I would like to send out a slightly belated Happy Birthday to Japanese director extraordinaire, Akira Kurosawa. Granted, he's been dead since 1998, but hey, March 23rd is still his birthday.
Kurosawa was a well known Japanese director back when few people knew much about Japanese cinema. He was good friends with American director, John Ford. He was heavily influenced by both American westerns and Shakespeare.
There are many stories about how much of a perfectionist he was on the movie set. One I personally like is, "in the final scene of Throne of Blood, in which (Toshiro) Mifune is shot by arrows, Kurosawa used real arrows shot by expert archers from a short range, landing within centimetres of Mifune's body."[1]
I have watched many of his films, and enjoyed them all. You probably have, too. His movie "The Seven Samurai" was remade as "The Magnificent Seven". "Yojimbo" was remade as "A Fistful of Dollars", starring Clint Eastwood. And George Lucas has identified "The Hidden Fortress" as an influence on his Star Wars films.
So, Otanjou-bi Omedetou Gozaimasu Akira-san!
1. Galbraith IV, Stuart (2002). The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. Faber & Faber. p. 235. ISBN 0571199828.
No comments:
Post a Comment