Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, or Ozu?

Only 200k films around? I'd say it's much more.

Ask Guaporense, he's big into statistics.

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Mubi

I couldn't agree more.

I could, but I'm not going to.

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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!

No surprise with the top two on those polls, but I'm surprised to see that Mizoguchi isn't held in higher esteem by Japanese film buffs.

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"Puns are the highest form of literature." -Alfred Hitchcock

Mizoguchi scored several films on both pools. The fact is that he is more widely known outside of Japan compared to other great Japanese directors.

These are the US statistics:

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/moviedata.html

They show that in the US were released about 40,000 movies from 1929 to 2012. Before 1929 film industry was already huge, perhaps a total of 10,000 movies were made in those early years. So total US film production over the past 100 years was around 50,000 movies.

These are Japan's statistics:

http://www.eiren.org/statistics_e/index.html

Japan produced 20,508 movies released domestically from 1955 to 2011. They also produced 554 movies in 2012. Considering that they made many films before 1955, let's say about 10,000, yields ca. 30,000 Japanese films over the past 100 years.

India produces around 1,000 movies per year (ca. 1,250 over the past few years). However, their film industry was surely smaller before. I doubt they released films at this rate in the 1950's and 1940's. I guess around 50,000 Indian films were produced over the last 100 years.

These three countries add to 130,000 films. These is also substantial production from many other countries, such as France and Russia. I guess the total number of films produced over the last 100 years might be around 200,000 - 250,000.

Nigeria currently produces around 1,000 movies per year but these are made in hand-held digital cameras using shoestring budgets and are many times released in video so I am not sure if they qualify as proper films.

As much as I love Tokyo Story and praise it as one of the greatest movies ever made, I am a Kurosawa fan boy. Seven Samurai and Rashomon both being on my top ten favorite movies list.

Hard to argue against this statement.

Have yet to see any Mizoguchi. He's been on my radar for a while and when the next Barnes and Noble Criterion sale is on I'll probably order Sansho, will have to reserve judgement till then. Seen more then a few Kurosawa films now, always enjoy watching them. Think Seven Samurai, Rashomon and High and Low are his best films. Seen the Tokyo Story trilogy and The Only Son from Ozu. I agree with BlueDeed, from what I have seen of Ozu his films only make slight variations, but I enjoy the themes in his films.

Even though I appreciate Ozu's films, I would give the edge to Kurosawa, I could stick a Kurosawa film on and always enjoy it. He's also one of those rare directors that both casual and fanatic film audiences can appreciate in different ways.

Also want to echo what others have said about Kobayashi and Imamura (only seen Profound Desires, but its one of my favourites)

My vote goes to Akira Kurosawa http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...s7v3KDe9vR1uWQ

Tough one They all have movies that i like. But the most successfull and influential movie director of them 3 has to be Kurosawa.

Ozu + Mizoguchi > Kurosawa.

I say that only because, for me, I Was Born But..., Late Spring, Ugetsu and Sansho are better than any of Kurosawa's films. In my opinion.

I voted Kurosawa because I've seen a tonne of his work and he had the ability to create epic masterpieces and smaller, character driven pieces. I think he's also the most influential director in Japanese cinema and is iconic enough to rank along side the likes of Spielberg, Kubrick and Lynch.

I'm saddened to say that Tokyo Story is the only Ozu movie I've seen and I haven't seen any of Mizoguchi's work. I've definitely got to find them and watch them.

Actually, these three would fell to be overestimated if you ranked them alongside Kurosawa.

Any living director today considers himself to be a lesser director than Kurosawa, in the same way that any living writer considers himself to be a lesser writer than Shakespeare and any living natural scientist considers himself to be a lesser scientist than Newton.

Martin Scorsese, for instance, considered himself to be a honor when he got a chance to appear on a Kurosawa movie (Dreams).

Truly must see movies. Though I think that the more recent output of Japanese cinema may be more accessible for modern viewers (movies such as Miyazaki's, Kitano's, Love Exposure, Departures, etc).

Anyway, Ozu is also considered one of the top 10 greatest directors of all time (in the world) alongside Kurosawa.

Debatable. But that's for another thread.

Pretty much not. Very hard to argue against the idea that Ozu is not one of the top 10 greatest directors of all time. It is currently quite common for scholars to actually name Ozu as the single greatest director of all time.

If that's debatable, then it is debatable that Hitchcock is one of the top 10 too.

I can see Kurosawa's influence on modern cinema; it's blatant. But I don't think he's necessarily a great director. Well, he is great, but not in the same league as some of cinema's most contemplative, speculative artists--Bresson, Ozu, Demy, Tarkovsky, Godard (although in a different sense), and Antonioni.

Top 20 or 15 for sure, but I usually don't see him appear much higher than that on lists of the greatest directors. Of course, given the results of the recent Sight & Sound Poll that could be changing in the near future. And I'm not denying that there are those who would argue for Ozu's superiority over Hitchcock (and any other director, for that matter), but come on, you can't honestly believe that Ozu's worldwide acclaim -both critical and mainstream- is as secured as Hitchcock's. Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, and North by Northwest vs Tokyo Story, Late Spring, An Autumn Afternoon, and I Was Born But.... Not knocking Ozu or anything, but there's really no way he is held up in quite as high international esteem as Hitch.

He was 10th place in 2002 and 4th place in 2012, in the Sign and Sound polls.

Critical? Pretty much. Mainstream? In Japan he is probably more well known than Hitchcock.

Among critics, he is indeed, if not more so. Many film buffs have said that Ozu's movies to have much greater emotional depth than Hitchcock's. It's quite common for film critics to say that he may be the greatest director ever thanks to his humanism or that Tokyo Story may be the best movie ever (in fact, it was placed 1st in the directors poll in 2012).

Tokyo Story is pretty much THE canonical drama movie. Period.

Among common people in the United States, he is not very well known but that's normal, since he is from another country while Hitchcock is domestic. Of course if you talk to movie fans in the English speaking world (or in the Western world) they will know more Hitchcock and given American cultural imperialism, over the wider world as well.

Overall, nobody would deny that Ozu is one of the greatest directors ever and nobody would also deny that Hitchcock also is among the top directors ever.