Writing and Stuff by Anthony Chatfield

As one of the greatest video game nerds this side of Lake Washington, I spend a decent amount of time every week digging up classic snippets of gaming history, loving dedications to the greatest games of all time, and reading up on news that could not possibly matter less. Regardless, today was a good day for random video gaming goodness, all those bits and…bits of information that I so love to uncover.

First off, God of War II was released today and I was happy to get my copy in the mail. I’m not a rabid fan of this genre of game, usually more frustrated than not with difficulty levels and repetitive gameplay, but as a fan of ancient Greece, and the fact that God of War was such an incredibly awesome game, the second one is here and I’m enjoying it as well. Of course, I still have a dungeon and a half of Zelda left to play and at least 10 hours of Final Fantasy XII to finish, but for now rabid, Spartan killing sprees will hold me over.

Second, I found these links on Transbuddha and Fimoculous. The first is a myspace clone of Zelda characters called Hyspace (as in Hyrule). It’s a goofy collection of all Link’s pals over the years, an epicly nerdy collection, but pretty damn funny for those that are in the know.

Another sidesplitting link I found was a classic snippet of Mario on Ice from the glory days of the Ice Capades, starring Jason Bateman of Arrested Development fame and Alyssa Milano. It’s so incredibly bad, I can’t possible describe it any better than if you just watch it. Be warned. This is awful (and so damn funny).

Finally, long before the YouTube portal opened up, I remember scouring the net for speed clips of video gaming glory. I’m sure anyone who’s done the same has seen the 11 minute Super Mario Bros. 3 clip or the Metroid Prime clip, or even the Ikaruga mastery, all of them Japanese. I found a website though that collects all the best time clips from every game and keeps an archive of them. There’s something humbling about watching these masters destroy any notion of a speed clear you might have accomplished (though I think I could almost rival that Super Mario World time).

Cool Stuff, Free Time, Observations and Thoughts

And now for a foray into something that will only enhance the entire world’s perception of me as an incredible dork. For the record, I’m okay with that. And for my fellow dorks, flame away, if you dare.

I’m treading in dangerous waters, some of the more dangerous nerd infested waters around. I’m familiar to the dangers that lurk, but I still must be wary. And so, looking over both of my shoulders and all around, I step out and ponder the question of which is the best Star Wars film. Let’s start from the top.

It definitely isn’t Episode I.
Ironically of all the films, I’ve seen this one the most, because I was a 13 year-old kid when it was released and thus entirely engrossed in the goofy antics of a computer generated stereotype and a 10-year old delivering the stilted lines of Mr. Lucas. It’s just not that great of a movie, though. George Lucas managed to suck the energy and life out of the original trilogy, replacing it with beaurocratic rambling and pod races.

The characters are unfamiliar and not entirely interesting in the first place, while the layover on Tatooine feels like a not-so cleverly crafted plot device to bring everything together. A lot of coincidences, along side a lot of poorly written dialogue, topped with a pretty cool lightsaber battle make this a disappointing movie that still entertains on a basic popcorn munching level.

Bringing us to Episode II.
Attack of the Clones is a better made film, but still a little too attached to its governments maneuverings. Lucas created a plot point that required a whole lot of filler in the middle to complete, and because of that the first two films were stuffed with all the Trade Federation, Counts, Dukes, Viceroy mumbo jumbo that none of us really paid any attention to. The thing he forgot is that in the original films, all the politics were safely presented in the classic rebellion plot.

Two important things come out of those plots; bad guys and good guys. In the prequels’ political maneuvering we have insurgency and splinter factions, shady dealings and back alley wars. They’re boring as we wait the entire film for the big battle. Episode II does a better job of introducing the familiar elements that we know and love so well, Boba Fett, Obi-Wan as a Jedi Knight, Anakin with a lightsaber. Unfortunately, one of the worst love sequences in the history of popcorn cinema sits in the middle, alongside a completely unnecessary factory escape sequence, and all those political dealings. Of course, the end of this film really kicks things into gear and almost salvages the entirety of the film. One of the most exciting scenes in the entire series (Yoda can move) brought the theater to its feet, and a whole lot of Jedi with a whole lot of light sabers.

