The career of acclaimed filmmaker Akira Kurosawa spanned more than five decades, during which he directed more than thirty movies, many of them indisputable classics: Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo, among others. During the height of his creative output, Kurosawa became one of the most influential and well-known directors in the world, inspiring filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and movies such as The Magnificent Seven; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; and Star Wars. In Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, Eric San Juan provides a comprehensive yet accessible examination of the artist’s entire cinematic endeavors. From early films of the 1940s such as Sanshiro Sugata and No Regrets for Our Youth to Oscar winner Dersu Uzala—the author helps readers understand what makes Kurosawa’s work so powerful. Each discussion includes a brief synopsis of the film, an engaging analysis, and thoughtful insights into the film’s significance. All of Kurosawa’s works, from 1943 to 1993, are analyzed here, including the overlooked television documentary Song of the Horse, produced in 1970. In addition to more than twenty photos, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide provides rich discussions that will appeal to students of cinema as well as anyone who wants to learn more about Japan’s greatest director.

Translated by Audie E. Bock. "A first rate book and a joy to read.... It's doubtful that a complete understanding of the director's artistry can be obtained without reading this book.... Also indispensable for budding directors are the addenda, in which Kurosawa lays out his beliefs on the primacy of a good script, on scriptwriting as an essential tool for directors, on directing actors, on camera placement, and on the value of steeping oneself in literature, from great novels to detective fiction." --Variety "For the lover of Kurosawa's movies...this is nothing short of must reading...a fitting companion piece to his many dynamic and absorbing screen entertainments." --Washington Post Book World

Film scholars and enthusiasts will welcome this new edition of Donald Richie's incomparable study, last updated in 1984. The Method section, filmography, and bibliography contain new information, and Richie has added chapters on Ran, Dreams, Rhapsody in August, and Madadayo. Kurosawa's films display an extraordinary breadth and an astonishing strength, from the philosophic and sexual complexity of Rashomon to the moral dedication of Ikiru, from the naked violence of Seven Samurai to the savage comedy of Yojimbo, from the terror-filled feudalism of Throne of Blood to the piercing wit of Sanjuro. Running through all Kurosawa's work is a tough, humane, and profoundly ethical concern for the painful, beautiful, frequently ridiculous ambiguities of human life. Donald Richie's acclaimed study is as much a clear and winning introduction for those unfamiliar with Kurosawa's films as it is a bountiful critical appraisal for the initiate. Each film receives thorough sensitive examination, with many illustrations chosen by the author to underscore his analysis. Excerpts from the scripts, notes on camera usage and sound, reconstructions of outstanding moments - all these contribute insights into the director's powerful technique. In addition, Richie includes many quotes from his conversations with Kurosawa, allowing ideas and biographical information to emerge in the filmmaker's own words.

This work will become not only the newly definitive study of Kurosawa, but will redefine the field of Japanese cinema studies, particularly as the field exists in the west.

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune made 16 feature films together, including "Rashomon, Seven Samurai, " and "Yojimbo. The Emperor and the Wolf" is an in-depth look at these two great artists and their legacy that brims with behind-the-scenes details about their tumultuous lives and stormy relationships with the studios and with one another. Two 16-page photo inserts.

The Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa, who died at the age of 88, has been internationally acclaimed as a giant of world cinema. Rashomon, which won both the Venice Film Festival's grand prize and an Academy Award for best foreign-language film, helped ignite Western interest in the Japanese cinema. Seven Samurai and Yojimbo remain enormously popular both in Japan and abroad. In this newly revised and expanded edition of his study of Kurosawa's films, Stephen Prince provides two new chapters that examine Kurosawa's remaining films, placing him in the context of cinema history. Prince also discusses how Kurosawa furnished a template for some well-known Hollywood directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas. Providing a new and comprehensive look at this master filmmaker, The Warrior's Camera probes the complex visual structure of Kurosawa's work. The book shows how Kurosawa attempted to symbolize on film a course of national development for post-war Japan, and it traces the ways that he tied his social visions to a dynamic system of visual and narrative forms. The author analyzes Kurosawa's entire career and places the films in context by drawing on the director's autobiography--a fascinating work that presents Kurosawa as a Kurosawa character and the story of his life as the kind of spiritual odyssey witnessed so often in his films. After examining the development of Kurosawa's visual style in his early work, The Warrior's Camera explains how he used this style in subsequent films to forge a politically committed model of filmmaking. It then demonstrates how the collapse of Kurosawa's efforts to participate as a filmmaker in the tasks of social reconstruction led to the very different cinematic style evident in his most recent films, works of pessimism that view the world as resistant to change.

Alain Silver deconstructs the key aspects of the Samurai film, from its focus on violence and death as a means of understanding life and the significance of swords and weaponry, to key elements and motifs such as hara-kiri, rebellion and nostalgia for Japan's feudal past.

The image of a lone hero, marked by a violent past and bound by honor, has exerted an endless fascination on film audiences the world over, but nowhere more than in Japan, where Samurai films have gained legions of passionate followers. Popularized and perfected by one of the greatest auteurs in the history of cinema, Akira Kurosawa, the themes of the Samurai film have consistently crossed over into western films, with blockbuster success in recent years of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Last Samurai. Long regarded as one of the world's most astute film analysts, Alain Silver deconstructs the key aspects of this vital film genre, from its focus on violence and death as a means of understanding life and the significance of swords and weaponry to key elements and motifs, such as hara-kiri, rebellion, and nostalgia for Japan's feudal past. With comprehensive filmographies of the major directors and films, a survey of the history and myths of the Samurai, a glossary of Japanese terms, and with more than two hundred photos, The Samurai Film is the ultimate resource for one of world cinema's most influential and compelling genres.

This is the first and only illustrated book on the work of the master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa timed for the centennial of his birth. By looking at the full range of Kurosawa's films, this book captures the meticulously crafted visual style of one of the world's great directors in more than 200 images, many never before published. Akira Kurosawa is arguably the greatest of all Japanese film directors and is respected around the world as one of the masters of the art form. This is the first illustrated book to pay tribute to his unmistakable style-with more than two hundred images, many never before published. The filmmaker is also famous for his attention to detail, and fans will delight in seeing annotated script pages, sketches, and storyboards that reveal the meticulous craft behind Kurosawa's genius. Peter Cowie examines how Kurosawa took the samurai genre to its apogee in such films as Yojimbo and Seven Samurai; his literary influences in such films as Throne of Blood [Macbeth] and Ran [King Lear]; and in his take on our relationship to the modern world in such films as High and Low and Dreams.