Word: akira
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Magnificent Seven (Toho; Columbia). Arms and the men have seldom been more stirringly sung than in this tale of bold emprise in old Nippon. In his latest film, Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon) has plucked the epic string. And though at times, in the usual Japanese fashion, some dismal flats and rather hysterical sharps can be heard, the lay of this Oriental minstrel has a martial thrum and fervor that should be readily understood even in those parts of the world that do not speak the story's language. Violence, as Kurosawa eloquently speaks it, is a universal language...
Family Man. In Tokyo, Akira Ito was arrested for stealing 65 cameras valued at $3.900, despite his explanation that he badly needed the money to support his four mistresses and their four children...
Then, as if unwilling to end on so despairing a note, Director Akira Kurosawa tacks on a hopeful epilogue: the three men in the rain-drenched ruins discover an abandoned baby, and, by the unselfish act of volunteering to adopt the child, the woodcutter restores the priest's faith in humanity. Though the film could hardly have found a better example of a compassionate saving grace, the scene seems an arbitrary afterthought that does not fit the story...
...sagging overhead electric power line. As the train passed underneath, the power line tangled with the train's trolley. There was a blinding, bluish-white flash as 1,500 volts crackled into the train. Flames licked swiftly over the first two of the five wooden coaches. Motorman Akira Nakamura braked sharply, shut off the power and jumped from the cab, tried frantically to force the doors of the coaches with his hands. Because the power was off, the electrically controlled doors would not budge. Within seconds both coaches were flaming coffins; only ten burned and bleeding passengers escaped through...