Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (14)

Frequently uses the "wipe effect" to fade from one scene to another. This effect later became famous due to its usage in the Star Wars trilogy.



Likes to do Shakespearan plays in Feudal Japanese settings



Painterly compositions



Use of weather to heighten mood, most obviously rain



Female characters that are usually either sweet but weak and submissive or are deceitful, evil and conniving. Exceptions include Princess Yuki from 'The Hidden Fortress', who is willful and good-hearted, and Mutsuta's wife from 'Sanjuro', who is gentle and kind but sharp and intelligent.



Driven characters who frequently end up failing in the goals but ultimately learn hard won life lessons



His signature look on set: dark clothes, floppy hat and sunglasses



Revolutionary action sequences



Reoccurring cynical distrust of memories and nostalgia.



In his color films, use of bold, painterly visuals



The (often demented) elderly or deceased are frequently misrepresented or unfairly maligned by those remembering them.



Characters who express their feelings in an open and uninhibited fashion



Use of big, sometimes even overdramatic emotions in his characters.



Trivia (48)

His films are frequently copied and remade by American and European filmmakers.



In December 1971, after a period of suffering from mental fatigue and frustrated with a run of unsatisfying and sub par directing work, Kurosawa attempted suicide by slashing his wrist thirty times with a razor. Fortunately, the wounds were not fatal and he made a full recovery.



Because he could not get film financing for a period of time in his career, he directed and even appeared in Japanese television commercials.



At around 6' feet, he was extremely tall by Japanese standards, having stood a head taller than any of his colleagues.



Although the Japanese press tried to paint him as a tyrant, almost all of his casts and crews agreed he was a much more cool and detached presence on sets. Many also described him as "intense".





He was voted the 6th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, making him one among only two Asians along with Satyajit Ray (who is ranked in 25th position) on a list of 50 directors and the highest ranking non-American.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945". Pages 583-605. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.





Kurosawa worshiped legendary American director John Ford , his primary influence as a filmmaker. When the two met, Ford was uncommonly pleasant to the younger Japanese filmmaker and afterwards Kurosawa dressed in a similar fashion to Ford when on film sets. When Kurosawa eventually met Ford in the early 60's, Ford said to him:"You really like rain!" To which a delighted Kurosawa replied "You've really watched my films!".

Unbeknownst to many people, Kurosawa had always wanted to make a Godzilla film of his own, but the executives at Toho Co., Ltd. (the Japanese studio that produced both Kurosawa classics and the Godzilla films) wouldn't let him because they feared it would cost too much. Kurosawa greatly admired the original Godzilla film.



According to his family, he rarely thought about anything other than films. Even when at home, he would sit around silently, apparently composing shots in his head.



He had a son Hisao (b. 20-Dec-1945), and a daughter, award-winning film costume designer Kazuko (b. 29-Apr-1954).





His Dodesukaden (1970), Dersu Uzala (1975) and Kagemusha (1980) were Oscar-nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film". "Dersu Uzala" won. Rashômon (1950) won an Honorary Award as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951.

Ranked #6 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors ever!" [2005]





In the 1990s he referred to Kagemusha (1980), which some have considered a great film on its own, as a mere "dress rehearsal" for Ran (1985) (both are epics about failing emperors set roughly in the same historical era), with the latter film having been his passion for roughly a decade before he made it.



His two favorite actors to work with were apparently Takashi Shimura and, more famously, Toshirô Mifune . Kurosawa made 16 films with Mifune (almost always in a leading role) and 21 films with Shimura (in either a leading or supporting role).



He worked with most of his cast and crew members repeatedly, similarly to the way his idol John Ford used the same people again and again. When Kurosawa was at his working peak, it was widely thought that if he didn't work with an actor or crew member again, the implication was that he did not like them.

He was born the youngest of four children for Isamu and Shima Kurosawa. As a child, he revered his elder brother Heigo. While young Akira was mainly into painting, Heigo was a film-lover and worked as a "benshi", a narrator/ commentator for foreign silent films. Akira's love for film was handed down from his brother. Unfortunately, Heigo suffered from depression and committed suicide. Short thereafter, both Akira's eldest brother and only sister died from illnesses, leaving Akira the only remaining child. His siblings' deaths (particularly that of Heigo) was a traumatic experience for Akira and is thought to have considerably darkened his world view.