Which leads into Episode III.
I’d say the ending of Attack of the Clones leads directly into the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, in which Lucas finally got it right. I’d say it’s probably a matter of so many open plotlines finally filling in, every little bit of the puzzle the audience has been waiting for figuring itself out. The characters we know and love finally appear in their full formed glory and there is a lot of action, really good action, and the trademark humor that the first two films bogged down with hokey plotlines.

This was a good film and the most exciting of the three prequels by far. The return of Vader was on the horizon for 6 years, and when he finally arrived, it was everything promised (minus the Nooooo at the end. How cliché was that). But, could it possibly match up with the original three films. In some ways yes, but in others, not as much.

Episode IV is the original.
Thus it’s a classic for all the obvious reasons. It’s started the whole saga, and no one can forget the first time they saw it. But, is it the best. I don’t think so. In fact, in terms of how good of a movie it is, it probably falls somewhere in the middle.

t’s all exposition and beginning, introduction to the action we see later in the series. We meet the whole cast of characters and witness the beginning of the evolution of a Jedi Knight. We get the smarmy exchanges between Han and Leia and the antics of C3PO and R2D2, but it’s all a few degrees cooler than the later films. Vader’s introduction is a classic moment in film history though, and the destruction of the Death Star still one of the greatest audience cheer along climaxes you’ll ever see.

Episode V is the original depressing piece.
You can’t honestly consider it the worst after the destruction of the Republic and multiple murders of Revenge of the Sith, but it was a major downer after the successes of A New Hope. But, The Empire Strikes Back was just that, the Empire striking back, and hard. Everything about this film was great. From the monumental revelation by Vader to Luke of his heritage, to the secretive dark training on Dagobah with the quirky little Jedi.

Luke’s development truly takes off in this film, and we begin to see Luke the Jedi Knight instead of Luke the whiny farmhand. Han and Leia’s relationship takes on a new level as well, as the two become closer than they expected and the whole thing ends with Han in carbonite, Luke’s hand missing, and the rebellion in disarray. Leading into the concluding film, this one did everything right. But, if you don’t like to be depressed, I suppose this might have been a tough one to swallow.

But Episode VI remedied everything
For those depressed by Empire, Return of the Jedi starts off with a bang and keeps running until the end. Luke is now a full fledged Jedi, and Han is still in the clutches of Jabba the Hutt and his retinue. Enter the infamous gold bikini scene, some Boba Fett action and a giant Sarlac and we’re off to the races.

Return of the Jedi immediately fixes all the problems of Empire and just keeps on chugging until the end where Luke and Vader defeat the Emperor. We learn of one more secret of lineage in Luke and Leia and take one more run at a brand new Death Star. Even Lando’s decided to turn a new leaf and help out the good guys.

And there you have it, a rundown of all six films with what made them good and what made them bad. Which is best? I suppose I still didn’t answer that one did I. I’ve always been partial to Empire as the best film, when watching the series as a whole, but then again, Jedi was always more exciting and ultimately satisfying. I won’t consider the prequels, if for no reason other than that I have much more affinity with the original Trilogy. But on this argument I’m going to have to go with the mood of the day. Today, I’d rather watch Empire. But when I’m in a depressed mood, Jedi might find it’s way into the DVD player first.

Free Time, Media Reviews

I was reading the Amazon bookstore blog for whatever reason earlier today and noticed that they’ve been focusing a lot lately on top 10 lists and whatnot. I’m a sucker for Top 10 lists, as you can tell from my playlist section. I write them all the time, not only for myself, but for other sites as well. But, I don’t necessarily enjoy reading other peoples’ lists unless I’m learning something new and interesting.

But today they posted about an article from Jessica Allen at the Washington Post about her top 1000 books, that being a list of books she’s read since 1989, totaling around 1000. I thought to myself for a second about the concept of reading 1000 books, then immediately scoured my own file reserves for my list of books read. And I was surprised to see that since 2004, I’ve read over 200 books myself. That’s incredible by any means. It’s roughly the same pace as Allen and her 1000, especially considering the dearth of reading material I managed to sit down to last year after I graduated and stepped away from most academic thought for a few months.

