Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
One of the best known Japanese directors, and, from the 1950s to the 1980s, one of a very few who were well known outside of Japan.
Kurosawa had a very long career: More than 30 films from the early 1940s to 1990s, many of them both extraordinarily famous and huge box-office successes. Particularly famous titles include: Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1955), Yojimbo (1961), Kagemusha (1980), and Ran (1985). Kurosawa scripts continue to be used to make new film (Stray Dog 2013, Hidden Fortress: The Last Princess 2008).
Next: Yojimbo
Watch Tony Zhou's "Akira Kurosawa - Composing Movement" (length: 8:25, Required)
Kurosawa had a tragic childhood and was haunted by depression all of his life. As a child, he saw the 1923 Tokyo earthquake and the massacre of Koreans that followed it. He lived through the death of several
of his siblings, particularly the suicide of his much admired older brother. Kurosawa attempted suicide in 1971.
Kurosawa was associated with Communist Party in the 1930s but in
1936 got a job as assistant and scriptwriter for a prominent
director. His first films were made during the war and were heavily affected by
government censorship.
Kurosawa was strongly influenced by American filmmaking,
particularly the wide screen, rapid cutting film techniques and the general plot lines of the Western. Several
of his films were remade as Westerns, particularly Seven Samurai, remade (twice now) as The
Magnificent Seven (1960 and 2016) and Yojimbo remade as Fistful of Dollars (1964) and more recently as Last Man Standing (1996).
This cultural exchange went in two ways. Kurosawa also took European stories, particularly Shakespeare, and remade them in Japanese settings. For example Throne of Blood (1955) is a Japanese telling of Macbeth, and Ran (1985) is a version of King Lear.
Kurosawa's films send emotionally mixed messages.
Many are battles with despair. The search for truth always leads
to ambiguity.