John Beck

Athlete. Artist. Agnostic. Humanist. Skeptic. Unfinished.

TCM Akira Kurosawa day, part 4!

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Tonight is the last night of Akira Kurosawa day on TCM! Part 4 of the 100th anniversary of his birth. 3 great Kurosawa films TONIGHT:

8:00 PM Dersu Uzala (1975)
A Russian explorer brings the Asiatic hunter who saved his life back to civilization.
Cast: Maksim Munzuk, Yuriy Solomin, M Bichkov, V Khrulev Dir: Akira Kurosawa C-141 mins, TV-PG

10:30 PM Kagemusha (1980)
Japanese clansmen force a poor thief to impersonate their dead warlord.
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, Kota Yui Dir: Akira Kurosawa C-181 mins, TV-PG

1:45 AM Ran (1985)
An aging lord’s decision to retire brings out the worst in his sons.
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu Dir: Akira Kurosawa C-163 mins

TCM Akira Kurosawa day, part 3!

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Today is Akira Kurosawa day on TCM! Part 3 of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Kurosawa films all day and night; TONIGHT:

8:00 PM Rashomon (1950)
In medieval Japan, four people offer conflicting accounts of a rape and murder. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-88 mins, TV-PG

9:30 PM Seven Samurai (1954)
Japanese villagers hire a team of traveling samurai to defend them against a bandit attack. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Kuninori Kodo. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-207 mins, TV-14

1:00 AM Yojimbo (1961)
A samurai-for-hire sets the warring factions of a Japanese town against each other. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Seizaburo Kawazu. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-111 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

3:00 AM Sanjuro (1962)
 A wandering samurai recruits younger fighters to help him battle corruption. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Hakadai, Yuzo Kayama. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. BW-96 mins, TV-14, Letterbox Format

100th Anniversary of Akira Kurosawa's Birth

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I just posted this to my Facebook and just had to put it here on the blog as well:

This started last Tuesday on TCM! 100th Anniversary of Akira Kurosawa’s Birthday. Showing about 5 films a night. Last week they showed Throne of Blood and The Hidden Fortress. Tonight (1:15) they’re showing Red Beard. Next week is 4 INCREDIBLE films, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. The last Tuesday of the month they’re showing Kagemusha and Ran. Be sure to DVR all the films I listed if you haven’t seen them yet. They are not only classic Japanese films but they’re some of the most important films in the history of cinema. I’ve included the link for the complete schedule (only on Tuesday nights). WOW!!!!!

http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=290029

I just mentioned my favorite of the films that they’re showing, there’s actually a few lesser known ones that I hadn’t seen but I’ve seen the majority of them. I’ve included links to the Wikipedia entries of each film. Rashomon and Seven Samurai are arguably his 2 greatest films so they can’t be missed. I’m really curious how good they look in HD. As far as I know, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Kagemusha and Ran are the only ones available on Blu-Ray. This is the next best thing. Do not miss this!

Hiking Is For Lovers – from RHO-RAE

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Not too long ago I blogged about a postcard that I received. Yesterday I received the following postcard from the super talented Rachel and Rhodes!

Now, as you know I am a huge fan of Rachel’s work. A couple months ago she made me these awesome cuff links! This new postcard is great but the difference compared to the other one is that she had them professionally printed rather than an individually printed lino cut. This new postcard is great but there’s just something special about receiving that lino cut. With that said, It’s still an incredible and unique postcard that hope to get a bunch for myself to send out. You too can get them and other items at their shop; rrcraft.etsy.com

Lovely Lovely

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A couple years ago I posted a top 5 of my favorite current hottie actresses. Here’s my all time favorite hottie actresses. It’s so tough to narrow it down to just 5 but here they are:


Anna Karina
Brigitte Bardot
Jean Seberg
Claudia Cardinale
Audrey Hepburn

and there’s a few honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the top 5; Mia Farrow, Kim Novak, Natalie Wood, Grace Kelly, Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren and Diana Rigg.