Kurosawa Classic Collection

Released: 24th October 2011. Collection of five classic films from the celebrated Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. In 'Ikiru' (1952) a dying man discovers a zest for life and desire to do some good after 30 years of dedicated work for the civil service. When Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura), Chief of the Citizen's Section of the Town Hall, finds he has only six months to live he uses his influence to cut through bureaucratic red tape and give the go-ahead to the construction of a children's park in a poor area. In 'Red Beard' (1965), set at the end of the Tokugawa era, domineering Dr Niide (Toshiro Mifune), known as 'Red Beard', is responsible for training new doctors, among them the lazy and socially ambitious Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama). However, through a series of lessons in human sufferings, Yasumoto is eventually transformed into a caring doctor. In 'The Lower Depths' (1957), adapted from the play by Maxim Gorky, Sutekichi (Mifune) is a pedlar who hides from the police in a dosshouse. Here he encounters many different characters, including an older woman who is in love with a thief, himself infatuated with a younger woman. In 'I Live in Fear' (1955), at the height of the Cold War, ageing Japanese foundry owner Kiichi Nakajima (Mifune) decides that he and his entire family must emigrate to Brazil in order to find safety from a potential nuclear attack. The rest of the family, unwilling to sell up and move, attempt to have Kiichi declared mentally incompetent. 'Dodes'ka-den' (1970), set in Tokyo, portrays the lives of a variety of slum-dwellers, including the mentally ill Roku-chan (Yoshitaka Zushi) who passes his days pretending to be a conductor on a make-believe tram.