Akira Kurosawa
Blending influences from Western director John Ford to Kabuki theater, and choosing to set stories from sources as diverse as the plays of William Shakespeare and the memoirs of Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, film director Akira Kurosawa captivated worldwide audiences for fifty years. Born in Tokyo in 1910, Kurosawa's love of film was nurtured from a young age. His father was fascinated by the new art form, and shared this fascination with his family. In 1936, Kurosawa began to work in film, and by 1943 had directed his first film, Sanshiro Sugata, a story of a young man who seeks his idenitity through his quest for experience in the martial arts. Kurosawa's next few films gained him renown within Japan. However, it wasn't until 1952 that Rashomon, with its conflicting multiple narratives narrated by the witnesses of a crime, brought him international attention and fame. Four years later, The Seven Samurai would ensconce Kurosawa solidly within the pantheon of cinematographic geniuses: the film has been consistently heralded as one of the greatest films ever made, and admired by film directors of all nationalities. It would have been easy for Kurosawa to rest on his laurels, but this was not in his character. His later films include adaptations of Shakespeare to feudal Japanese settings (Macbeth became The Throne of Blood in 1957, and King Lear became Ran in 1985), a retelling of the encounter of Vladimir Arsenyev with Nanai hunter and guide Dersu Uzala in Siberia (Dersu Uzala, 1975), and an eight-part retelling of his own dreams (Dreams, 1990). The title of his last film, Madadayo (1993) refers to the answer a beloved professor gives to an annual toast: when asked by his students whether he is ready to die, the professor replies "Madada yo!" (No, not yet!) After many years of giving this same reply in his life and films, Akira Kurosawa passed away in 1998.
