Kurosawa (Film Music of Akira Kurosawa)
June 28th, 2010 | 
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Kurosawa (Film Music of Akira Kurosawa)
Japanese compilation with the themes to 16 of the best-known films from the ’40s through the ’90s by Japan’s most famous director, the late Akira Kurosawa. Also contains a 7 second spoken word track entitled ‘Voice Of Kurosawa’. 17 cuts total, including the themes to ‘Seven Samurai’, ‘Ikiru’, ‘The Throne Of Blood’ and ‘The Bad Sleep Well’. 1998 Fun House Records release.
Rating: 
(out of 4 reviews)
List Price: $ 61.99
Price: $ 37.95
The Perfect Score
Rating: 
(out of 49 reviews)
Price: $ 9.99
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Review by TrezKu13 for Kurosawa (Film Music of Akira Kurosawa)
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This CD is a collection of themes from 16 of Akira Kurosawa’s 30 movies, including a track where you can hear Japan’s greatest director give his famous line, “Ready…start!” However, to truly appreciate what went into Akira Kurosawa’s work I think it helps to know who the other artists were that assisted him in his filmmaking. They were: (in order of tracks and who the composers were)
*Fumio Hayasaka
“Seven Samurai”
“Ikiru”
“Record Of A Living Being”
*Masaru Sato
“The Throne Of Blood”
“The Lower Depths”
“The Hidden Fortress”
“The Bad Sleep Well”
“Yojimbo”
“Sanjuro”
“High And Low”
“Red Beard”
*Toru Takemitsu
“Dodes’ Kaden”
“Ran”
*Isaac Schwalz
“Dersu Uzala”
*Shinichiro Ikebe
“Kagemusha”
“Dreams”
Most of these tracks are the main themes from the movies, with a few exceptions. “Seven Samurai” is pretty much the entire soundtrack (with the Peasant Theme, Samurai Theme, and Shino Theme) merged together with “Dodes’ Kaden” done in a similar fashion, while “Dreams” is the end theme and the funeral march put together respectively. It’s a pity we could not hear similar things done for the other tracks, especially “Kagemusha” which had a great soundtrack altogether.
Overall, this is a good addition to the music of any film buff, and is a definate must for any Kurosawa fan.
Review by Victor W Wong for Kurosawa (Film Music of Akira Kurosawa)
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THE FILM MUSIC OF AKIRA KUROSAWA contains tracks from a selection of the film director’s best-known films, with the exception of the ground-breaking RASHOMON. It is by no means comprehensive (none of Kurosawa’s works from the 1940s are represented) but the tracks selected are a strong overview of the director’s career.The tracks range from a simple re-mastering to complete re-arrangement. The first track, SUITE FROM THE SEVEN SAMURAI, is a selection of themes from the film. Much of this is taken from the intermission music which plays between reels, which includes the Farmer’s Drone and Drums, the Samurai March, and the themes of Kikuchiyo and the Romance Theme.For the most part, the opening credits music is selected from each movie. Of these, YOJIMBO and THE HIDDEN FORTRESS are probably the most accessible to Western listeners, with the latter being reminiscent of an epic Ben Hur and the former evoking the opening images of Toshiro Mifune walking.Less successful are the modern re-arrangements from the later films, some of which sound like elevator music. The track from SANJURO, for example, has been re-arranged to evoke a loping, “lone cowboy” romp. (To be fair, of course, much of SANJURO’s original music was taken from YOJIMBO, and there may not have been enough incidental to make a self-complete track.)Listeners should also be aware that some computer-based CD players may have timing problems with the tracks. All in all, however, fans of Kurosawa will be delighted with this album.