He was a fan of the films of Satyajit Ray



One his closest friends was Ishirô Honda , the writer-director behind Gojira (1954). The two had been trained by Kajirô Yamamoto and would live together while working as assistant directors. Kurosawa had urged Honda to join him and go independent, but Honda turned him down. Kurosawa would later ask Honda to assist him on his then upcoming Kagemusha (1980). Honda agreed and the two would spend their final years making films together. When Honda passed away, Kurosawa would stay vigil at his side for nights on end. He would deliver the eulogy at Honda's funeral and write the inscription on the headstone.

He was infamous for his perfectionism. Among the related tales are his insisting a stream be made to run in the opposite direction in order to get a better visual effect, and having the roof of a house removed, later to be replaced, because he felt the roof's presence to be unattractive in a short sequence filmed from a train. He also required that all the actors in his period films had to wear their costumes for several weeks, daily, before filming so that they would look lived in.



Although his "samurai" films are considered the archetypal samurai films over the rest of the world, they were actually considered atypical in Japan. Most Japanese samurai films had been set in the 18th & 19th centuries, when a peaceful Japan was at the peak of its nationalism, with the largest number of bushido code-adhering samurai. Kurosawa's films typically feature individualistic "ronin" (masterless samurai) rather than true "samurai" and a majority are set in the far more chaotic feudal periods (16th-17th centuries) when the Japanese were engaged in civil war.





His favorite Japanese director was Kenji Mizoguchi



He named the film that made him want to work in cinema as Abel Gance 's film La roue (1923), particularly certain kinetic shots of trains.



He was a fan of the work of Sergei M. Eisenstein , who, like Kurosawa, edited his own films.

He believed his years as an assistant director were invaluable. In Japanese cinema at that time, assistant directors dabbled in virtually every aspect of film production and Kurosawa, among other things, learned all about editing, set-decorating, costume-design and working with actors. Almost all of the assistant directors in Kurosawa's day were aspiring to become full-fledged directors. He felt that it was a shame that, in more modern Japanese cinema and in America, the assistant director doesn't accrue as much experience and usually permanently stays as an assistant director throughout his career and that there would be a great number of excellent directors had they had his training.



Many of the characters in his period films were loosely based on historical figures.



He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture.





Is not related to Kiyoshi Kurosawa

His mentor was 'Kajiro Yamamoto'.



Awarded the French Legion of Honor, 1984.



Awarded the Kyoto Prize, 1994.



Interviewed in "World Directors in Dialogue" by Bert Cardullo (Scarecrow Press, 2011).



A theoretical interpretation of his work can be found in "Akira Kurosawa and Intertextual Cinema" by James Goodwin, published by Johns Hopkins in 1994.





Like his fellow World Cinema masters, Ingmar Bergman (who started in live theater) and Federico Fellini (who started in journalism) he came to cinema via circumvention after working as a painter.

His family, when traced back a few generations, were samurais from the Akita Prefecture. Kurosawa said later that his father, who was tall, with a commanding presence and worked as a fitness instructor, had a bearing he thought was samurai-like. Unlike his father, Kurosawa himself was never athletically inclined.



The Akira Kurosawa School of Film was launched in April 2015, offering an online Master of Fine Arts in Digital Filmmaking.





He was a close friend of Senkichi Taniguchi . Along with Ishirô Honda , the trio were referred to as the tree crows at Toho studios.

His last name is pronounced KU-RA-SA-WA.



Ingmar Bergman was a huge fan of his films.



He was a huge fan of American westerns; in particular those directed by John Ford.



His films were often criticized by Japanese film critics for being too influenced by American filmmakers.



His idol and primary influence was John Ford and Kurosawa was delighted and honored when they met and he learned that Ford was also a fan of his.



Kurosawa Akira's inspiration was noh theatre.





He listed the original Gojira (1954) on his list of top 100 films.

