Charade [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [1963]

This box set from the popular Criterion Collection 'Eclipse' line - volume 23 in the series - presents four early and seldom-seen sound films by master Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, produced many years before the titles, such as Yojimbo and Rashomon, that turned Kurosawa into a household name. The set includes: the 1943 Sanshiro Sugata, Kurosawa's debut film, on a judo student's difficult but compelling spiritual journey; The Most Beautiful (1944), a propagandistic wartime drama about female volunteers employed at an optics factory; Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945), the sequel to Kurosawa's debut, that continues the tale of Sanshiro and his quest to become a martial arts master; and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945), a kabuki-inspired tale about a lord who disguises himself as a monk to get past a seemingly impenetrable roadblock.