The First Films of Akira Kurosawa (Criterion Collection)

Years before Akira Kurosawa changed the face of cinema with such iconic works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, he made his start in the Japanese film industry with four popular and exceptional works, created as World War II raged. All gripping dramas, those rare first films - Sanshiro Sugata; The Most Beautiful; Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two; and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail - are collected here and include a two-part martial arts saga, a portrait of female volunteers helping the war effort, and a kabuki-derived tale of deception. These captivating films are a glorious introduction to a peerless career.

This box set from the popular Criterion Collection 'Eclipse' line - volume 23 in the series - presents four early and seldom-seen sound films by master Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, produced many years before the titles, such as YOJIMBO and RASHOMON, that turned Kurosawa into a household name. The set includes: the 1943 SANSHIRO SUGATA, Kurosawa's debut film, on a judo student's difficult but compelling spiritual journey; THE MOST BEAUTIFUL (1944), a propagandistic wartime drama about female volunteers employed at an optics factory; SANSHIRO SUGATA, PART TWO (1945), the sequel to Kurosawa's debut, that continues the tale of Sanshiro and his quest to become a martial arts master; and THE MEN WHO TREAD ON THE TIGER'S TAIL (1945), a kabuki-inspired tale about a lord who disguises himself as a monk to get past a seemingly impenetrable roadblock.