Personal Quotes (34)

For me, film-making combines everything. That's the reason I've made cinema my life's work. In films painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.



Human beings share the same common problems. A film can only be understood if it depicts these properly.



The characters in my films try to live honestly and make the most of the lives they've been given. I believe you must live honestly and develop your abilities to the full. People who do this are the real heroes.



With a good script, a good director can produce a masterpiece. With the same script, a mediocre director can produce a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can't possibly make a good film. For truly cinematic expression, the camera and the microphone must be able to cross both fire and water. The script must be something that has the power to do this.



In all my films, there's three or maybe four minutes of real cinema.



So long as my pictures are hits I can afford to be unreasonable. Of course, if they start losing money then I've made some enemies.



It is quite enough if a human being has but one field where he is strong. If a human being were strong in every field it wouldn't be nice for other people, would it?



Good Westerns are liked by everyone. Since humans are weak, they want to see good people and great heroes. Westerns have been done over and over again, and in the process a kind of grammar has evolved. I have learned much from this grammar of the Western.



I like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself.



When I start on a film I always have a number of ideas about my project. Then one of them begins to germinate, to sprout, and it is this which I take and work with. My films come from my need to say a particular thing at a particular time. The beginning of any film for me is this need to express something. It is to make it nurture and grow that I write my script- it is directing it that makes my tree blossom and bear fruit.



Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing.



To have not seen the films of Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun.



Being an artist means not having to avert one's eyes.





[on Mikio Naruse ] Naruse's Method consists of staging one very brief shot after another; but when we look at them placed end-to-end in the finished film, they give the impression of one long single take. The fluidity is so perfect that the cuts are invisible . . . A flow of shots that looks calm and ordinary at first glance reveals itself to be like a deep river with a quiet surface disguising a fast-raging current.

I believe that what pertains only to myself is not interesting enough to record and leave behind me. More important is my conviction that if I were to write anything at all, it would turn out to be nothing but talk about movies. In other words, take 'myself', subtract 'movies', and the result is zero.



{on witnessing the aftermath of the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, and the ensuing riots] Amid the expanse of nauseating redness lay every kind of corpse imaginable. I saw corpses charred black, half-burned corpses, corpses in gutters, corpses floating in rivers, corpses piled up on bridges, corpses blocking off a whole street at an intersection, and every manner of death possible to human beings displayed by corpses. When I involuntarily looked away, my brother scolded me, "Akira, look carefully now". Looking back on that excursion now, I realize that it must have been horrifying for my brother, too. It had been an expedition to conquer fear.





[on Toshirô Mifune ] Mifune had a kind of talent I had never encountered before in the Japanese film world. It was, above all, the speed with which he expressed himself that was astounding. The ordinary Japanese actor might need ten feet of film to get across an impression; Mifune needed only three. The speed of his movements was such that he said in a single action what took ordinary actors three separate movements to express. He put forth everything directly and boldly, and his sense of timing was the keenest I had ever seen in a Japanese actor. And yet with all his quickness, he also had surprisingly fine sensibilities.



[on his discovery of Toshirô Mifune during casting of Yoidore tenshi (1948)] I am a person who is rarely impressed by actors, but in the case of Mifune, I was completely overwhelmed.



[on Kenji Mizoguchi ] Of all Japanese directors I have the greatest respect for him. . . . With the death of Mizoguchi, Japanese film lost its truest creator.

I begin rehearsals in the actors' dressing room. First I have them repeat their lines, and gradually proceed to the movements. But this is done with costumes and makeup on from the beginning; then we repeat everything on the set. The thoroughness of the rehearsals makes the actual shooting every time very short. We don't rehearse just the actors, but every part of every scene - the camera movements, the lightning, everything.



The role of a director encompasses the coaching of the actors, the cinematography, the sound recording, the art direction, the music, the editing and the dubbing and sound-mixing. Altough these can be thought of as separate occupations, I do not regard them as independent. I see them all melting together under the heading of direction



Unless you know every aspect and phase of the film-production process, you can't be a movie director. A movie director is like a front-line commanding officer. He needs a thorough knowledge of every branch of the service, and if he doesn't command each division, he cannot command the whole.



