Remembering a master

Tuesday marks the centennial of the birth of the great Akira Kurosawa, and Turner Classic Movies is marking the occasion by featuring a 24-hour marathon of some of his best movies.

if you’re a fan, you know what an occasion this is; if you’re not familiar with the great man’s work, here’s your chance to do some catching up.

The line-up is below. It’s all worth seeing, but things really pick up with One Wonderful Sunday at 1:30 p.m. You could turn on the TV then and watch until 4 a.m. with no regrets whatsoever. It’s one classic after another — Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro — followed by the marathon’s finale, Dodes’ka-Den, Kurosawa’s first color picture.

6:00am — Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
A young man struggles to learn the ssence of the martial arts.
Cast: Sugisaku Aoyama, Susumu Fujita, Denjiro Okochi, Takashi Shimura Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-79 mins

7:30am — The Most Beautiful (1944)
Japanese women sacrifice everything for the war effort.
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Ichiro Sugai, Yoko Yaguchi, Takako Irie Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-85 mins

9:00am — The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)
In medieval Japan, a feudal lord undertakes a perilous mission to put his brother’s soul to rest.
Cast: Denjiro Okochi, Susumu Fujita, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-59 mins

10:00am — Sanshiro Sugata Part 2 (1945)
A judo fighter continues his training to prove his superiority to foreign challengers.
Cast: Susumu Fujita, Denjiro Okochi, Akitake Kono, Ryunosuke Tsukigata Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-82 mins

11:30am — No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
A woman flees society after seeing her father and lover destroyed by government oppression.
Cast: Denjiro Okochi, Eiko Miyoshi, Setsuko Hara, Susumu Fujita Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-110 mins

1:30pm — One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
An engaged couple tries to enjoy their Sunday holiday without spending any money.
Cast: Midori Ariyama, Chieko Nakakita, Ichiro Sugai, Isao Numasaki Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-109 mins

3:30pm — Drunken Angel (1948)
An alcoholic doctor builds a shaky friendship with a dying gangster.
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Michiyo Kogure, Chieko Nakakita Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-98 mins

5:30pm — Stray Dog (1949)
When a detective’s gun is stolen, he tears apart the underworld to get it back.
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Ko Kimura, Toshiro Mifune, Keiko Awaji Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-122 mins

8:00pm — Rashomon (1950)
In medieval Japan, four people offer conflicting accounts of a rape and murder.
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Takashi Shimura, Masayuki Mori Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-88 mins

9:30pm — Seven Samurai (1954)
Japanese villagers hire a team of traveling samurai to defend them against a bandit attack.
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Kuninori Kodo, Yoshio Inaba Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-207 mins

1:00am — Yojimbo (1961)
A samurai-for-hire sets the warring factions of a Japanese town against each other.
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Seizaburo Kawazu, Isuzu Yamada Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-111 mins

3:00am — Sanjuro (1962)
A wandering samurai recruits younger fighters to help him battle corruption.
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Takashi Shimura, Yuzo Kayama Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-96 mins

4:45am — Dodes’ka-Den (1970)
Slum dwellers in Tokyo fight to survive while dreaming of better lives.
Cast: Hiroshi Akutagawa, Michiko Araki, Junzaburo Ban, Jerry Fujio Dir: Akira Kurosawa C-140 mins