However, the idea that in a lifetime, I might read upwards of 4000 books in intriguing to me. More so when I think about the fact that there are hundreds of new books released every year and I want to be among those. And there are always every book in existance already released waiting to be read. For that matter, there are a few dozen books on my shelves waiting to be read.

There’s no way to ever read everything of importance in a lifetime. The volume of literature is too great, so it’s necessary, like anything else to pick and choose what you experience. My choices tend to be rather willy-nilly; whatever looks good at the bookstore…or for most of the time between 2004 and 2006, whatever I was assigned in class. I feel a certain honus to read the great pieces of literature before I run out of time to, but that said, why? To look smarter to myself…or to leave that list laying around for the first historian to stumble upon my great and illustrious notes and compile them.

I don’t think so. And by the way, filling in the list with short, easy books just to make it longer is just as cheap. I shall never do that either…..anymore.

Cool Stuff, Free Time, Writers and Authors

I have a moderately large and steadily growing book collection. I started it only three years ago after settling into my new home and city and found that it was growing rather quickly. I decided that rather than having stacks and stacks of books with no story other than that I’d read them, I’d try and get as many of them autographed (by the living authors at least) as possible.

So far, I have more than 75 of my 400 plus books autographed. The act of getting an autograph may seem daunting, especially if you live in a smaller town or city where you don’t have access to author readings and specialty bookstores, but here a few tips for everyone for getting all those contemporary pieces signed while you can.

1. Get all the fliers from your bookstores – check often, usually every month or so for the new signing schedule at your local bookstore or bookstores. They’re usually posted online too. You’ll want to know ahead of time in case there’s a need for a ticket that might sell out. Often with big name authors you might not be able to just walk up and get your book signed.

2. Bring a friend. The friend is a good tag along when you go to get your books signed. Often they’ll make a rule of one book per person which means you have to usually buy the new book and get that signed. If you bring a friend, he or she can bring along whichever old book you want signed as well.

3. Bring everything anyways. Sometimes the list says only one or two books, but often times the authors are nice people and will sign everything you have anyways. The rules are usually set by the agents and bookstore staff trying to keep a schedule. The author may or may not care about their schedule, so if they don’t, take advantage of it. I attended a Chuck Palahniuk reading a while back and brought seven books with me. The sign said two, but I brought them anyways and he happily signed them all for me

4. Ebay is a great place to pick up old signed copies of books that may or may not be in perfect condition. If you’re not a super picky collector trying to build monetary value consider going the Ebay route and picking up some of the old pieces you haven’t had time to get signed yet.

5. If a writer rarely comes through and you can’t get tickets try and ask a friend or a colleague, or a teacher if you’re in school to help you out. You might even be able to get a book on hold with the bookstore sponsoring the event to be signed. They always sign extras for the stores, so if you can sneak in a copy with an extra helping hand, you might be able to pull it off without making it into the signing.

6. Local bookstores will sometimes carry extra signed copies of books by an author who lives in the area. Look up where your author lives and check local bookstores to see if they sign books for their showcase. Once again, Chuck Palahniuk signs excess books for a local bookstore in Portland which in turn sells them online to willing buyers for normal MSRP. It’s a good way to get a brand new book signed by your favorite author without having to spend all day in line and not even make it in.

The art of book signing is half skill and half luck. I was lucky to see that Bill Clinton was signing at a certain time in Seattle three years ago and I got tickets, but sometimes it’s also a matter of who you know. I’ve missed out on tickets before and asked a professor of mine to get a book autographed by Salmon Rushdie. She did and now I have a book signed that very few people do as Rushdie spent the years before and after writing it in seclusion. It’s all in the dedication you show.

Free Time, Writers and Authors

I finally got around to digging through the pile of papers on my desk the other day. I was procrastinating on my actual work, the massive list of articles I needed to write or at least start on this week, and saw that my work space was a huge mess, so I turned off the monitor and got to organizing. Usually when I go through my piles of old work I find all sorts of burried treasures worth reading over and setting aside for future use. Not that I was never planning on using them, but letting them sit for a good 8 months means I forgot that they existed at all. Sean’s got it right when he says all those scraps laying around will never actually go anywhere.

