This week, we discuss the career of Japan’s most legendary director, Kurosawa Akira. From humble, middle class beginnings, our story will take us through some of his most notable films, and include detours into the lives of Mifune Toshiro, George Lucas, and even Francis Ford Coppola!
Sources
Kurosawa, Akira. Something like an Autobiography.
“Rashomon” and “The Seven Samurai” in Film Analysis: A Norton Reader.
The videos below are from the fine folks at Every Frame a Painting (now sadly defunct), and do a good job introducing the Kurosawa style.
Images
The poster for The Most Beautiful (1944).Yaguchi Yoko as Watanabe Tsuru in Ichiban Utsukushiku (The Most Beautiful), 1944. Yoko would end up marrying Kurosawa; the two had two children, and were very happy together by all accounts.Kurosawa and Mifune in Venice for the Venice Film Festival in 1950, where Rashomon won the Golden Lion for Best Film.Kurosawa on set with Mifune Toshiro for The Seven Samurai (1954).Mifune Toshiro as Rokurota Makabe in The Hidden Fortress (1958), and Alec Guinness as Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars (1977). The Kenobi character was based on Rokurota, and Lucas supposedly approached Mifune to play the part originally.Produced in conjunction with Francis Ford Coppola on the recommendation of George Lucas, Kagemusha ended up reviving the legend of Kurosawa.Ran (1985) is loosely based on the story of King Lear, a Shakespearean drama of kingship and unreliable children.The poster for Madadayo (Not Yet), 1993 — Kurosawa’s last full film.
1 thought on “Episode 236 – Never Look Away”
Great episode as usual. I work in Takarazuka and remember the centennial of the Revue a few years back but didn’t know the connection between the founder of the Takarazuka Revue and Toho. Nice.
Kurosawa is great. Have you thought about any other directors? Itami Juzo is up there and quite different than Kurosawa. I also love that his stage name is the city I live in. The Juzo is a station in nearby Osaka but I haven’t seen anything that said this is where he got that name. It may be a dajare joke that has escaped English speakers.
Great episode as usual. I work in Takarazuka and remember the centennial of the Revue a few years back but didn’t know the connection between the founder of the Takarazuka Revue and Toho. Nice.
Kurosawa is great. Have you thought about any other directors? Itami Juzo is up there and quite different than Kurosawa. I also love that his stage name is the city I live in. The Juzo is a station in nearby Osaka but I haven’t seen anything that said this is where he got that name. It may be a dajare joke that has escaped English speakers.