Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998) was a prominent Japanese film director who made 30 films over a career spanning 57 years. He is widely considered as one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema.
Born in Tokyo as the youngest of seven children, Kurosawa started his career as a painter before turning to make films in 1943. His debut was the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (1943; Judo Saga,) that portrayed Japanese judo masters of the 1880s. During the Second World War, he had to comply with themes prescribed by official state propaganda policy. He used his early films to refine his skills and establish a set of themes for his future movies.
Kurosawa’s first notable works were Yoidore Tenshi (1948; Drunken Angel) and Nora Inu (1949; Stray Dog.) Both of these featured actor Toshiro Mifune who became Kurosawa’s favorite leading man during the first half of his career. Kurosawa gained international fame when his first masterpiece, Rashōmon (1950) won the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival and an honorary Oscar for the outstanding foreign film of 1951.
For the next 15 years, Kurosawa scripted and/or directed some of the most successful Japanese films of all time: Ikiru (1953; To Live,) Shichinin No Samurai (1954; Seven Samurai,) Kumonosu-jō (1957; Throne of Blood,) Kakushi Toride No San Akunin (1958; The Hidden Fortress,) Yojimbo (1961,) and Sanjuro (1962.) His movies are widely admired for their visual styles, complex themes, and narrative structures that suggest various interpretations.
During the late 1960s, Kurosawa went through a lull in his career and personal life. After the commercial failure of his first color film, Dodesukaden (1970,) Kurosawa fell into a fatal state of depression that culminated in a suicide attempt. With the financial help of friends in Hollywood, Kurosawa made Kagemusha (1980; The Shadow Warrior.) This deeply humanistic historical samurai epic about the futility of war and the false heroism that infused the Japanese culture became a huge hit.
Kurosawa’s last famous film was also a samurai epic and took five years to direct. Ran (1985; Chaos) was an adaptation of Shakespeare‘s King Lear set in 16th-century Japan and is acclaimed for dramatic performances and visual splendor.
Kurosawa won an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1989 and died of a stroke in 1998.
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The human heart itself is impossible to understand. If you focus on the impossibility of truly understanding human psychology and read the script one more time, I think you will grasp the point of it.
—Akira Kurosawa
Ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane. The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.
—Akira Kurosawa
There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.
—Akira Kurosawa
A film should appeal to sophisticated, profound-thinking people while at the same time entertaining simplistic people. A truly good movie is really enjoyable too. There’s nothing complicated about it. A truly good movie is interesting and easy to understand.
—Akira Kurosawa
Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people.
—Akira Kurosawa
Egoism is a sin the human being carries with him from birth; it is the most difficult to redeem.
—Akira Kurosawa
In a mad world, only the mad are sane.
—Akira Kurosawa
Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing.
—Akira Kurosawa
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