But I still like finding them and reading through them. And every now and then I do something with the 3 pages of outline I wrote in my junior year of high school and lost until late last week. It’s like a literary Indiana Jones, diving into the piles of painful, trap-ridden material I should have long since destroyed, but just can’t make myself get rid of. Somewhere in all those poison darts and angry cannibals though is a story I started writing in 2003 that I actually liked and forgot about, or my long lost fantasy novel from junior high school that I hate with a passion, but have so much fun working on.

This time around it was an outline I wrote with my best friend from over the summer (whom I unfortunately haven’t talked to much since October). Always an idea hound, she recommended we put together screenplay outlines for a science fiction movie, something goofy and ridiculous that would let us spray paint rubber appendages green and look insane on camera. I ended up writing out a 3 page long outline of what I now think is a pretty damn interesting science fiction story. There’s an alien love affair, human unity in the face of an extraterrestrial threat, and the moon tries to crush the earth. It’s good old fashioned space fun.

I don’t write science fiction. With the exception of that adolescent fantasy foray that will never ever be taken any more seriously than something I scribble in when I’ve had a couple too many drinks, I tend not to write genre fiction all that much. But, this story is fun for some reason, so for whatever reason I’ve got it in my head that I’ll be writing a science fiction novel some time soon. Yet another side effect of all that free time I have in my lovely unemployment phase.

The moral to this story? Always be prepared for something monumentally distracting when organizing your desk. That, or just throw all your papers in a file and forget about them intead of reading through them. I won’t even get started on how long I sat reading my NaNoWriMo novel from last year that I found at the bottom of the pile. Clue: It’s not very good.

Free Time, Freelance Lifestyle

As a Seattle native and lifetime devotee and fan of the Seattle Mariners, I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs with the team. When I was a child, Ken Griffey Jr. was just starting his tenure with the team. It was an exciting time, because for the first time since the team was founded 12 years earlier, the Seattle Mariners finally had a bonafide superstar on the roster, someone to excite the fans and sell jerseys. I was there for the games and I owned a jersey. As a young child whose baseball team was always at the bottom of the heap, I was still excited every year that they could do something special.

In 1995, the Seattle Mariners actually did do something special. They came back from 13 games down in the American League West and won the division, making it to the American League Championship Series. From then on, baseball was golden in Seattle. The Mariners were gods and they were actually good too. The team went into a golden time for a few years, a time in which they had better attendance, and even better fans than any other city in baseball. We got them a new stadium, a new look, and worldwide attention. The Mariners peaked the whole thing with a 116 game winning record breaking season in 2001. But, the Mariners choked that year and every year since have choked a little more. After five years of losing ways now they’ve fallen into the duldrums of fan attendance again and Seattle’s baseball apathy is spreading. It makes me more than a little sad to think about my mighty Mariners so horrible each and every year.

So, what about 2007? What about this year for the Seattle Mariners? Do they stand a chance in the crowded field of teams that actually go and find good pitching and dependable players? Will Ichiro Suzuki stay around after his contract is up with a team that can’t seem to win? Will Bill Bavasi and Mike Hargrove keep their jobs with a franchise that they’ve run into the ground? (Well, Bavasi ran it into the ground, Hargrove just hasn’t been able to pull it back up again). This season is the win or die season for a lot of Seattle Mariners players and staff, the kind of year that they have to win in order to stay afloat, or next year we may be looking at an entirely different team.

Over the off season, the Seattle Mariners made a lot of moves that some would qualify as ineffective. They were pricey. They filled holes in the lineup. They brought in new bats, but they were mostly ineffective. Let’s take a look at why the 2007 Mariner’s lineup is not the lineup Bavasi should have built if he’s trying to keep his job.

First off, he went and got us a new designated hitter. The result, Jose Vidro, a long time national league slugger with a slew of injury problems is yet another hit or miss acquisition for the team. For a Mariners franchise that’s gone through Scott Spiezios, Adrian Beltres, and Carl Everetts like spent chewing gum, picking up another over the hill player with injury problems for the amount of money they spent on him is not a good move.

