Kurosawa Resurrected! Film at Eleven.

Jun 8th, 2008 | By Rick | Category: Akira Kurosawa, News & Comment

So I was rooting around on IMDB the other day, and I came to Akira Kurosawa’s page, and here’s what I saw under “Director”:

  1. Gendai no No (2010) (filming)

And I thought: You can’t fool me . . . Kurosawa’s been dead for years. Must be one of IMDB’s legendary mistakes. Just for yucks, I pressed the link and here’s what the page for Gendai no No says:

Director: Akira Kurosawa

That’s when I knew I was in the twilight zone, but I did some checking, just in case, and whaddya know: it’s all true. Seems that in the early ’80s when filming on Ran was halted due to funding issues, he began Gendai no No (”Modern Noh”). When filming resumed, the documentary was abandoned, but there remain about 50 minutes of footage from a production of Yashima, a play by the 14th-century originator of Noh theater. An additional 60 will be shot following Kurosawa’s original screenplay. Noh theater was a major influence on the director, especially in films likeThrone of Blood, Kagemusha and Ran.

Gendai no No will be released in 2010 as part of the celebration of Kurosawa’s 100th birthday. As an early celebration, here’s a trailer from The Hidden Fortress.

9 comments
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  1. Daniel June 9th, 2008 11:27 am :

    Wow, Rick. Thanks for bringing that to our attention. I didn’t know and am looking forward.

  2. Rick June 9th, 2008 11:53 am :

    Yeah, me too. I love a good resurrection …

  3. Jonathan Lapper June 9th, 2008 1:40 pm :

    Is Chaplin working on anything new?

  4. Luke Harrington June 9th, 2008 9:44 pm :

    Awesomest. News. Ever.

  5. Rick June 10th, 2008 12:36 am :

    Jonathan: is that Geraldine or Ben?

    I do look forward to it, Luke, but I’m kind of curious how it’s going to be Kurosawa if over half of it’s shot by someone else. Still, should be interesting.

  6. Jonathan Lapper June 10th, 2008 7:28 am :

    Fred.

  7. Shubhajit June 27th, 2008 10:59 pm :

    Great, even a dead Kurosawa seems have not lost his ability to surprise us. Thanks for the information.

  8. Shubhajit June 27th, 2008 11:00 pm :

    Great, even a dead Kurosawa seems to have not lost his ability to surprise us. Thanks for the information.

  9. Rick June 27th, 2008 11:06 pm :

    No prob, Shubhajit. Thanks for the comment. I have grave doubts about the project, but am keeping an open mind.

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