SIX SWORD SAMURAI! A FESTIVAL OF JAPANESE SAMURAI FILMS December 30 – January 5 at the Nuart Theatre

December 30 & 31 - SAMURAI REBELLION - New 35mm Print!
Toshiro Mifune stars as Isaburo, an aging swordsman living a quiet life until his clan lord orders that his son marry the lord’s mistress, who has recently displeased the ruler. Reluctantly, father and son take in the woman and, to the family’s surprise, the young couple fall in love. But the lord soon reverses his decision and demands the mistress’s return. Against all expectations, Isaburo and his son refuse, risking the destruction of their entire family. Director Masaki Kobayashi’s film is a gripping story of a peaceful man who finally decides to take a stand against injustice. Music by Toru Takemitsu. (Japan, 1967) Friday: 1:00, 4:00, 7:00 & 9:50; Saturday: 1:00, 4:00 & 7:00.

January 1 & 2 - HARAKIRI - New 35mm Print!
Following the collapse of his clan, unemployed samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to commit ritual suicide on his property. Iyi’s clansmen, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for charity, try to force him to eviscerate himself—but they have underestimated his honor and his past. Winner of the 1963 Cannes Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, director Masaki Kobayashi’s film is a scathing denouncement of feudal authority and hypocrisy. Music by Toru Takemitsu. (Japan, 1962) Daily: 2:00, 5:15 & 8:30.

January 3 & 4 – Double Feature - SWORD OF DOOM - New 35mm Print!
Tatsuya Nakadai stars in the story of a wandering samurai who exists in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman—plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule—Ryunosuke Tsukue (Nakadai) kills without remorse, without mercy. It is a way of life that ultimately leads to madness, culminating in a climatic sequence of carnage in a house filled with assassins. Toshiro Mifune co-stars as the head of a fencing school. Directed by Kihachi Okamoto. (Japan, 1966) Daily: 7:30

KILL! - New 35mm Print!
In this pitch-black action comedy by director/co-writer Kihachi Okamoto, a pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen (Tatsuya Nakadai, Etsushi Takahashi) arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in a local clan dispute. One, previously a farmer, longs to become a noble samurai. The other, a former samurai haunted by his past, prefers living anonymously with gangsters. But when both men discover the wrongdoings of the nefarious clan leader, they side with a band of rebels who are under siege at a remote mountain cabin. Based on the same source novel as Akira Kurosawa’s Sanjuro, Kill! playfully tweaks the samurai film convention, borrowing from established chanbara classics and throwing in a little Spaghetti Western. (Japan, 1968) Daily: 5:15 & 10:00.

January 5 – Double Feature - SAMURAI SAGA - New 35mm Print!
Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac is transplanted to Japan in this film written and directed by Hiroshi Inagaki (Chushingura). Toshiro Mifune plays the poet-warrior with an oversized nose—matched only by his great heart—who challenges an evil warrior clan after he falls in love with a beautiful princess. But she sees him only as a friend, so he helps another man to woo her by giving him the poetry of his heart. Music by Akira Ifukube (acclaimed for his numerous samurai and Godzilla scores). (Japan, 1959) Daily: 7:30.

THRONE OF BLOOD
Director/co-writer Akira Kurosawa’s savage, free-flowing adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth plunges viewers into an eerie, fog-shrouded world of madness and obsession. Set in medieval Japan during a period of feudal conflict, Toshiro Mifune stars as the proud warrior who is destroyed by his wife’s murderous greed and his own all-consuming desire for power. From its frenzied battle sequences to the brutal climax, in which an entire forest seems to move against Mifune, Kurosawa’s masterwork combines the stylization of Noh theatre with the dynamic energy of an American western. (Japan, 1957) Daily: 5:20 & 9:55.

SIX SWORD SAMURAI!: A FESTIVAL OF JAPANESE SAMURAI FILMS will open on Friday, December 30, showing through Thursday, January 5 for an exclusive one-week engagement at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre. The Nuart is located at 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, just west of the 405 Freeway, in West Los Angeles 90025. Program information: 310-281-8223; www.landmarktheatres.com