That wasn’t all though. They went and did the same thing for their right fielder. After moving Ichiro to center field at the end of last season, they went and picked up Jose Guillen in the offseason this year, another player from Washington with a bad season last year due to injury. This will be his sixth team in 7 years, and returning after elbow surgery. The Mariners cannot keep affording to take chances on has been players with injury problems, waiting for the magic “comeback player of the year” candidate to fall into their laps.

But, it’s in the starting rotation that they truly dropped the ball. The mariners have had a weak pitching rotation for a few years now. It’s been at the top of every fan’s list of things to change for a while, but it still hasn’t been fixed. Seattle was excited when Felix Hernandez appeared. But, last year he played mediocre at best and showed no signs that he deserves to be our number starter this year. But, unfortunately, the three pitchers Bavasi signed are all career number five starters, leaving us with a rotation full of mediocre arms. Jeff Weaver, Miguel Batista, and Horatio Ramirez were all thrown a large sum of money to pitch for us this year, after finally unloading “never do wells” like Joel Pineiro and Gil Meche, but on paper none of these pitchers are any better than the pitchers they are replacing. Not only pitcher in our starting lineup had an ERA last year under 4.40. I’d say we need at least one halfway decent pitcher out there, for at least one decent chance of winning every week. And the only truly good pitcher we had on the staff, Rafael Soriano, they traded for one of these jokers.

The Seattle Mariners are disappointing their fans each and every year they go into an offseason. It looks like it’s going to be yet another long and mediocre season, with no more than 80 wins for the ball club yet again. Unless of course every player on the team has a career year, Adrian Beltre remembers how to hit, and Richie Sexon quits striking out so damn much. I however, would expect a new manager by the end of June and Ichiro playing for a new team in 2008.

Free Time, Observations and Thoughts

I love Law and Order. Everyone loves Law and Order. They’d have to. Otherwise, why the hell would it be on every channel for at least 6 of the 24 program hours. You cannot flip through every channel without running into Law and Order at least once. The other day, after All Star game, TNT played the show for 24 hours straight. I watched a couple of episodes, went to bed, woke up and my roommate was still watching it. I retreated to my room for a few hours to work and came back out….and he it was still on. And yet I sat and watched it each time. And by the grace of more than two dozen seasons and 500 episodes between all three shows, you’re going to stand a decent chance of catching a new one fairly often. Unless it’s Criminal Intent, in which case, I’ve seen them all already.What makes this show so compelling though.

First off, they always take stuff from the news. Almost every episode is based on something that happened in the world and thus people are automatically invested. They throw in a couple of extra murders, and now we’re gossip mongers….”ooh, what if?”

Then they throw the exact same formula for the show out every time. You might think this would kill the suspense. But no. It’s a trick. It’s really their way of getting you to think that the show is predictable, that you can tag along with the detectives and help them out. For you to yell at the stupid defense attorney, “Bail?! Your client doesn’t deserve no stinking bail!” in one of the least important but always present scenes in the show. It’s Law and Order being very orderly and yet opening itself up to break rules and surprise everyone when it does. Most of all, it makes every episode about the crime. It’s not about the detectives, or the lawyers, the writers, or the director of the show. You could train a monkey to direct an episode of Law and Order. No, it’s about the crime and the solving of that crime. And that’s it.

Which is why the two spinoff shows are so interesting. These shows actually went out of their way to create characters for their detectives. The first, SVU, is my least favorite. Here’s why: the characters are all over the top. That’s it. Yeah, they’ve been in SVU for too long. Yeah, they see terrible things done to innocent people. But, all the detectives see horrible things and these ones get a little nutty sometimes. Stabler’s an ass. He’s good at being an ass, but he’s an ass. And he keeps being an ass, and for whatever reason he still has his job. Why does he still have his job? Television Aura of Mystery on that on. And Ice-T? Are you kidding me? Who thought putting an ex-gangster-rapper in a crime drama about sexually heinous crimes would be a good idea?

Criminal Intent however is one of the best shows on television. It’s basically you’re Law and Order setup with an old school Columbo feel to it. They cut out the court rooms because that’s not why we’re watching. Bobby Gorin is so damn good, he can always get the confession out of his suspects. And he is good, frighteningly, ‘wow, is he special?’ good. The man knows Eastern African dialects, Ancient Egyptian cyphers, what color an ink stain should be through six sheets of wet paper and can read a man like a book. He’s a psychological safe cracker and when he gets in, the episode is over. The joy of the episode however is watching him get in. Vincent Donofrio is therefore one of the coolest people on television.

