The weird thing about Kurosawa in retrospect is that so many of his movies are about on par with each other in terms of being masterworks. I've never been one to get all gay about Japanese shit, but I can sit down and watch just about any Mifune/Kurosawa movie and know that it's going to be an entertaining three hours, and that's not even talking about Ikiru and Ran and etc.
Oddly enough one of my favorite movies of his is Sanjuro. Probably the best action comedy I've ever seen, and I don't mean that in a dismissive way.
I watched this recently. Its a pretty low key Kurosawa movie, but its another one of his more poignant and character focused movies instead of a grand epic. Pretty great.
If you ever get a chance, this is definitely one of those moves you HAVE to see in a theater. There are so many scenes that depend on the wide screen (the snow scene in particular) that even a nice TV or home projection setup don't do it justice.