Subtracting the movies, my life is probably zero.
--Akira Kurosawa
Born on March 23, 1910, Akira Kurosawa was born into a Japanese military officer family, and although Akira Kurosawa received a traditional kendo education under the influence of his father in his early years, he was ostracized by his peers because of his late intellectual development, but this did not affect him in the slightest way from becoming a generation of famous instructors in Japan and the world.
Akira Kurosawa in his youth
In Akira Kurosawa's directing career, he has made many films, but if it is only a movie, it will not establish Akira Kurosawa's status as a world director, and more importantly, the huge influence brought by these films.
Emperor of Japanese cinema
Before Akira Kurosawa engaged in the film industry, he was only a poor boy who had just entered the society for a few years, and his rich experience of wandering in society in his early years and the strong interest in film and theater cultivated from an early age made Akira Kurosawa participate in a recruitment at PCL Film Company (later became Toho Pictures) by chance, and Akira Kurosawa, who had a novel point of view, met their needs, and the two sides hit it off, and Akira Kurosawa also began his film career.
After joining PCL, Kurosawa studied under Kajiro Yamamoto, working as a screenwriter and assistant director, until he independently directed his debut film "Zi Sanshiro".
Stills from "Zi Sanshiro"
The success of his debut film is inseparable from Akira Kurosawa's tempering in the crew, and it also makes a good start for Akira Kurosawa's subsequent directing road. After the completion of "Zi Sanshiro", Akira Kurosawa made two more films, "Muddy Angel" and "Wild Dog", in which Kurosawa began to work with actor Toshiro Mifune.
Toshiro Mifune in his youth
What really made Akira Kurosawa influence the world was his 1950 film Rashomon.
The film won the Golden Lion Award at the 16th Venice International Film Festival and the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 24th Academy Awards. This directly laid the foundation for Akira Kurosawa's influence in Japan. Interestingly, however, Akira Kurosawa wrote in his autobiography that the film was not favored by Toho's top management before winning the award, but after winning the award, they attributed the success of the film to themselves.
After "Rashomon", Akira Kurosawa's films have been shortlisted for international film festivals such as the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, and have won many awards.
Shakespeare of the East
Another reason that makes Akira Kurosawa famous in the world is the huge influence of his films on Western directors, and even many Western films are directly adapted from Akira Kurosawa's films, just as some of Akira Kurosawa's films are adapted from Shakespeare's plays.
1957's Spider's Nest is based on Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's four tragedies.
Stills from Spider's Nest City
1985's "Chaos" is adapted from King Lear, one of Shakespeare's four great tragedies.
Stills from "Chaos"
Compared with Akira Kurosawa's borrowing from the West, Western directors' films are more like plagiarism.
The Western film "Red Dead Redemption" directed by Sergio Leon and Monte Herman was adapted from Akira Kurosawa's samurai film "Heart Stick", because the film had too many traces of "borrowing", the two directors were sued by Kurosawa, and in the end, "Red Dead Redemption" compensated Kurosawa for more than the box office of "Heart Stick" in Japan.
Movie "Stick with Heart"
Movie "Red Dead Redemption"
In addition, Akira Kurosawa's other film " Sengoku Heroes " inspired George Lucas in the United States to make "Star Wars" known as the "space opera"
Movie "Warring States Heroes"
Star Wars canonical and prequel trilogies
Akira Kurosawa of the world
In the decades of Akira Kurosawa's film career, he has made countless films that are regarded as classics, many directors in the West have also idolized Akira Kurosawa, and "The Godfather" director Coppola even said that he could only be Kurosawa's assistant director.
Today, Akira Kurosawa has been gone for many years, but his films are still loved by movie lovers around the world. Shocked and aweed by the complex humanity depicted in his films.
(The graphic data are from the Internet, invaded and deleted)