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The classic film I've never seen I've never seen … The Magnificent Seven

In one sense this is a glorified rip-off that guts Kurosawa’s thoughtful original, repackages it with a stylish title and fills it with guns … but it’s fun!

Published: 12 May 2020

5 out of 5 stars.

Alexis Petridis's album of the week Sturgill Simpson: Sound & Fury review – country's outlaw catches fire
5 out of 5 stars.

Another big shift in direction for Simpson, with anime visuals, glam rock, disco and grunge ornamenting never-more-country lyrics: it’s extraordinary

Published: 26 Sep 2019

Seven Samurai tops critics' poll of best foreign-language films

Akira Kurosawa epic beats Bicycle Thieves to top of BBC’s 100-strong list that includes just four female-directed films

Published: 1 Nov 2018

My favourite film decade From The Naked City to Double Indemnity – why the 1940s is my favourite film decade

War changed everything, destroying whole film industries and heralding a new era of realism, grit and shoots on location

Published: 28 Mar 2018

5 out of 5 stars.

Ran review – Kurosawa’s masterful epic reissued
5 out of 5 stars.

The Japanese film-maker’s adaptation of King Lear is still visually and dramatically breathtaking

Published: 3 Apr 2016

5 out of 5 stars.

Ran review – re-release of Kurosawa's dark, epic version of King Lear
5 out of 5 stars.

Staggering battle sequences, thrones of blood and the spirit of Macbeth are abroad in one of the greatest screen adaptations of Shakespeare

Published: 31 Mar 2016
Ran: Akira Kurosawa’s last great masterpiece

Newly restored three decades after its initial release, the Japanese director’s feudal warlord story remains bleak, brutal and breathtaking

Published: 28 Mar 2016

Trailer park Ran: trailer for the restored Kurosawa classic - video

Watch the trailer for a 4K restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s take on King Lear, set amid the civil war of 16th-century Japan

1:04

Published: 25 Feb 2016

On my radar On my radar: Marianne Faithfull’s cultural highlights

The singer-songwriter on the French band Téléphone, Salman Rushdie’s latest novel and Kurosawa’s stunning Throne of Blood

Published: 10 Jan 2016

Tokyo Story's Setsuko Hara dies at 95

Muse of Yasujuro Ozu who rose to fame in the 1930s and 40s was a key face of Japan’s postwar cinematic revival

Published: 12:50 PM
Setsuko Hara obituary

One of Japan’s most popular actors of the postwar years, admired for her performances in the films of Yasujiro Ozu, including Tokyo Story

Published: 12:13 PM

Best Shakespeare films: a Russian Lear, an Indian Othello … and a Danish Hamlet

Film-makers around the world have re-imagined the Bard’s plays with staggering results. Here are five of the best

Published: 20 Oct 2015

Akira Kurosawa review – Peter Wild lets the pictures do the talking

Focusing mainly on the films, Wild’s study is a succinct portrayal of the intensely private director Scorsese calls ‘my master’, writes PD Smith

Published: 14 Nov 2014

Denzel Washington replaces Tom Cruise in The Magnificent Seven

Ben Child: Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua will direct Washington as a gun-slinging guardian angel in remake of John Sturges’s 1960 western

Published: 10 Sep 2014

Philip French's classic DVD Seven Samurai – Philip French on Kurosawa's masterly historical epic

Philip French: Kurosawa's tale of a 16th-century village under attack is one of the 20th-century's finest works of art

Published: 14 Jun 2014

Steve McQueen paves way for artists to break the boundaries

The Oscar-winning director of 12 Years a Slave has pushed back the boundaries of film because of the fearlessness that comes with a background in art

Published: 8 Mar 2014

Film blog Top 10 martial arts movies

Everybody is kung-fu fighting for sure, but it takes more than that to make a great martial arts movie. hlcarpenter.com and Observer critics pick the 10 finest ever made

Published: 6 Dec 2013

Film blog Top 10 war movies

War is hell, for sure, but war can make for undeniably brilliant movie-making. Here, hlcarpenter.com and Observer's critics pick the ten best

Published: 28 Oct 2013

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