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Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa (黒澤 明) was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He displayed a bold, dynamic style, strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it; he was involved with all aspects of film production. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (1943). After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast the then little-known actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another fifteen films. Rashomon (1950), which premiered in Tokyo, became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. The commercial and critical success of that film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese filmmakers. Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded (and often adapted) films, such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), Yojimbo (1961) and High and Low (1963). After the 1960s he became much less prolific; even so, his later work—including two of his final films, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to receive great acclaim. In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Posthumously, he was named Asian of the Century in the Arts, Literature, and Culture category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, cited there as being among the five people who most prominently contributed to the improvement of Asia in the 20th century. His career has been honored by many retrospectives, critical studies and biographies in both print and video, and by releases in many consumer media.

Personal information

Birthday

1910-03-23

Birth Place

Shinagawa, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan

Movies and TV shows :

A Message from Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies

A Message from Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies

2000

7.1

Movie
A. K.

A. K.

1985

6.3

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Dodes'ka-den'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Dodes'ka-den'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Drunken Angel'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Drunken Angel'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'High and Low'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'High and Low'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Ikiru'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Ikiru'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Kagemusha'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Kagemusha'

2002

7.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Ran'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Ran'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Sanjuro'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Sanjuro'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Seven Samurai'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Seven Samurai'

2002

10.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Stray Dog'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Stray Dog'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'The Bad Sleep Well'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'The Bad Sleep Well'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'The Hidden Fortress'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'The Hidden Fortress'

2002

8.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'The Lower Depths'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'The Lower Depths'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Throne of Blood'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Throne of Blood'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Yojimbo'

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Yojimbo'

2002

0.0

Movie
Akira Kurosawa: My Life in Cinema

Akira Kurosawa: My Life in Cinema

1993

6.5

Movie
And the Oscar Goes To...

And the Oscar Goes To...

2014

7.0

Movie
Babenco: Tell Me When I Die

Babenco: Tell Me When I Die

2020

7.0

Movie
Chris on Chris

Chris on Chris

2002

0.0

Movie
Dersu Uzala. Russian Dreams of Kurosawa

Dersu Uzala. Russian Dreams of Kurosawa

2020

0.0

Movie
In Love With and Living Within Movies - Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki

In Love With and Living Within Movies - Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki

1993

10.0

Movie
Kurosawa

Kurosawa

2000

6.7

Movie
Life Work of Akira Kurosawa

Life Work of Akira Kurosawa

2022

8.0

Movie
Making of 'Dreams'

Making of 'Dreams'

1990

8.0

Movie
Making of Ran

Making of Ran

1985

0.0

Movie
poster

Spécial cinéma

1974

0.0

TV
The World of Kazuo Miyagawa

The World of Kazuo Miyagawa

2012

0.0

Movie
What Is Cinema?

What Is Cinema?

2013

6.2

Movie