1 of 5
The Emperor and the Wolf
The Emperor and the Wolf: The lives and films of Akira Kurosawa by Stuart Galbraith IV Faber & Faber, 2002 848 pp. $40 |
When Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa died in 1999, at the age of 88, he left behind a remarkable body of work, the fruit of a lifetime devoted to the art of film. As he said of his life, "take 'myself,' subtract 'movies,' and the result is 'zero.'" Kurosawa directed more than 30 painstakingly crafted films in various genres and on diverse subjects, among them serious period and contemporary dramas, adaptations of Shakespeare and Dostoevsky, rousing fantasy-adventures, and epics designed as nothing less than meditations on the plight of the human race.1
Along the way, Kurosawa earned countless awards (including two Academy Awards for best foreign language film and a special Academy Award for lifetime achievement) and won the respect and admiration of international audiences and the world's premiere filmmakers. It is often said that movies were Japan's most important cultural export of the 1950s and '60s, and among the several notable Japanese filmmakers of the time, Kurosawa was by far the best known.
Kurosawa always had a hand in writing his films' screenplays, and took an active role in all aspects of his films. He was influenced by diverse sources, ranging from Shakespeare to 19th-century Russian novels, from Hollywood Westerns to the Noh play. In turn, he had a marked impact on a generation of filmmakers, especially in the United States. Martin Scorsese noted that Kurosawa's "influence is so profound as to be almost incomparable. There is no one else like him."
As a director of films, Kurosawa was among the best. He left behind a rich storehouse of fascinating characters, engaging tales, and dense, compelling fictional worlds. Western filmmakers had rarely looked to the Japanese for inspiration before Kurosawa. If imitation is the highest complement, then Kurosawa has been highly praised indeed. For example, George Lucas drew heavily on Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (1958) for both characters and storyline in Star Wars (1976); Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone fashioned their spaghetti Westerns after Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962); and The Magnificent Seven (1960) is a remake of The Seven Samurai (1954).
Kurosawa is revered not just for the stories he told, but for his style in telling them. He could stage action as well as anyone, and more generally, was a fine visual storyteller. He favored the kind of simplicity and realism characteristic of what is sometimes called "the classical Hollywood style," and mastered the art of combining realism and lyricism. He loved to use sweeping tracking shots, especially in action scenes. He also used climatic elements, such as wind and rain, to contribute to mood and meaning. He staged the battle at the end of The Seven Samurai, for example, in a driving rainstorm that establishes a dark undertone to the victory. In lesser hands, such devices can seem clumsy, forced; in Kurosawa's films, they are seamless, unobtrusively powerful.
Kurosawa's films are not only well-crafted but also thematically rich. It is hardly necessary to stress this in the case of films such as the meditative Ikiru (1952) or the cautionary Throne of Blood (1957), his retelling of Macbeth. Yet even the samurai adventures are full of ideas. On one level, The Seven Samurai is an exciting adventure film about seven rootless samurai, or ronin, who defend a village of farmers from bandits. Along the way, however, the film asks us to contemplate the nature of loyalty and commitment, and of class differences.
In conjunction with Kurosawa one often thinks of the Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune (pronounced "mee-foo-nay"), who starred in 16 of Kurosawa's films and through them became an international star. A physical, intuitive actor with a dynamic camera presence, Mifune learned his craft under Kurosawa's tutelage. Kurosawa appreciated the actor's "quickness" of reaction and "fine sensibilities." Although Mifune had good range and played diverse roles, he became best known for one character, the samurai warrior of The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro, with his cynical laugh, characteristic shrug, and imposing, unpredictable physicality.
share this page
RSS Feed
