Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman

Watched the first movie in the series - Tale of Zatoichi. All the movies are available for free streaming on Hulu this week courtesy of Criterion. It was really good. Perfectly paced and quite captivating. I want to look up the actor who played Zatoichi. He was so good. I want to watch all the films now. Maybe I'll try and sneak in a couple more before the week is up. Highly recommended.

Here's the link to the first one on Hulu. Only annoyance is that they have stupid ads breaking up the movie. I guess it's no worse than watching a movie on TV. At least they don't pull a Spotify on you and not let you mute the ads. I hate Spotify so much for that shit. But that's a rant for another day. Go watch Zatoichi be badass. Gogogo.

Hamlet

Somehow I never read Hamlet in its entirety. I tried once when I was in school but the language was way too difficult. So I gave up and picked up an easier book that basically described the plots of famous Shakespeare plays instead. Thus I know the story of Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet and a bunch of others without having actually read the original works. I think I did eventually manage to read at least one Shakespeare play all the way through, but for the life of me I can't remember which one it was.

Anyway, I've decided it is about time to rectify this gross oversight and got a copy of Hamlet for my kindle. The reason for choosing Hamlet first is, of course, because I want to finish it before Haider comes out. I know the movie isn't set to be released for another 8 months but I wanted to play it safe. Which, as it turns out, was a good call because I started reading two nights ago and finally managed to finish Act 1, Scene 1 only last night. I would've finished it in one night but for that long speech of Horatio's. Halfway through it my eyes glazed over and I couldn't read another word.

But I shall trudge on. After all when I read my first Sherlock Holmes book, I was just as baffled by the language and had to refer to a dictionary every sentence pretty much. And yet within the next year I had devoured every single book Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. So too shall I conquer the mighty bard!

There will be no not to be in this case. But here's a video on To Be or Not to Be, the movie, an old favorite of mine:

Criterion again

I'll keep this one short and simple. Just watch:

Kurosawa

"Kurosawa has the ability to bring things out of you that you never knew were there. It is enormously difficult work, but each picture with him is a revelation. When you see his films, you find them full realizations of ideas, of emotions, of a philosophy which surprises with its strength, even shocks with its power. You had not expected to be so moved, to find within your own self this depth of understanding."

— Toshiro Mifune on Akira Kurosawa

This quote came up on my Facebook feed today thanks to Criterion (great collection of cinema from around the world, in case you haven't heard about it). Do you like Kurosawa? What is your favourite of his films? Mine used to be Rashomon. But right at this very moment I'm leaning towards Ikiru. Still love Rashomon though and Seven Samurai too, of course, but there's just something about Ikiru that resonates with me today.



Still haven't seen any of his later works though. Should get around to doing that sometime...