My Two Cents
Akira Kurosawa: 1. The Seven Samurais is first and foremost, especially if you like Samurai Dramas. Although being black & white, having no budget for effects of any kind and despite being epic in length (I think it's longer than 3 hours), it's a very catchy movie, action-packed and full of humor. It certainly goes faster than any of Kurosawa's later color movies and will probably interest you more. To cut a long story short, there's a lot to say, but this movie is not one of the most famous classics of world for nothing. 2. The Bloody Throne (I don't remember the Japanese name): A B&W classical drama based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. Nice, but quite slow. 3. Ran: Another play adaptation, this time using King Lear. Even slower than The Bloody Throne. On the other hand, this one has color and really amazing visuals. It makes you wish Akira Kurosawa could have done his other classics in color. 4. Rashoumon: Based on the famous classic. Slow, but Toshiro Mifune, when he gets to show his face, is almost as funny as in The Seven Samurais. I think some people credit Kurosawa for being the first to use the "same story from several points of view" trick here. 5. Kagemusha: Good, but very slow and tragic. 6. August Raphsody (if I remember the name right): I saw this one more than 10 years ago, so I don't remember much. Starring a Tibetan Buddhist Monk with a very thick accent (sometimes known as Richard Gere), it might irritate your ears, but I didn't know any Japanese by then (expect from Kowabunga which turned out not being Japanese anyway). I managed to watch all of this as I child without getting bored by the awfully slow plotline, so there may be something here anyway. That's all of Kurosawa, I've watched unfortunately. I always wanted to see Yojimbo, which seemed to be really nice but kept forgetting.