Akira Kurosawa (March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades, and is widely regarded as one of the…
Akira Kurosawa (March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. ◦ Known as a hands-on filmmaker, he was heavily involved with all aspects of production as a director, writer, producer, and editor. ◦ His bold and dynamic style was strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it. ◦ His *Rashomon* (1950) became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival, a success that opened Western film markets to Japanese films for the first time. ◦ He later accepted the Academy Honorary Award in 1990 and was posthumously named 'Asian of the Century' in Arts, Literature, and Culture. ◦ He noted that no matter what was happening in his personal life, he was always thinking about his work without even knowing it, a phenomenon he likened to some kind of karma. ◦
Kurosawa held that his films emerged from an inner need rather than external demand, stating, "I have never taken on a project offered to me by a producer or a production company. My films emerge from my own desire to say a particular thing at a particular time. The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something. What nurtures this root and makes it grow into a tree is the script. What makes the tree bear flowers and fruit is the directing." ◦ He also felt that for a director, each completed work is like a whole lifetime, and that within each film he became one with many different kinds of people and lived their lives. ◦ He believed that "the essence of the cinema lies on cinematic beauty," which can only be expressed in a film and must be present for the work to be moving. ◦ He argued that technique exists only to support a director's intentions, and that relying solely on technique crushes the basic idea that should prevail. ◦ He maintained that characters in a film have their own existence and that if a filmmaker manipulates them like puppets, the film loses its vitality. ◦ He also held that "There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself," and that "Perhaps it is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination." ◦
Kurosawa selected projects based on personal necessity, having never accepted a project offered by a producer or production company. ◦ He approached filmmaking with the conviction that a director must know every aspect and phase of the film-production process. ◦ He believed a director must be able to respond to any situation and possess the leadership ability to make the whole production unit follow his responses. ◦ In writing, he experienced despair with every script, but learned to hold fast in the face of blankness, adopting what he called the tactic of Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect, who glared at the wall until his legs became useless. ◦
Kurosawa modeled film production on military command, viewing the script as a battle flag and the director as a front-line commander who must command every division. ◦ He envisioned a film project as a tree rooted in inner need, nurtured by the script, and made to bear fruit by directing. ◦ For screenplay construction, he drew on symphonic movements and Noh dramatic structure. ◦ He applied the Zen/Bodhidharma model of endurance to screenwriting, staring at the obstacle until a path opened. ◦ He also viewed the industry through the fable of the hare and the tortoise, stating that the film industry had been the hare, caught napping, while the television tortoise walked on by. ◦
Kurosawa was a hands-on filmmaker who worked as a director, writer, producer, and editor. ◦ He argued that the only way to learn specifics about the structure of film and what cinema is, is through writing scripts. ◦ He advocated studying the great novels and dramas of the world to understand why they are great and where their emotion comes from. ◦ He proposed that a good structure for a screenplay is that of the symphony, with its three or four movements and differing tempos, or the Noh play with its three-part structure of jo (introduction), ha (destruction), and kyu (haste), though he considered the symphonic structure the easiest for the people of today to understand. ◦ He believed that cinematic beauty can only be expressed in a film and is essential for a moving work. ◦
Kurosawa conceptualized his directorial leadership through military metaphor, describing a movie director as "like a front-line commanding officer" who needs thorough knowledge of every branch of the service and must command each division to command the whole. ◦ He stated that a film director has to convince a great number of people to follow him and work with him, and that if the production unit is compared to an army, the script is the battle flag and the director is the commander of the front line. ◦ During shooting, he rarely looked directly at the actors while cameras were rolling, focusing his gaze somewhere else, which he linked to the medieval Noh playwright and theorist Zeami's concept of watching with a detached gaze. ◦
Kurosawa's style was strongly influenced by Western cinema yet remained distinct from it. ◦ He recommended Western symphonic screenplay structures while also drawing on Noh dramatic structure. ◦ He insisted that a director must command the production like an army leader, yet simultaneously warned that a filmmaker has no freedom to manipulate characters like puppets without the film losing vitality. ◦ ◦ He claimed that during shooting the director's eye must catch even the minutest detail, yet he practiced a detached gaze, rarely looking directly at the actors while cameras rolled. ◦ He regarded his vocation as a kind of karma, suggesting that having become a film director "really must be either a reward or a punishment for something I did in a former life." ◦
Kurosawa advised aspiring filmmakers to write screenplays, noting that all that is required is paper and pencil. ◦ He emphasized that the most essential thing is patience, to write one word at a time until reaching the required length. ◦ ◦ He insisted that to write one must read, because memory is the source of creation and one cannot create anything without a rich reserve within. ◦ He recommended studying the great novels and dramas of the world and reading thoroughly to grasp where their emotion comes from, and asserted that if the goal is to become a film director, one must master screenwriting. ◦