Set Your DVR!: February 1, 2009

Posted by Hayden Childs

Here's the Weekend Edition of Set Your DVR!  These three movies should carry you through until Monday, and all are on IFC on Sunday, February 1. 

First up is an Akira Kurosawa double-feature.  IFC is showing Drunken Angel at 7 am central/8 am eastern.  Drunken Angel is Toshiro Mifune's first film with Kurosawa.  It's a yakuza/gangster flick, and I've never seen it, so I'm excited about it. Also starring Takashi Shimura.

Immediately afterwards is Ikiru at 8:45 am central/9:45 am eastern, which is easily one of the most profound and touching films you could ever see.  This one has Shimura in the lead as a dying bureaucrat who wants to leave his small mark on the world.  I know that sounds like an opportunity for the worst sort of Forrest Gump-like cinematic idiocy, but remember that it's Kurosawa behind the wheel, not some Hollywood hack.

I wrote a little more about Shimura here.

Here's a short clip from Ikiru.  Sorry about the bad translation.



Last up is Death and The Maiden at 9pm central/10 pm eastern, and again overnight at 2:05 am central/3:05 am eastern.  I recently wrote about Death and the Maiden in this list.

And don't forget The Night of the Hunter on TCM tonight at 11:45pm central/12:45 am eastern!  See y'all next week.


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Posted Jan 30 2009, 10:00 AM
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Comments

Janet said:

You'll like Drunken Angel, I promise.  I think it would work best in a double feature with Red Beard, not just because they are the first and last Kurosawa/Mifune collaborations, but because it seemed to me that Mifune's character in Red Beard was similar to Shimura's in Drunken Angel, like he had graduated to playing the older, wiser role.  It felt like a very natural, organic process to me.

Now I have to go check if Red Beard is on Netflix, hopefully before they ship my next disc.

January 30, 2009 12:06 PM

Hayden Childs said:

Thanks, Janet!  I have seen Red Beard fairly recently (in the last 5 years, at least), so I'll be interested to compare the two.

January 30, 2009 3:30 PM

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