try to play out the scene without the words. In addition if you listen to the part where Nolte's character and Travolta's character are discussing the coming invasion of Guadalcanal on the transport ship there is a part where I believe Malick choose to use the part of the takes where he had the actors do the scene without dialogue. It was scored by Hans Zimmer and its on the sound track as Track 2. Now if you take the scene with Padme and Anakin both looking out the window and listen to the score (Padme's Ruminations) at that point it very nearly mirrors the scene from The Thin Red Line.

    Am I crazy?

    Even if its not a nod or inspiration I like the parrallels.
     
  12. HaN___DoLO3

    HaN___DoLO3 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 6, 2003
    bad radio, please come back.

    I want more...
     
  13. DARTHMORDOR

    DARTHMORDOR Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 17, 2003
    I did not read all 32 pages but felt I had to mention this.

    in ROTS when obi wan confronts grivious it is a bow to hidden fortress once again. he is allowed single combat with the general. and there is a few moments of postering by both the generals. the scene is a direct reference to the duel in hidden fortress.
     
  14. TK327

    TK327 Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    May 7, 2001
    Nice catch DarthMordor.

    bad_radio: really liked the parallel between the end of Sanjuro and the finale of THE duel. Interesting that Sanjuro is where we first see some gore in a Kurosawa film.
     
  15. qui-gon-kim

    qui-gon-kim Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 19, 2001
    Anyone else notice what appreared to me to be a nod to Terence Malick and The Thin Red Line?

    Note that in the making of The Thin Red Line several actors said that Malick would run them through a scene several times and then for the last take he would make them do the scene but not actually say their lines. Malick would have the actors just move around, look at each other, say the lines in their heads, assume the other actor is doing the same and try to play out the scene without the words. In addition if you listen to the part where Nolte's character and Travolta's character are discussing the coming invasion of Guadalcanal on the transport ship there is a part where I believe Malick choose to use the part of the takes where he had the actors do the scene without dialogue. It was scored by Hans Zimmer and its on the sound track as Track 2. Now if you take the scene with Padme and Anakin both looking out the window and listen to the score (Padme's Ruminations) at that point it very nearly mirrors the scene from The Thin Red Line.

    Am I crazy?


    Actually I thought that Order 66 and the music plaing during the scene (Anakin's Betrayal) reminded me alot of the scene in the Thin Red Line when the Americans invade the Japanese camp. It evoked the same sense of tragedy for me.
     
  16. QuarrellaDeVil

    QuarrellaDeVil Jedi Youngling

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    May 2, 2003
    Way back in '03, Bad Radio said this:

    "Everyone?s wondering what the ?big twist? in the prequels is going to be. George says his favorite Kurosawa film besides Seven Samurai is Ikiru. Anyone who has seen this film might agree with me that Ikiru?s hero, Watanabe, is the one character in all of Kurosawa?s films that most resembles Anakin in SW. If this is the case, then prepare yourself for the real shocker: Anakin knows about Luke and ends up joining the Sith to protect his son from Palaptine. To quote Watanabe: ?I did it all for the sake of my son.?"

    Obviously, that's not exactly how it panned out, but there's definitely some similarities. If memory serves, Anakin says something to Padme on Mustafar to the effect of "I did this for us." In Watanabe's case, look at where his 'sacrifice' got him: A crummy life. In Anakin's case, despite doing what he did for the sake of wife and family, he, too, ended up something a little bit larger along the lines of "a crummy life."

    Shame on me for not mentioning this when I -saw- the movie for the first time, the week it came out.
     
  17. All_Powerful_Jedi

    All_Powerful_Jedi Force Ghost star 4

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    Sep 12, 2003
    That aspect of it certainly did turn out to be true. I really like the way Lucas went into the psychology behind what drove Anakin to do the things he did, and even a little bit into Palpatine's motives.

    Of course, Anakin nearly killed the people he did it for, but that's the Dark Side for you.
     
  18. TK327

    TK327 Force Ghost star 4

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    May 7, 2001
    So, do JJ or Johnson have a thing for Kurosawa?
     
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