Welcome to the first ever MovieJawn Split Decision! Each week, Ryan will pose a question to our staff of knowledgable and passionate film lovers and share the responses. Chime in on Twitter, Facebook, our Instagram, or in the comments below.

This week’s question:

In honor of what would have been his 111st (eleventy-first for you Tolkien readers) birthday on March 23, what is your favorite film directed by Akira Kurosawa?

I first watched High and Low when digging into films that influenced the newer Star Wars movies. J.J. Abrams noted it as a reference for how to get a lot of people in frame at once. This is one thing he’s not wrong about. The way the actors—especially as this film has a ton of people taking in rooms—are arranged in each scene is incredibly striking. It feels staged and somehow organic at the same time. Not unlike a play, except that the framing could only be this precise with cinema. Much of the film is about people in an apartment waiting for the phone to ring, and Kurosawa wrings a ton of tension out of it.

This was also the first time I had ever seen a film from Kurosawa film that didn’t directly involve samurais, and that added another layer to my appreciation. Seeing Toshirô Mifune’s stoic but broiling acting in modern dress is downright chilling. In addition, the way that the film morphs from a thriller to a procedural, and then is able to wrap up everything in the final scene made this a powerful watch for me.–Ryan Silberstein, The Red Herring

I really like Dreams, because it’s a visually dazzling film and most of an anthology film, which speaks to my love of shorts. Plus Martin Scorsese..–Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

I’m with Gary. “Sunshine through the Rain” in which a young boy intrudes upon a wedding of the foxes is a cinematic experience that ranks pretty high on my list. Plus the idea that trees can have ghosts, the premise of “The Peach Orchard,” is so wild for the twentieth century, there’s something almost X-Files-ish about it. If you aren’t into Kurosawa because you don’t like feature-length action movies (and I don’t), Dreams will turn your expectations on their heads. -Jenny Swadosh, Contributor

I sometimes can’t believe Ran exists. It’s just startling how well it works, even coming toward the end of a great artist’s career, when nothing should be startling and you should have some expectation of what’s coming. Maybe if I had watched every Kurosawa film in order before watching Ran, it wouldn’t have the same punch. Like Dreams, it’s a movie that’s metatextually about a guy who never stopped leveling up. –Alex Rudolph, Staff Writer

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Super shocking that I’m going to pick a sad movie… For me, it’s gotta be Ikiru. It’s very easy to just get caught up in the day to day monotony of life - especially during this pandemic where every day kind of feels the same. However, it’s never too late to change, take up new interests, make new friends, and think about others. It’s okay to feel like you don’t have one distinct purpose in life. I find that exciting. But it is short, so take time to enjoy it.–Ashley Jane Davis, Staff Writer

Despite decades of references and remakes, Seven Samurai still towers over the innumerable films it inspired. Kurosawa’s three-and-a-half-hour rōnin epic, the longest of his career, not only set the standard for every Western and action movie that followed, but remains exhilarating to this day. Kurosawa regulars Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura give some of their best performances, Mifune electric and unpredictable and Shimura controlled and focused, but it’s Kurosawa who’s truly the star here. His shots are composed exactly and precisely to feel sprawling, and his action sequences are breathtaking and exciting. And any “assembling the team” plot of the past 67 years owes a debt to Kurosawa and Seven Samurai, even if nothing has ever been able to top the OG (OS? Original Samurai)–Ryan Smillie, Staff Writer

I want to give a shout-out to the greatest movie he never got to make himself, that someone else made, based on one of his unproduced scripts: Runaway Train, the Cannon production that got both Jon Voight and Eric Roberts Oscar nominations. It's so good. It's got it all. Imminent ecological disaster, a prison break, a super young Danny Trejo!–Billy Russell, Staff Writer

I will always have a soft spot for Kurosawa’s Rashomon, it’s a beautiful look into how hard it is to find objective truth. I strongly relate to the priest in the film, a figure that’s battling with whether or not there is, or ever will be, a correct way to view the world. It’s a level of filmmaking I aspire to attain, and it will always remain a staple of what filmmaking truly is: cameras capturing the multiple sides to human nature. –Miguel Alejandro Marquez, Staff Writer