>Red Beard is a personal favorite. This is the last film of
>his first period. He made about a mobie a year for maybe
>just over three decades. Man, that's a lot of movies. But
>this one took two or three years to finish and ended his
>friendship and collaboration with Toshiro Mifune. After
>this one they were all color, about one every fifve years.

The toll of working 2 years on "Red Beard" pretty much severed the relationship b/w Mifune and Kurosawa. The only exaggerated segment of "Red Beard" is the fight scene w/ Mifune - it harks back to "Sanjuro" and "Yojimbo," but the rest of the movie is a warm, measured tale.

>Yeah, and as far as the contemporary stuff, yes High and Low
>is bananas. Also, check The Good Sleep Well (the literal
>translation of the title is maybe closer to The Worse You
>Are, The Better You Sleep, so you get the vibe), which has a
>film noir vibe. Aw, yeah, and Stray Dog -- love that shit,
>dawg.

I've seen it titled as "The Bad Sleep Well," which would better encompass the theme of the movie (seeing that Mifune's character fails to succeed at his mission and the major transgressors apparently continue along unimpeded after his death) - it's not a terribly optimistic tone, but Kurosawa is unforgiving here in his critique on big business and the duplicitous activities engaged in behind closed doors. "Stray Dog" likely is the first movie in which the Mifune Kurosawa team really finds itself ("Drunken Angel," the predecessor {and initial collaboration b/w the 2}, is somewhat overwrought in a melodramatic fashion).