Speaking of Kurasawa, anybody ever see Ran? A kid in one of my literature classes did his term project on it, and we watched the film in class, and I was blown away at just how amazing it was, and that it was a Shakespearean adaptation to boot. (With samurai's, what could be more cool than that)
I got
Ran on Blu-Ray for Christmas but still haven't watched it yet. Part of it is because it's so friggin' long (which is a big turn-off for me when it comes to films) but another is that I'm not a massive Kurosawa fan. I'm not a
Rashomon fan, I'm not a
Seven Samurai fan, I'm DEFINITELY not an
Ikiru fan. My favourite's probably another Shakespeare adaptation in
Throne of Blood (aka Macbeth in Feudal Japan), but I'm not as enamoured of the guy as a lot of film buffs are.
My favourite Japanese filmmaker working today is Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Still Walking is one of my favourite films of all time, and
I Wish (which I saw two years ago at a film festival but came out on general release this year, I believe) is also really, really good. I'm a definite devotee of anything that guy will do. And of course there's Ghibli, of which I'll probably always see the newest one when it comes out.
In terms of older Japanese films, outside of Kurosawa - who I have these apparent issues with - I'm a big fan of a lot of the classics:
Tokyo Story,
The Ballad of Narayama,
The Woman in the Dunes. I still need to see things like
Ugetsu, but I imagine I will do in time.