Films
Read about the filmsFind a film by title, director, mood or the time you have.
Three hours that fly. The template for the epic.
One crime, four truths, no easy answers.
A ransom demand turns one room, then an entire city, into evidence.
A wandering samurai walks into a feud and starts rearranging the odds.
A life measured in paperwork discovers one unfinished thing that matters.
A doctor tries to treat a gangster with tuberculosis in postwar Tokyo. Their uneasy bond puts care up against pride, with Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune pulling in opposite directions.
A stolen police pistol sends a young detective through the heat and desperation of post-war Tokyo.
Kurosawa relocates Macbeth to feudal Japan, where a warrior’s rise is inseparable from ambition and betrayal. Fog, landscape and Noh-derived performance give the familiar tragedy a different dramatic language.
A general escorts a defeated clan’s princess and treasure through enemy territory, accompanied by two unreliable peasants. The mission has a clear goal and a persistently awkward human complication.
A young executive pursues the person responsible for his father’s death. Kurosawa carries the revenge story into the offices and hierarchies of postwar corporate Japan.
A scruffy, experienced samurai helps a group of idealistic young warriors confront corruption within their clan. His methods make their ideas of proper conduct look dangerously naive.
An ambitious young doctor joins a clinic serving poor patients and clashes with its formidable director. His education becomes a test of what medical skill is actually for.
Still deciding? Ask Momo.
Read a film closely
Character companions, film comparisons and a closer look at particular scenes.
- Seven Samurai
Who are the seven samurai?
Names, actors and roles to keep the seven apart.
- The Wages of Fear
The original, Sorcerer, or the remake?
Three films compared before you choose.
- Breathless
What disappears in a jump cut?
A diagram of the time Godard leaves out.
- Wild Strawberries
What do the dreams mean?
Trace the clocks, mirror and final scene.
After watching · Spoilers - Persona
Why hear the same speech twice?
Follow who speaks and whose face fills the frame.
After watching · Spoilers - Bicycle Thieves
What happens at the end?
The final encounter, seen through father and son.
After watching · Spoilers