Just in time for holiday gift-buying, The Criterion Collection is compiling 25 films by Akira Kurosawa (including four never before released on DVD) for the box set AK 100, a celebration of what would've been the Japanese master's 100th birthday. Here's the line-up, in chronological order:
Sanshiro Sugata (1943)*
Sanshiro Sugata, Part II (1944)*
The Most Beautiful (1944)*
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)*
No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
Drunken Angel (1948)
Stray Dog (1949)
Scandal (1950)
The Idiot (1951)
Rashomon (1951)
Ikiru (1952)
Seven Samurai (1954)
I Live in Fear (1955)
The Lower Depths (1957)
Throne of Blood (1957)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
Yojimbo (1961)
Sanjuro (1962)
High and Low (1963)
Red Beard (1965)
Dodes’ka-den (1970)
Kagemusha (1980)
Madadayo (1993)
The *-ed items are the previously unreleased ones. The box set also comes with a thick book about Kurosawa. List price is 400 bucks, but perhaps you and your neighbors can pool your money, Seven Samurai-style.