Featured films spotlight Kurosawa/Mifune partnership

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune's thriller "Stray Dog" screens March 8 at 7:15 p.m. in Uris Auditorium and March 10 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. Courtesy of Cornell Cinema

Starting this March and continuing into May, Cornell Cinema presents "Kurosawa & Mifune: 11 New Prints," a film series that offers an immersion into one of cinema's most important director/actor collaborations.

Whether darkly comic or grand in scale, their cinematic moral inquiries are fully realized amidst stunning production design and cinematography. Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune create a world in which the individual must be heroic in tragic times. With new translations and subtitles for six of the films, this is an opportunity to see the classic works as they've never been seen before. And keep in mind that six of the films screening in April and May were shot in widescreen Tohoscope. Admission for these shows is: $6 general/$5 students and seniors/$4 Cornell graduate students. For the complete lineup of Kurosawa titles and information on other March screenings, call 255-3522 or visit http://cinema.cornell.edu. "Kurosawa & Mifune" is co-sponsored with the East Asia Program and the Einaudi Center for International Studies.

The series began March 1, and next up is "Stray Dog" (1949), in which Kurosawa and Mifune again probe the criminal mind. Set in postwar Japan, the film is rich in detail, offering a glimpse into the dark underbelly of Tokyo. Mifune plays a rookie cop in pursuit of a petty thief who has stolen his gun, and the chase sequences bring on a series of revelations concerning the gun's history. The deeper the police officer moves into the lawless world, the more we see his own criminal side. "Stray Dog" will be shown Saturday, March 8, at 7:15 p.m. in Uris Auditorium and again on March 10 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

Also screening in March: "Rashomon" (1950) on March 24 at 7 p.m. and March 25 at 9:30 p.m. in the Willard Straight Hall Theatre; and "The Seven Samurai" (1954), March 29 at 9:15 p.m. in Uris Auditorium and March 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.