Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa was a masterful film-maker. His films enrich the imagination and stimulate the mind. He influenced many successful directors and his films were re-made by Hollywood: The Seven Samurai became The Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo became A Fistful of Dollars and later on Last Man Standing. The latter film was based on Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest.

The fact that Kurosawa made a samurai film based on a hard-boiled American thriller may appear unusual. The reality is that Kurosawa was heavily influenced by American films and books.

It wasn’t a coincidence that The Seven Samurai was made into a Western. When you watch the original you can see that Kurosawa was an admirer of John Ford films and as John Ford said himself, “I make Westerns”.

Kurosawa took Ed McBain’s King’s Ransom and made High and Low, giving the police procedural a depth and elegance others might have missed.

He also took Shakespeare’s Macbeth and King Lear and made two of his best films: Throne of Blood and Ran.

In all this, Kurosawa showed an artistic curiosity to other genres and cultures. He took these stories and showed how they could be retold without lessening their power but adding to what they offered in the first place. That cannot be said of many directors.