Kurosawa Akira (cont.)

[Li Hoo Cheong]

Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991), finally Madadayo (93).
When he died, he was planning to make I saw the Ocean  to be
acted by Harada Mieko.  These later films are all in color and
contains scenes of great beauty, drama, and action, but somehow
lacking in true greatness as a whole or as individual films.
The last three films are particularly weak, even compared to
the better films of his early period.

I am interested to know if fellow list members have seen the
several documentaties on Kurosawa.  There is one made by Chris Marker.
Obayashi made in 1990 a piece on the making of Dreams available on
video.  I wonder if these films add to our appreciation of Kurosawa.

I have always been impressed by Kurosawa's use of wipe as a very 
effective cutting technique.  I found that his first wipe appeared
in the very beginning of Sugata Sanshiro.  When Sanshiro enquired
about the whereabout of the jujitsu master, a shot showing the
jujitsu studio with the master's name plate at the entrance was
followed by a wipe revealing an indoor scene at night when the
jujitsu master and his students are drinking and waiting to ambush
the judo master, the future sensei of Sanshiro. The wipe is from
left to right, but other wipes are of different directions like
right to left or even top to bottom.

When I watched Dersu Uzala and Kagemusha again this week, I did not 
discover a single 'wipe'.  While wipe is very common in Rashomon,
Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Red Beard, etc.  Has Kurosawa
given up using the wipe in his later years?  James Goodwin has
discussed about Kurosawa's wipe cut in his book, but he only
covers some films.

H. C. Li