Change Your Image
vadallen
Reviews
Ma-ma (1976)
For those interested - I bought it on DVD!
Hi, I am writing only because so many people on IMDb wanted to have it. Being a Russian-speaking person I could not imagine so many viewers around the world appreciate it so much! You guys made me feel sentimental together with the movie because I just bought it here in USA for my son after 30 years when I saw it. It's the Russian language version, but the video and sound quality is better than I expected. At least the music is still the same as you remember it - great! By the way L. Gurchenko(Mama goat) recently died in the age of 75, RIP. So, you can try the web-site "from Russia - dot - com" (it's in English), but write the link together as one word (IMDB system did not take it as one). The DVD is NTSC, $14.99 (plus shipping). Good luck and write me if there is a problem - may be I will help.
Shichinin no samurai (1954)
Insredible action with a deep philosophical meaning!
First time I watched it I was completely immersed in a story. It's got so imprinted in my mind that a second time (a couple of years later) I could keep my mind above the plot to look deeper and discovered for myself a beautiful second sub-level of emotions which really thrilled me. I must say about it because I have read 5 or 6 reviews on this movie: only one of them barely resembled my point, and I refuse to think Mr. Kurosawa did not realize this 2nd level while making the movie. I am talking about its great Humanism which has 2 aspects. #1 - is a war. No other movie made me feel so vividly that killing each other, no matter how great or noble is your cause, is always, ALWAYS, an evil, horrific, dirty, unnatural thing which is going to haunt its participants forever (may be with an exception of, well, samurai, who probably really believed in what they do). Yes, you can kill somebody to save the World, but - in the end there might be nothing to be proud of. #2 - is the purpose of human life. It stunned me that the percentage of people you meet in your life who are - A) selfish B) don't care and C) doing good deeds - is roughly the same as a number of - A) bandits B) peasants and C) samurai heroes - in the movie. What Kambei says in the end about whose victory it is (and knowing what price 7 samurai have paid for it) reaffirms the notion that those of us who are doing good deeds must remember that you should not expect a reward for it, and the only true reward you can get is within yourself. And it still is as elusive as that famous wind which goes through all Kurosawa's action. I am happy now: next time I watch it I will discover something else.