I definitely have Dreams on my list. What other films have you seen by him?

I haven't seen Kurosawa's Dreams, but I want to. I have seen the following Kurosawa films:

- Seven Samurai
- High and Low
- No Regrets for our Youth
- One Wonderful Sunday
- The Idiot
- Yojimbo
- Sanjuro
- Rashomon

Other films by him that I own are:

- Scnadal
- I Live in Fear
- Kagemusha
- Stray Dog
- Drunken Angel
- The Bad Sleep Well
- Ikiru
- Dodes'ka-den

Akira Kurosawa is considered to be one of the big four, which is a list of the most beloved Japanese directors of the 20th century. The other three are Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and Mikio Naruse. They all have films on my list.

There are certain films (or directors) which I would say are absolute must sees. I would absolutely recommend the following:

1. Watch a few Yasujiro Ozu films in conjunction with reading about him online. It might be easy for someone to dismiss him without having the perspective of those who have appreciated him. But with that perspective, you'll almost certainly come to absolutely love his films and look forward to watching them over and over. His Tokyo Story has been voted the greatest film ever made by directors from around the world. The film is very powerful, but I actually prefer the following films by him: Early Spring, Early Summer, Tokyo Twilight, Equinox Flower, Late Autumn, An Autumn Afternoon, and Floating Weeds. His movies are simply sublime for reasons which are impossible to articulate. You may find the following clip from Early Summer to be quaint and old, but once you get Ozu, it's just wonderful. To get an idea of the admiration for him, read the comments below the YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF3Gz66P2zQ

2. Watch Yi Yi by Edward Yang. It's a Taiwan film. It is absolutely one of the most powerful and poignant films you will ever watch. It's nearly three hours long, but worth every moment. Once you've watched it, you'll be screaming for the release of the recently restored film of his entitled A Brighter Summer Day as much as everyone else is. It's nearly four hours long. It was restored by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation. See link: http://worldcinemafoundation.org/films/summer

See the trailer for Yi Yi here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F6tSorwYqw

3. One of Akira Kurosawa's older films is No Regrets for our Youth. One of the reasons I adore it so much is because it stars a younger Setsuko Hara, who was a favorite of Yasujiro Ozu. After having seen a few Ozu films with her (she is such a wonderful actress to watch), you'll appreciate her in No Regrets.

Criterion's description of Kurosawa's No Regrets goes like this:

"In Akira Kurosawa’s first film after the end of World War II, future beloved Ozu regular Setsuko Hara gives an astonishing performance as Yukie, the only female protagonist in Kurosawa’s body of work and one of his strongest heroes. Transforming herself from genteel bourgeois daughter to independent social activist, Yukie traverses a tumultuous decade in Japanese history."

Here's a fan made tribute to Setsuko Hara taken from clips in No Regrets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUGhS7t903c

4. Kenji Mizoguchi is known for his portrayal of the plight of women within a society which oppresses them. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Sansho the Bailiff is one such film. Criterion just announced another huge film by Mizoguchi entitled Life of Oharu. I can't wait to see it. See link: http://www.criterion.com/films/27705-the-life-of-oharu?q=autocomplete

For a haunting and beautiful scene from Mizoguchi's Ugetsu, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgBHeJfnJ5s

To be continued: there's more. I haven't even discussed Wong Kar-Wai, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Masaki Kobayashi, and others.

They are films of critical acclaim, domestic and foreign, recognized for various reasons as being significant, spanning from the early 20th century to now. My eyes were opened considerably once I started exploring their selection.

If you're usual movie watching is Hollywood fare, then you might have to ease into the Criterion films. A lot of Hollywood productions analogize well to in the book world, thrillers and teen paranormal romance - i.e fun and exciting, but a little light in the literary aspects. The films I listed are very literary, which can mean they might be slower, but in the end, full of more depth.

I am by no means against summer blockbusters. I love Marvel films and all that other good stuff, but I have discovered amazing subtlety, beauty and depth within the more arthouse canon of films.

Watch this scene from Masahiro Shinoda's 1964 noir film Pale Flower (it's slow to start, but amazing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8S4-Ge4zGI

Most of the films I recommended have been voted some of the greatest films ever made by the Sight & Sound Poll - the most prestigious and universal of all film polls, voted on by directors and critics from all around the world. This is among the hundred thousand or so films made in all the history of cinema. One of the films I recommended was recently voted to be the greatest film ever made. Another was voted the second greatest film ever made. Another comes in around number 15. One was voted the greatest film made in the 21st century. A few come in around number 60 or so.

I just watched Sansho the Bailiff for about the third time this evening. It's a true masterpiece, and utterly heartrending. Some of the scenes just tear you apart. Here is a trailer to the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=076MrMynyak

I pay for all the movies I watch. Makes sense. Someone had to put up money to make them. And I'd like people to keep making movies.

Same goes for older movies too. Criterion does a fantastic job (while risking money) to find old prints, restore them and distribute them. I'd like them to continue with that. If everyone can get the work Criterion does for free, then Criterion will stop. And so will the flow of restored films.

You're mincing words. I apologize for not catering to your brand of taking only the literal meaning of every word. Children can be a metaphor. This particular sideline conversation is over unless you want it to become very heated and simultaneously irrelevant.

Nothing lasts forever. Don't mince words. Dwindling can be the result of people not having children, and/or having only one child.

I mostly agree with that. However, to be honest, it makes little difference to me if humanity survives or not in the distant future. It just seems irrelevant. Our lives, our children, and so on - that is important. If the human species slowly dwindles or evolves makes little difference to me. Now if I could come along for the ride and see the rest of the Universe, that would interesting, I admit.

As for not drastically altering our biosphere, I would prefer something more along the lines of "as much as possible, do not alter our biosphere".

I didn't say that.

My top priority is human survival within a natural environment that is allowed to proceed at a pace that is neither accelerated or decelerated by mankind. Simple enough.

If man's technology is part of nature, then so are his efforts and programs to curtail pollution and environmental destruction.

So you admit it's better to be selfish and try and prevent our home from being destroyed by our pollution rather than being dead due to ecosystem destruction by our hand?

It's an absurd argument.

What he just doesn't get is if nature, in the absence of mankind, takes the world in that direction, then so be it, but the reality is (and this is the key point), it is mankind that is taking the world in that direction, and that should be corrected.

Study up on ecosystems, ecosystem services, and biodiversity.

It doesn't matter if we find lichens and bacteria in Antarctica. Our goal isn't to acknowledge that if we radically render the planet into an inhospitable place for megafauna, we will still have bacteria and heat thriving nematodes on the planet.

Please read again the last paragraph of the post you're responding to. I'll quote it for you:

Not that I'm aware of. I made an assessment of your views on the subject. I don't consider it to be mud slinging, but a fair summary of your views. Take it as you will.

Your views are naive and unencumbered with sophistication.

He's not spot on. Not only are people fucked, but so are tens of thousands of other species, ecosystems, and so on. And we're the cause of it.

There is no baseline metric of what defines the planet as being fine. The best metric is the one in which the planet's systems proceed at the pace they normally do, which is not occurring right now.

At ever changing rates, our technological changes are not necessarily things that our planet's self regulating system can deal with if your interest is a world rich in biodiversity, productive ecosystems, and by extension, ecosystem services.

You can clearly see the difference in 100,000 humans using fire vs. billions of cars today. Or are you not able to see that difference?

Unfortunately, they are not. Too bad they can't see that.

Have you ever explored films within the Criterion Collection? With the exception of four titles, every title I've mentioned is in the Criterion Collection. I can't recommend Edward Yang or Yasujiro Ozu highly enough.