Category:Akira Kurosawa

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 (a.k.a. Judo Saga).

After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown 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 15 films.

Rashomon, which premiered in Tokyo, became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1952 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) and Yojimbo (1961).

After the 1960s he became much less prolific; even so, his later work—including his final two epics, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to win awards, though more often abroad than in Japan.

In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

• Akira Kurosawa at the Criterion Collection
• Akira Kurosawa: News, Information and Discussion
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• Great Performances: Kurosawa (PBS)
• CineFiles: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Kurosawa search)
• Akira Kurosawa at Japanese celebrity's grave guide
• Several trailers
• Anaheim University Akira Kurosawa School of Film