Snow Trail

Perhaps the least known period of Akira Kurosawa's career is the short period during the late 40s and early 50s in which he wrote a total of five screenplays for his childhood friend, Senkichi Taniguchi. Judging by this film alone, there's very little that separates Kurosawa's scripts from his own films. It probably helps a great deal that Kurosawa regulars Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura play the leads, but we see plenty of America's greats of genre cinema being channeled.

Takashi Shimura's brilliance is on full display

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

Crooks-on-the-run film that delves a little more into character studies than action sequences. It's perhaps most notable for being the first of almost two dozen collaborations of Mifune and Shimura (with Kurosawa doing the scripting here as well). There's a noir-ish feel, and the resolution is generally satisfying (if a bit philosophical).

Extremely underrated. A moving story punctuated by minimalistic sound design and a hauntingly cold setting. Takashi Shimura delivers as great of a performance as anything else he's done.

The debut of screen legend Toshirô Mifune! Here as part of a gang of bank robbers trying to flee from the cops by hiding in the snowy mountains. Quality movie, and Mifune looks a instant star. A bit slow and uneventful in some portions, but it's in many ways a beautiful film, just missing some more action in the middle. This was also the first one for famous composer Akira Ifukube (who did a lot of the Godzilla movies and a ton more).