Review by for Kurosawa (Film Music of Akira Kurosawa)
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THE FILM MUSIC OF KUROSAWA contains music from almost all of the great master’s films (with the exception of SUGATA SANSHIRO, his other early works, and RHAPSODY IN AUGUST). If you are a Kurosawa fan, this CD is for you. It has music from all of his films, going from SEVEN SAMURAI to DREAMS. It is an excellent music compilation, featuring highlights, if not, all of the music, from Kurosawa’s movies, whether it’s the drum-banging theme of SEVEN SAMURAI, or the Russian requiem choir from DERSU UZALA, or the end theme from KAGEMUSHA, and lots more. It is truly an enjoyable CD to listen to. With the music score from many great Japanese musicians, you can visualize the scenes from all of his great movies. Even if you just like a few songs from Kurosawa’s movies, it is highly doubtful that you will be dissapointed with this CD. Tracks: Music from the following Kurosawa films:SEVEN SAMURAI (12 minute suite), IKIRU (theme), RECORD OF A LIVING BEING, THE THRONE OF BLOOD (main theme), THE LOWER DEPTHS, THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (theme), THE BAD SLEEP WELL, YOJIMBO (theme), SANJURO (song from trailer), HIGH AND LOW (theme), RED BEARD (suite, does not have chime-ambient song in film and featured on DVD menu), DODES’KADEN (suite), DERSU UZALA (Russian requiem), KAGEMUSHA (end theme), RAN (battle theme; edited), DREAMS (theme) ,VOICE OF KUROSAWA (saying “Ready . . . Action!”)*Note: All the songs are remastered in stereo, not redone or re-orchestrated. Good stuff!
Review by Paul A Santos for Kurosawa (Film Music of Akira Kurosawa)
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When you watch a kurosawa movie there are many things that strike you. The camera tells a story that is just so beautiful. But the music has such an important part in making the movies a work of art. All the music on this cd is excellent. They are the final piece of kurosawa’s movies that made them more than just movies but timeless pieces of cinema.
Review by Lawrance M. Bernabo for The Perfect Score
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No, I do not remember my SAT score, but I have taught enough high school students terrorized by the thought of how a four digit number could totally ruin their lives (i.e., deny them the college of their dreams) to realize that this is a tender subject. Which is why it is nice to report that “The Perfect Score” does take things seriously at the same time it is having fun with the paranoia. I might not be able to answer any of the SAT questions that pop up during the movie, but I do know that the screenplay by Mark Schwahn (creator of “One Tree Hill”), Marc Hyman (“Osmosis Jones”) and Jon Zack (“Out Cold”) is a lot better than I would have thought for a movie like this 2004 comedy.The story takes place in Princeton, New Jersey which is, oddly enough, where you find the Princeton Testing Center that is the home of the SAT exam (SAT stood for Scholastic Aptitude Test but one of the running gags in this film is the effort to come up with a more appropriate meaning to the anagram). The first SAT exam of the year has come and gone and Kyle (Chris Evans) discovers his score is too low to get him into Cornell and Anna (Erika Christensen) can apparently forget about her parents’ dream of Brown. The next exam is in two weeks and since getting smarter in a fortnight is not likely, stealing the exam sounds like a good idea. Kyle’s friend Matty (Bryan Greenberg), already bound for Maryland, is willing to help and they approach Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), whose daddy happens to run PTC and can provide a way in. The final members of the group are Desmond (Darius Miles), a basketball star whose mom wants him to go to college, and Roy (Leonardo Nam), a stoner who is involved only because he knows about what is going on. Now, in the real world stealing one SAT exam does not do you any good because there are several versions, so the person sitting next to you can have different questions or the questions are in a different order (or both). But that is besides the point in “The Perfect Score” and I ended up liking this movie a lot more than I thought I would for three reasons. The first I cannot tell you about because it would spoil the movie, but it has to do with an interesting twist on expectations. The second is the character of Desmond’s mother (Tyra Ferrell), who has an impact on more than just her son. This film plays a lot with the stereotypes, from class brain to dumb jock to stoner, and I like the way Desmond’s mother fits into that mold as well. The third is that this film comes up with a really, really great line about why not to be scared about the questions on the SAT, spoken, of course, by the most ironic character in the mix.”The Perfect Score” is an enjoyable little caper comedy that certainly exceeds expectations, which is not a bad recommendation given most teen comedies today. The characters manage to avoid being stupid, a standard pitfall in the genre, although I suspect there are those who will be disappointed with the way things get resolved at the end. I also think it was nice that if Scarlett Johansson could not get an Oscar nomination for either “Lost in Translation” or “Girl With a PEarl Earring” then at least she got to do a decent “Matrix” takeoff in this film. Plus it was interesting to see Darius Miles who went to the pros instead of attending St. Johns University play a character who does the opposite, although it is ironic to see Mike Jarvis play himself since he had been fired from the St. Johns post by the time “The Perfect Score” was released.
