Myblogspan.com Permalink Page
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
by Vadim Rizov
[In celebration of Criterion"s AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa box set, GreenCine Daily will be looking at four rare films only now available on DVD this week.]
There"s a moment early on in 1945"s The Men Who Tread on the Tiger"s Tail where you"re looking not at Akira Kurosawa"s third film but peering 35 years into the future. Up to that moment, the tone"s been one of busy comedy. Lord Yoshitsune (Shubo Nishina) and his retainers are fleeing from Yoshitsune"s brother Yoritomo, who"s trying to kill him. Disguised as itinerant monks, they"re being trailed by a pesky, noisome porter (Kenichi Onomoto) whose chattering and urge to please/fear of death make him a stock counterpoint to the stoic samurai, who only have two modes: glowering bad-assery and hearty laughter. The porter has informed them that they"re not going to make it across the border: Yoritomo"s messenger is already there, knows their disguise, and is fully prepared to wipe them out. In that moment, the film-up to that moment lively, in motion and stylistically kind of anonymous-suddenly stops as Kurosawa pulls back to a master shot: all the samurai sitting in a semi-circle, the porter to their right, dwarfed by trees and the mountains in the background. We"re now in the realm of Kagemusha and Ran, Kurosawa"s late-period masterpieces: serenity and ritual in the midst of violence, in the generic vicinity of Mt. Fuji.