Law and Order is a staple of any good couch potato, TV dwelling 20-something. I’ll bet a dollar I watch at least one episode of it tonight.

Free Time

Next up on the plate of many many things I like to pretend I know about but really just have a passing knowledge of because of my own frivolous habit of hounding the local bookstores a wee bit too much: buying books.
First thing’s first. You need to be a halfway avid reader. If you never read, then there are a slew of good books out there that any decent bookseller will point out. If you read at least a book every month or so though, and have a general idea of what you are looking for, but want to try something new or better yet old, this is the way to go about it.

1. Buy a small notebook. I recommend a Moleskin notebook, because it will fit nicely in a back pocket or purse without being too bulky or in the way. You can buy one at any halfway decent bookstore. Just ask where they keep the Moleskins; they always have their own special section. I have a dozen of them.

2. Look at what you’ve read in recent months. I’m sure you know what kind of books you like without looking at your collection, but sometimes you’d be surprised by what you’ll discover. You may have started reading mystery novels and not realized it because you’re a devout science fiction fan. But low and behold, all of your recent science fiction novels are mysteries. Open your mind up a little bit for different genres and you’ll find a whole new realm of interesting, new novels.

3. Go to a bookstore and observe. Peruse the aisles for a while. Give it a half hour or so. Not too long or you’re loitering. Every time you find a book or an author you’ve never heard of that catches your eye, write it down in your notebook. Don’t be afraid to venture into genre aisles. Book stores have a habit of putting some incredible reads in the often derided Fantasy section that could easily pass as literary fiction. That’s not to say that Fantasy as a genre isn’t rewarding, just that for those that look down upon it, a variety of books are being overlooked.

4. Amazon and Ebay. My two sites of choice. First, look it up. You’ve essentially just picked out a random assortment of books based on their covers. Now look up their reviews and see if you’ve picked what you thought you picked or wasted ink by even writing it down. Highlight the winners and float on over to Ebay for cheaper books (especially if they’re new and still Hardbound).

5. Used book stores. Way more fun than Ebay if you have them nearby. If you live in a bigger city, take full advantage of the half priced, previously read treasure chest of your University Districts.

In just a few short steps you can find and buy new and exciting reading opportunities without paying full price for an unknown entity. At least half of my book collection and the authors I revere most popped into my reading consciousness through this method. And as we all know, if that’s how I do it, it must be right.

Free Time, Observations and Thoughts

Paul Auster’s newest book, Travels in the Scriptorium is an interesting creature. When I first read the inside flap and cover blurbs, I was immediately intrigued. I know how he writes, it’s a sort of Brooklyn Swami (quoting that from somewhere…can’t remember where) mysticism that evokes the masters of a forgotten genre. He’s good at it and I enjoy reading about writing…when it’s done properly.

This new book though, a novella at best – too short to be considered a novel really – is something else though. It’s essentially one day with a man locked (or not locked) in a room that he was put in (or volunteered to go in) as punishment (or protection). You get the idea. The meaning is never made explicit, as though Auster is trying to leave it to the reader to discern. However, he doesn’t give you enough to work with. Instead we’re given the plot outline of some or another book he never wrote scattered across 30 of the books flimsy 141 pages and a whole lot of an old man’s incontinence and shady memory.

Here’s your basic plot outline (and you’re not missing anything when I tell you this). An old man wakes up in a room. He can’t remember his name, why he’s there, or who the people who keep coming in to talk to him are. The objects in the room are littered with labels, marking what they are and he’s more or less incapable of free movement. They drug him, dress him, even pleasure him, and yet he’s still a prisoner of sorts. He’s given a manuscript to read and is then asked to complete the manuscript. It’s a mystery of sorts, except there’s no solution, except for the one you figure out in the first 5 pages.

