Seven Samurai was great, and Hidden Fortress was okay. Ran was excellent, and there were a few other period pieces that were outstanding. Its too bad that akira kurosawa and Shintaro Katsu never got along:


Shintaro Katsu
Wikipedia:
He (Shintaro Katsu) had also developed a reputation for being something of a troublemaker on set. When director Akira Kurosawa cast him for the lead role in Kagemusha (1980), Katsu left before the first day of shooting was over.[3] Though accounts differ as to the incident, the most consistent one details Katsu's clash with Kurosawa regarding bringing his own film crew to the set (to film Kurosawa in action for later exhibition to his own acting students). Kurosawa is reputed to have taken great offense at this, resulting in Katsu's termination (he was replaced by Tatsuya Nakadai). In her recent book, Waiting on the Weather, about her experiences with director Kurosawa, script supervisor Teruyo Nogami chalks the differences between Katsu and Kurosawa up to a personality clash that had unfortunate artistic results.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintaro_Katsu

Shintaro Katsu was always my most favorite actor.

besides the obvious magnificent 7 and other U S westerns, the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and others also show the Kurosawa influence. I agree with your ratings for those 3 films I would probably enjoy them even more if I didn't have to rely on subtitles, but that's my weakness not the films.