The Films of Akira Kurosawa, Third Edition, Expanded and Updated

I was first introduced to Kurosawas films in the early 70s and loved them. It is great to find a book that reviews and fills in the background on them. I originally had an earlier version which missed out his later films. An ex-partner threw it away. The only goood thing about that was it made me get this version.

great book

I can't believe someone ever could get this text published...its interest amounts to almost nothing (only a few quotations from A. Kurosawa's Autobiography do give some real information)...The whole book is only a synopsis of each film (some of them oddly misunderstood in basic aspects)...which makes it useless if you've already watched them, and if you haven't, it spoils the experience by revealing the whole plot and ending.Then, Richie gives his own opinion, interpretation and criticism of each film...to this point, the book was empty, but with this, it becomes simply offensive! He contradicts himself, often in the same paragraph, as he also contradits Kurosawa's reports about the films, shooting, actors, results, etc...Richie, eager to say something witty apparently at any cost, points at supposed, sometimes stilted and sometimes hackneyed symbolisms, everywhere (Kurosawa politely wrote a kind preface to this book, but did add to it that he doesn't always agree with Richie's statements on his work), while he despises most moments of emotion in these films...He intends to write an hermeneutic pseudo-philosophical textbook on something that isn't correctly approached by these means: film and art...And writes about his own reactions to the films, explaining his own (mysteriously restrained) tastes, which can't be of much interest to any reader interested in Kurosawa's work rather than in Mr. Richie...The book barely contains any information about the making of the films, conception of the idea and the script, etc, in any case much less than you can find in Kurosawa's interviews or own Autobiography.It lacks interest, reliability and respect to an unbelievable extend in a book...