Akira Kurosawa's hugely influential 1950 historical crime drama. Winner of the top prize at the 1952 Venice Film Festival and an Honorary Academy Award the same year, the film concerns a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura) who witnesses a horrific series of events - an ambush, the rape of a noblewoman (Machiko Kyo) and the subsequent murder of her samurai husband (Mayasuki Mori) by a bandit (Toshiro Mifune). Yet, in the recounting of the incidents at the trial, differing versions come from all involved, thus raising questions about the reliability of subjective 'truth'.

Akira Kurosawa's hugely influential 1950 historical crime drama. Winner of the top prize at the 1952 Venice Film Festival and an Honorary Academy Award the same year, the film concerns a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura) who witnesses a horrific series of events - an ambush, the rape of a noblewoman (Machiko Kyo) and the subsequent murder of her samurai husband (Mayasuki Mori) by a bandit (Toshiro Mifune). Yet, in the recounting of the incidents at the trial, differing versions come from all involved, thus raising questions about the reliability of subjective 'truth'.

Six early films by Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa. The films included comprise: 'Sanshuro Sugata' (1943), 'Sanshuro Sugata No 2' (1945), 'The Most Beautiful' (1944), 'The Men Who Tread On the Tiger's Tail' (1952), 'No Regrets For Our Youth' (1946) and 'One Wonderful Sunday' (1947).

This was Akira Kurosawa's first independent feature and for it he adapted an Ed McBain thriller, transposing the action to Japan. In this tale of revenge, Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) obtains a position as private scretary to Iwabuchi (Masayuki Mori), the government official he suspects killed his father. Nishi then marries Iwabuchi's daughter and plans a fitting retribution.