Paul Auster wrote himself into a book in which he is a character and every character he ever wrote hold him captive, awaiting trial for the crimes he, as a writer, committed against them. If you haven’t read all of his books (which I haven’t quite yet) it’s confusing to say the least. If you get turned off by a great writer being entirely too self-congratulatory, this isn’t the book for you. It reads like a project or exercise he worked on one evening in his study, something every amazing writer probably does in their life time at least once – “Borges and I” is the best example – and somehow (or someone) decided that publishing it to make money from would be a good idea.

Of course it’s well written, and of course, what Auster sets out to do is masterfully accomplished. But, what he sets out to do is ever so pompous and doesn’t capture the readers attention anymore than the blurb on the back of the book promises. This labyrinthine attempt to evoke Borges and Kafka fails, not because of how he writes it, but because of what he writes about.

Free Time, Media Reviews, Writers and Authors

Akira Kurosawa is by far one of my favorite directors. Of the many many films he made, at least a third were samurai period pieces, in my opinion his best films. Here are the best of those films as they were releases. Personally I would recommend all of them.

Rashomon - The film that introduced the world to Kurosawa. Three people meet in the woods and a crime transpires. The film takes place where each of them tells their story to the local governor at trial, each story is different and the viewer is left to figure out what happened. Toshiro Mifune makes his first period piece performance for Kurosawa. The film went on to win the Golden Bear at the Venice Film Festival and catapulted Kurosawa’s name to the top of many best of world cinema lists. The story telling method used in this film is a common narrative technique now, in which multiple characters retell the same events in different manners.

Seven Samurai – This is the most important film he made, and one of the most important films ever made. He invented camera shots, invented filming techniques, crafted a story that’s been copied dozens of times, and it’s all his, written and directed. Seven Samurai are hired by a local village under attack by bandits to help defend them. The Samurai must lend their skills and their courage to help the villagers stand up to such an onslaught and learn to fight for themselves. Hollywood has since copied this film multiple times, most notably in Yul Brenner’s Magnificent Seven.

Hidden Fortress – The basis for Star Wars was a Kurosawa film. Watch this classic and you’ll see why. A rogue general must accompany a princess to her home while trying to bypass bandits who seek to kill her. Two goofy Ronin tag along for the ride. It’s got the trademark goofy humor of Kurosawa that would later show up in Yojimbo and Sanjuro prominently as well as the strong storytelling power if its director; so good George Lucas couldn’t pass it up.

Yojimbo/Sanjuro – Two films really, but they’re the same character in a similar story. A roaming samurai (a Yojimbo) stumbles into a town torn apart by two rival gangs. He decides that none of them are worth living and so plays a game of working for one and then the other to see that they all see their demise, all the while making a pretty penny. Sergio Leone later took Yojimbo and adapted it into the first of his Man With No Name trilogy with Clint Eastwood, A Fist Full of Dollars.

Throne of Blood – Kurosawa was an avid fan of western literature and Shakespeare in particular. He had planned an adaptation of Macbeth for many years but when the funding finally came through he went to town. Throne of Blood is as epic as the play from which it’s adapted and entirely Japanese all at the same time. All of Shakespeare’s metaphors are intact and yet the entire method of them is reworked. Only Kurosawa could pull this off so seamlessly.

Kagemusha – Japanese for Shadow, The Kagemusha is a man chosen to stand in for a warlord in battle. Released in 1980, the film was cofunded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, enormous fans of Kurosawa’s work who wanted to see him make this film, even though the funding wasn’t there in Japan. The result was a striking commentary on Feudal Japan, the film taking place in the 16^th century Warring States Period.

Ran – This was the last of Kurosawa’s epics, at the tail end of his career when it was hard for him to not only find funding but put the films together. In terms of funding, it was the most expensive Japanese film ever at that point, with a budget of $12 million. The film is a re-envisioning of King Lear, Shakespeare’s classic tragedy through a distinct Japanese legend of Daimyo Mori Motonari. The result is a huge, epic tale of sons fighting and murdering for the rights to their father’s estates. The colors and costumes were incredible, earning an Academy Award for costume design. It’s long and depressing yes, but it’s one of his best films.

Of the 28 films Akira Kurosawa made, a third of them were epic Jidaigeki (period films), taking from Japanese history and Western culture and crafting some of the greatest Samurai films, in some cases any films, of all time.

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