Having said that I find Nakadai's final moments after a prolonged death scene at the end of the film almost hysterically funny - can I tease Michael Kerpan by describing it thus: Aarrgghhhh!....Saburo!....(flump)
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
But then immediately after that you have the lost scroll/edge of the abyss scene which is an absolutely perfect end to the film!
But then I've always had a strange choice in films - I much prefer Sanjuro to Yojimbo! And of course Red Beard is my very favourite Kurosawa and I like The Idiot very much as well, so hopefully Mr Kerpan will forgive me for being a Ran fan!
Strangely the only Kurosawa I've had trouble with so far is Hidden Fortress. I used to really like that film but I've started to find a lot of the bickering between the peasants more irritating than charming now - perhaps because now that I have seen some of the earlier films which show a lot of empathy for outsider characters (The Idiot being a case in point) I find the caricature of the squabbling peasants in Fortress more of a step back than I had previously thought, whereas before I was more willing to give the film more leeway. Oh well, tastes change and develop I suppose - you gain new insights and lose some older connections you used to have in the process!
(I'd still take it over Star Wars any day though!
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)