criterionforum.org

Was 12 minutes all that was missing from the original cut of Sanshiro Sugata? Wikipedia is saying that 17 minutes were cut, which would mean that 5 minutes are still missing.

There were 12 minutes of deleted scenes as an extra on the BFI dvd, don’t recall any details, but I imagine it’s the same material reinserted into the film.

Having spent the last year watching all of Hitchcock’s films in chronological order, and reading Hitchcock/Truffaut while doing so, once I’m done next month I’m planning on doing the same with Akira Kurosawa, starting with the Sanshiro Sugata restoration showing at Il Cinema Ritrovata. Can anyone recommend an accessible English-language book on Kurosawa to read that would offer good insight and context on each of the films, ideally in a chronological fashion that could be read week by week after each film?

Donald Richie's The Films of Akira Kurosawa is exactly what you're describing. It goes through each one of his films in chronological order, giving contextual information and critical assessment of things like music, style, editing, characterization, etc. The third edition carries right up to Madadayo.

There is also of course Stuart Galbraith's The Emperor and the Wolf, which has a more biographical angle and also briefly touches on screenplays adapted after his death. Both of these must-read books for Kurosawa fans.

Perfect, thank you guys - have bought the Richie book which sounds ideal.

I can thoroughly recommend both books. In fact, I was rather alarmed when I ended up sharing disc space with Stuart Galbraith IV on Imprint's Dersu Uzala because his book was one of the major sources for my video piece!

(Although thankfully I had the foresight to acknowledge this within the piece itself, and was grateful for the opportunity to thank him personally.)