Japanese movie director Akira Kurosawa was born in Tokyo in 1910 and was the
youngest of eight. He was the youngest of four brothers, but by his early 20s he was
the only one still living. His father was enthusiastic about western culture and took his
family to see movies, which at the time were beginning to appear in Japanese theaters.
His father was the director of a high school and he believed that movies had a positive
effect on education.
Kurosawa started working as an assistant director but was soon known as a very good
director himself. Rashomon was the movie that made him internationally famous when
it won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival.
Kurosawa used techniques that gave his movies a unique style. He liked having the
camera far away from the actors and so used a telephoto lens. He believed that this
made the actors relax more. He liked using a number of cameras so that he could film
scenes from different positions. He wanted his movies to be perfect and he spent a
huge amount of time and money on them. In Rashomon, he dyed the rainwater black
so that it looked heavier and dirtier.
Some people say that Kurosawa’s movies are too western, but Japanese theater also
influenced his work. Throne of Blood is almost a Noh drama. His movies had a big
influence on western movies. Seven Samurai was remade in Hollywood as The
Magnificent Seven. Ran retells the story of Shakespeare’s King Lear and is thought to
be one of the greatest movies ever made. Kurosawa died in Tokyo when he was 88.