Japan & Akira Kurosawa
Japan – The 1950s
1) Proved to be Japan’s richest cinematic era both commercially and artistically after WWII.
2) Like other post-war film industries, the Japanese film industry saw that audiences were willing to
accept new cinematic forms.
3) The industry also experienced a new market for non-American films and a new period of political
and intellectual freedom.
4) Japan was recovering from WWII in the 1950s, and consequently was about ten years behind the
cinemas of the West.
5) For example, the Japanese industry felt the effects of television a decade later than Western film
industries.
6) The Japanese industry also embraced the cultural heritage of Japanese kabuki theater and visual arts.
7) Japanese cinema developed in a much different way than the cinema of the U.S., France, and
England in the 1920s.
Kurosawa was highly influenced by films of the West.
1)His samurai films are closely related to American westerns and have been remade as westerns.
2)Two famous Kurosawa films, The Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961) were later remade into
The Magnificent Seven (1960) and A Fistful of Dollars (1964).
3)George Lucas claimed that The Hidden Fortress (1958) had an enormous influence on when he was
creating Star Wars.
Many of Kurosawa's films end on a sad or emotionally mixed note.
Rashomon - Film Clip
1) Rashomon (starring Toshiro Mifune) is a film set in the 12th century.
2) Rashomon addresses the subjectivity of truth and presents several levels of narration.
Film scholar Stephen Prince explains,
"Like most of Kurosawa’s films, Rashomon, based on two stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, is set during a time of social crisis—in this case, the eleventh century in Japan, a period that Kurosawa uses to reveal the extremities of human behavior. As the picture opens, three characters seek shelter from a driving rainstorm beneath the ruined Rashomon gate that guards the southern entrance to the imperial capital city of Kyoto. As they wait for the storm to pass, the priest (Minoru Chiaki), the woodcutter (Takashi Shimura), and the commoner (Kichijiro Ueda) discuss a recent and scandalous crime—a noblewoman (Machiko Kyo) was raped in the forest, her samurai husband (Masayuki Mori) killed by either murder or suicide, and a thief named Tajomaru (Toshiro Mifune) arrested."
The clip we see for class is from the point of view of the woodcutter. Beautiful walk in the forest.
Roger Ebert review Click Here
For Rashomon Trailer Click Here
Review about the four stories by Dr. Josh Matthews - excellent Click Here
About the amazing camera work Click Here Great quote "unsolvable and enigmatic"
Great list from BFI talking about Kurosawa's best films Click Here
No comments:
Post a Comment