Kurosawa, Akira

Summary: While young Sanshiro is enrolled in a jujitsu school, he also secretly studies the more spiritual art of judo; follows the stories of several female volunteer workers at an optics plant during World War II; Sanshiro becomes the target of revenge; Lord Yoshitsune and his samurai bodyguards dress as monks in order to pass through enemy territory.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2010

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN FIR

Summary: Set in postwar Japan, the film follows the last two decades in the life of Hyakken Uchida, a free spirited writer and teacher, highlighted by his relationship with his students who venerate him in his old age.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: WinStar TV & Video 2001

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN MAD

Summary: An aging warlord decides to split his kingdom between his three sons, who will live in three separate castles. The two eldest sons are quite happy, but the youngest thinks his father has gone mad, and predicts that it won't be long until the two older brothers are fighting with each other.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: 2005

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN RAN

Summary: A princess must escape across enemy lines with the royal treasure, guarded only by a loyal general and two greedy peasants.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2001

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN HID

Summary: In the year 1860, a wandering samurai-for-hire turns the war between two clans fighting for control of a small town to his own advantage. It is a satire on greed, violence, paranoia and human weakness.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: The Criterion Collection 1999

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN YOJ

Summary: A botched kidnapping of a Japanese executive's son turns into a race-against-time.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2008

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN HIG

Summary: Academy Award-winning director Akira Kurosawa, whose cinematic genius has inspired such classic films as 'Star Wars' and 'The Magnificent Seven', presents his 28th, and most personal film. Visually splendid, Kurosawa's film consists of eight powerful vignettes, one of which features acclaimed director Martin Scorsese as painter Vincent Van Gogh.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Warner Home Video 2011

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN DRE

Summary: A documentary of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa featuring his family, colleagues and critics from Japan and America commenting on the man and his films. Includes excerpts from many of his famous works.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Wellspring Media 2002

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC KUR

Summary: A 16th century Japanese village hires professional warriors to fend off bandits. When the samurai arrive, a spectacular series of battles begins.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Janus Films 1998

Copies Available at Woodmere

2 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN SEV

Summary: In 16th century Japan, an aging ruler attempts to divide his kingdom among his three sons. They turn against each other and betray their father, triggering events that ultimately shatter the kingdom, destroy the family, and drive their father insane. Based on Shakespeare's King Lear.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Wellsping 2003

Copies Available at Woodmere

2 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN RAN

Summary: A Baron, forced by circumstances, gives up his life of luxury and to takes up residence in the slums of Paris. The Baron observes the frustrated romance between Wasska Pepel and Natacha, the thwarted dreams of an actor, and the oppressive cruelties of landlord Kostileff.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2004

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN LOW

Summary: The murder of a man and the rape of his wife in a forest grove, seen from four different perspectives.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: The Criterion Collection 2008

Copies Available at Woodmere

2 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN RAS

Summary: Adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in feudal Japan. Tells the story of a Samurai lord who kills his master and usurps his power in fulfillment of a witch's prophecy.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2003

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN THR

Summary: Reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and the pageantry or war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic about a peasant impersonating a nobleman in battle. Kagemusha is presented in its original 180 min. uncut Japanese version, not the shortened "international version" presented by 20th Century Fox.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion 2005

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN KAG

Summary: Several convicts from a high-security prison escape the inhumane treatment of Chief Guard Ranken and break out into the icy Alaskan wilderness. The cons flee onto a departing freight train only to find themselves prisoners on a speeding train that is hurtling toward certain derailment, its conductor dead of a sudden heart attack.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: MGM Home Entertainment 1998

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Action / Adventure DVDs, Call number: DVD ACTION/ADVENTURE RUN

Summary: A young detective goes undercover in Tokyo's sweltering streets to find the pickpocket who stole his gun.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2004

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN STR

Summary: In the year 1860, a wandering samurai-for-hire turns the war between two clans fighting for control of a small town to his own advantage. A satire on greed, violence, paranoia and human weakness.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2006

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN YOJ

Summary: Discovering that he is in the terminal stages of cancer, a clerk spends his last months in search of the meaning to life. After his pursuit of pleasure has failed, he finds self-realization in bringing about the building of a children's playground in the slums and dies quiety fulfilled.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2004

Copies Available at Woodmere

2 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN IKI

Summary: Set in the Middle Ages, the nature of truth and subjective reality are probed in a series of flashbacks from four viewpoints to present the case history of a man's murder and the rape of his wife by a bandit.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 2002

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN RAS

Summary: Satire in which a skillful but slovenly samurai comes to the aid of a group of naive young warriors fighting their corrupt clan leaders.

Format: moving image

Publisher / Publication Date: Criterion Collection 1999

Copies Available at Woodmere

1 available in Foreign DVDs, Call number: DVD FOREIGN SAN