Directed by the legendary Akira Kurosawa, Ran was one of his final films. Released in 1985, it is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's King Lear set in Japan's Sengoku period. After Throne of ...

The first (and only) season of FX's Shōgun came to a close this week, with Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) unifying control of Japan, though at a steep cost. Toranaga is closely based on Tokugawa ...

There’s something nearly impossible to explain to people who weren’t there, or weren’t there in that way: what it meant to walk into a mall theater in Shreveport in 1985 and sit down to watch a movie.

It's the 70th anniversary of "Seven Samurai," but the Japanese master had way more to offer than just his best-known titles. Even among the more underrated Akira Kurosawa films are timeless ...

An in depth look at the making of Kurosawa's films. Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Sanjuro' Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'The Lower Depths' Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful ...

J.S. Gornael has a BA in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis in Poetry and an MFA in Fiction. He has taken workshops in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction (though mostly the second). Half-cinephile ...