The Japan Foundation, in collaboration with the India Habitat Centre, recently organiwed the Japanese Classics Samurai Film Festival. The five-day festival commenced with a screening of Akira Kurosawa's iconic masterpiece, 'Seven Samurai.
Curator Murtaza Ali Khan says,"Japanese writer-director Akira Kurosawa is widely revered as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. While his body of work spanning five decades is quite diverse, it's his Samurai-centric films, such as Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Kagemusha, and Ran, among others, that are ubiquitously acclaimed. So, while curating a film festival of Japanese Samurai classics for The Japan Foundation and the India Habitat Centre, I consciously designed it in a manner that we opened (Seven Samurai) and closed the festival with a Kurosawa classic (Yojimbo)."
Through the five films that were chosen, three centuries were covered, starting in the Sengoku period (the 15th and 16th centuries) and ending towards the end of the Edo period (19th century).
He says,"The idea was to not just explore the Japanese chanbara classics (chanbara being the subgenre of the Japanese period film Jidaigeki) but also present the different phases of Feudal Japan through these five films - Seven Samurai, Kill!, Samurai: Miyamoto Musashi, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo."
Organisers say that the response to the festival was overwhelming with all packed screenings. Director General of The Japan Foundation, Koji Sato, and Director Arts Aoi Ishimaru played a crucial role in bringing Japanese classics to Delhi cinephiles.
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