Review by Kevin Killian for The Perfect Score
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The film is all about the SATs and I’m surprised that ETS allowed them to make it. Certainly it makes ETS look like a company with a bunch of nitwits running it, and in addition shows that they have lousy security and any bunch of six random idiot teens could break in and get all of the answers to any particular SAT exam. Was product placement so important to ETS that they let the filmmakers run down their whole organization in this way? This is not even to mention the gfeneralized, pervasive indictment of the whole SAT system that the Scarlett Johansson character, Francesca, spouts throughout the whole movie and which is, indeed, the movie’s most interesting selling point. It’s like the FAHRENHEIT 911 of standardized testing.
Otherwise it falls into a slavish imitation of THE BREAKFAST CLUB, with a bit of HARRY AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE thrown in, redeemed by the presence of the divine Chris Evans, who makes every movie he’s in an overwhelming visual and sensory experience, as though Aldous Huxley had released some pleasure-inducing “soma” gas into the ventilation system of the theater you’re watching him in. Is he a real person, or actually a god come to earth to provide nirvana to the millions? Here he plays “Kyle,” sort of a switch up for Chris in a way, as the thoughtful would-be architect who can’t get good enough SAT scores to get himself into Cornell. (“Cornell University,” the guidance counselor adds, just in case we were thinking it was Cornell Community College Kyle was aiming for.)
Chris has played characters called Jake, Adam, Ben, Bryan AND Ryan, Seth, Bryce and Johnny Storm, but Kyle is one of his best parts yet. A row of perfection, like clay ducks in a shooting gallery, each identical, all of them ideal.
Review by SaraShaw for The Perfect Score
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This is a bad movie. Most of the actors can’t act, and the “stoner” is quite possibly the most annoying character / actor ever created on film. Oh what a TV movie ending… 2 hours of my life watching the kids try to steal the SAT answers and in the end..they chicken out? Wow, gutless wonders and a jip to anyone that agreed with the sentiments echoed early in the film about the SAT. A movie that lacks the courage of its own convictions. That is ABC afternoon special territory.
When this movie started and I realized that one of the kid’s dad owned the building that ETS was in I thought… well this movie will be over fast. But 2 hours later, even with keys to the building, these kids can’t get the SAT answers, I realized why they SHOULD go to 2nd tier schools. They obviously aren’t that bright.
There was a much better story on this subject a few years back called “Cheaters” which was based on a true story. Don’t waste your time on this.
Review by J. Rogers for The Perfect Score
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I am a Scarlett Johansson fan and that is why I bought the movie and she did not disappoint me. This is much better than her performance in the Spider thriller/comedy movie. But this movie suffers from a script that was not thought all the way though and it needed more work on it before they went to production. Still, this is one of the first movies where Scarlett starts to show herself as a superstar. In fact she actually does a little bit of acting, rather then to just have that reflective lost in translation look on her face.
Review by Just Bill for The Perfect Score
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The Perfect Score isn’t the smartest film around. Nor is it the dumbest. On a bell curve, it would be graded slightly above average.
To be perfectly honest, my wife and I liked The Perfect Score better than the other, far more highly rated, Scarlett Johansson movie Ghost World. Now, *that* movie was a steaming pile. Yet, it’s considered quite good by critics and viewers alike. Go figure.
The Perfect Score is a more entertaining movie than Ghost World. The ensemble cast offers enough humor to keep the plot moving and the movie interesting. No, it’s not the The Breakfast Club. But, frankly, The Breakfast Club isn’t The Breakfast Club the way most of us remember it, anyway. That movie doesn’t really hold up some 20 years on and, in fact, looks about as goofy as The Perfect Score in plot and execution. Actually, there were a few moments of genuine hilarity and near brilliance in The Perfect Score.
Scarlett sizzles as usual. She’s a hottie with a lot of talent — quite a rarity in Hollywood these days, where hotties rule whether they’re talented or not.
But the other actors turned in nice performances, too.
I disagree with the Amazon editorial reviewer who wrote, “Still, only [Leonardo] Nam and Johansson (who, after Ghost World, Lost in Translation, and Girl with a Pearl Earring, is becoming a true movie star) stand out of the bland pack.”
We thought the acting was pretty good from all performers, even NBA player Darius Miles who was wooden and somewhat disengaged, but no more so than Keanu Reeves — and look where Reeves is these days: an A-list powerhouse.
The plot is thin. The entire movie is fluff. But it’s well-made, entertaining fluff. In Scarlett’s canon of movies, I’d rank this one ahead of a few others. It’s worth watching and, I think, will keep you at least chuckling to the end.
Recommended.