A film director has to convince a great number of people to follow him and work with him. I often say, although I am certainly not a militarist, that if you compare the production unit to an army, the script is the battle flag and the director is the commander of the front line. From the moment production begins to the moment it ends, there is no telling what will happen. The director must be able to respond to any situation, and he must have the leadership ability to make the whole unit go along with his responses.



Movie directors, or should I say people who create things, are very greedy and they can never be satisfied... That's why they can keep on working. I've been able to work for so long because I think next time, I'll make something good.



A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.



[on watching Solaris with Andrei Tarkovsky] Tarkovsky was sitting in the corner of the screening room watching the film with me, but he got up as soon as the film was over and looked at me with a shy smile. I said to him, "It's very good. It's a frightening movie." He seemed embarrassed but smiled happily. Then the two of us went to a film union restaurant and toasted with vodka. Tarkovsky, who does not usually drink, got completely drunk and cut off the speakers at the restaurant, then began singing the theme of Seven Samurai at the top of his voice. I joined in, eager to keep up. At that moment, I was very happy to be on Earth.



Never having seen a Satyajit Ray film is like never having seen the sun or the moon.



Jean Renoir, John Huston,

Civilization has poisoned humanity. The backbone of a good film is the filmmaker's humane character. If we are not honest to ourselves, we will never be able to make decent films. Actually, it doesn't mean that if a country is well off, it is necessarily capable of making good films. A person, who is able to make good films, knows how to find his or her way into the viewer's heart; such as John Ford Federico Fellini ,[ Theodoros Angelopoulos ], Sidney Lumet ... I've met every one of them and have spoken to them. Just as they have exceptional works, they were also very distinguished in character. It was very easy to establish a cordial relationship with them, which is quite important. The people that are depicted on screen in their films are not predetermined characters. They express human problems in a natural way. That's why their films are fascinating. Sidney Lumet is a close friend of mine, and whenever we sit down to talk we never discuss cinema. We generally discuss trivial matters, social problems or our hobbies, and we quite enjoy it. Reporters always ask me what the content of my film is and I tell them that there is no such a thing. I say ordinary things. A film is not supposed to be a lecture.

A film must be made with the heart, not the mind. I think today's young filmmakers have forgotten this and instead they make films through their calculations. That is why Japanese films no longer have an audience. In all honesty, films must be made to target the hearts. During the time of Ozu, my mentor, and also in my time, no filmmaker made films based on theory and calculation, and that was why Japan's cinema was capable of shaping its golden years. Young filmmakers use techniques to humiliate the audience. This is wrong. We must serve cinema and make a film that would stimulate the audience. Ultimately, the aim should be to make an artistic film. That's simple, isn't it?





Regarding American cinema, I could say that much better films were made in the past. Today's American cinema provides the wrong service to the audience. Violence and car crashes are often seen. What pleasure is there in watching such scenes? Old American films expressed human problems quite well, but these days the American cinema has problems. There is no doubt that a film like Jurassic Park (1993) is interesting, but there used to be more impressive films in the past. In contrast, films, like those of Kiarostami, touch the heart and are very beautiful. These new sci-fi, action films, are good but they are not cinema.

In Japan, the society progressed through a rapid growth, which was an unnatural process. Daily life lost its natural course. To live, it became necessary to work beyond one's abilities. That's why instability among people has increased.





The first film entitled Ikimono no kiroku (1955) and another film Hachi-gatsu no rapusodî (1991) were made about the atomic bomb. An episode of the film Yume (1990) is devoted to this topic also. Concern about the atomic bomb is very important. For example, due to the shortage of energy, nuclear energy is used, but they don't know exactly how to dispose of the nuclear waste. So I see the hazards we face. If there is really a lack of energy, then we can try to conserve energy. In Tokyo, they use electricity like there is no tomorrow. This is not necessary. If only we could take the expertise of power plant employees and direct it towards creating energy using wind or natural sources. I believe that nuclear waste disposal is an extremely important issue.

In a mad world, only the mad are sane.

