Akira Kurosawa: The Eternal Master
August 1–August 24, 2025
Explore the canon of Japan’s legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa with new 4K digital restorations of classics including historical dramas, gripping thrillers, and of course samurai action.
Upcoming Events in this Series
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Stray Dog (Noru Inu)
Stray Dog goes beyond a crime thriller, probing the squalid world of postwar Japan, and the nature of the criminal mind.
- Friday, August 1, 2025
- 7 p.m.
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The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-Toride No San-Akunin)
Toshiro Mifune is a general charged with guarding his defeated clan’s princess as the two smuggle royal treasure across hostile territory.
- Saturday, August 9, 2025
- 7 p.m.
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Yojimbo (Yôjinbô)
To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily, masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage.
- Sunday, August 10, 2025
- 5 p.m.
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Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjûrô)
In this sly companion piece to Yojimbo, jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a “proper” samurai on its ear.
- Friday, August 22, 2025
- 7 p.m.
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High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku)
Toshiro Mifune is a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in Kurosawa’s highly influential domestic drama and police procedural.
- Sunday, August 24, 2025
- 5 p.m.
Community Partner: Japan-American Society of Houston
Underwriting for the Film Department is provided by Tenaris and American Friends of Fundacion Proa Inc., The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation, and the Vaughn Foundation.
Generous funding is provided by The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea; Nina and Michael Zilkha; Lois Chiles; Foundation for Independent Media Arts; Franci Neely; Ms. Laurence Unger; and ILEX Foundation.