Akira Kurosawa and His Contribution to the Film Industry - Coursework Example

Akira Kurosawa and His Contribution to the Film Industry Japan’s film industry is among the biggest and oldest in the world. With film giants like Shokichu (which began operations in 1920) and Nikkatsu (which was set up in 1912), Japan was among a handful of countries that were not dominated by the American film industry. Furthermore, the Japanese had a penchant for films that inclined towards their culture and traditions such as the Doll Theater and Kabuki. It is due to the insular behavior of the Japanese that kept their cinema from the international eye until the post world war II period that they finally opened up to the whole world. This period is referred to Meiji Period as it was a period of modernization and westernization of the nation in areas such as fashion, education, banking, technology and military organization. This can be seen in their films as they began abandoning kabuki and Noh (their traditional songs and folklore) in favor of American melodrama. Japanese Cinema during the Pre-War Period The first motion picture camera was imported to Japan in 1897 by Shiro Asano. It catered for the working class and as such, the industry developed as staged plays filmed for the Japanese upper class. These films were mostly kabuki plays and later, shimpa which was a new form of theatre in the early 1900s. The first ever kabuki play filmed was Momijigari, and was entirely theatrical. Before the First World War, Japanese films were entirely made up of staged acts and song recitals with a live commentator called Benshi, who provided dialogue for the audience to make sense of the films. This was due to the fact that the imported French equipment lacked intertitles and the films would make little sense if it were not for a commentator. (Walsh, 1998) It is worth noting that cinema led to fast decline of the Japanese culture. Modernization opened the country to western influence; film directors adopted the western form of drama and comedy for their films. A good example would be Shozo Makino, who used closed framings and rapid cuttings- a characteristic of American films in his samurai films. By 1920s, the Japanese film industry was almost westernized. However, by mid 1930s, the Japanese citizens expressed resentment towards the western ideals that were ‘eating’ away their culture. Just like the Germans at the time, the Japanese were politically brainwashed to uphold their culture and traditions and reject all western influences. The film industry therefore was forced to comply with this new atmosphere in the country. (New World Encyclopedia, 2012) Films in the 1930s were mostly rooted in propaganda as this was the time Japan embarked on an expedition to conquer china. They therefore resorted to their former ways of making cultural films. This was later referred to as monumental style of film making. Kokusaku is an example of the national policy films that were used as propaganda tools to promote the spirit of invincibility of the Japanese people. They comprised accounts of heroism in wars and battlefields. Rekishi eiga, a kokusaku subgenre tirelessly promoted the Japanese heritage and was therefore very popular. The ‘spirit of the Japanese’ was further aggravated by combat films that always ended with Japanese warriors being the victors. The irony of these films however, was that the enemies were never depicted, shown or filmed. The films showcased or focused on the Japanese side of the story, showing no opposing side. Quick editing and dynamic camera movements ensured the action scenes moved fast and once the samurai warriors had won the war, the scenes quickly faded out. In 1937, films were severely placed under constraints by the Japanese Home Ministry. Directors were warned not to demoralize citizenry, mock the military or create films that wrongly exaggerated wars. Through sanitized depiction of wars in cinemas, military transition was made palatable in the eyes of the Japanese. After the atomic bomb, the cinema shifted rapidly towards the war. Japanese culture that was closely embraced for many decades in the cinema was quickly overshadowed by the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. This resulted in what is called the hibakusha cinema. After the American occupation of Japan, there was extensive censorship of both the media and film industry. Films that were centered on the bombings were censored as a measure of keeping the citizens from recollecting the horrific event. It was not until the 1960s that the film industry was allowed to make the bomb films. Soon afterwards, there was a bubble of bomb movies in different forms; some talked about the horrors that the people experienced, others were centered on reconciliation and return to normality while others revolved around conspiracies involving the bombings. Prior to the 60s, movies dealing with the Japan bombings were strictly independent or personal movies as the film industry was constantly checked and scripts reviewed and others banned before filming was done. Akira Kurosawa Once described as ‘the pictorial Shakespeare of our time’ by Steven Spielberg, Kurosawa was a renowned Japanese movie director. Born in Otaku, Tokyo in 1910, Kurosawa was the youngest and seventh child of Isamu Kurosawa and Shima. Kurosawa was conceived when Shima was in her forties. Isamu, his father became an athletic instructor after retiring from the army. Isamu often took his family to the cinema and as result, Kurosawa developed a liking for movie directing. Kurosawa lost his sister in 1920. In 1933, he lost yet another sibling, Heigo who committed suicide. Masayasu, his oldest brother also passed away soon afterwards. (Walsh, 1998) In 1936, he enrolled for Japanese calligraphy lessons in Keika Junior High School. He however was not interested in this form of education and was unable to pass the entrance examinations in a school of his choice. In 1929, he moved to Proletarian Artists’ League where he was an avid contributor to a radical newspaper. At around this time, Kurosawa was also associated with communists. 1936 was a turning point for Kurosawa as it marked his entrance into the film industry. He began as a scriptwriter and an assistant to Kajiro Yamamoto, who was a respected director at that time. His talents were soon discovered and he won awards due to his writing skills. By 1941, he was already directing films for Yamamoto. Kurosawa never participated in World War II as he was deemed by the conscription examination as physically unfit in 1930. He made his debut in film making with Judo Saga in 1943. The setting of the movie was in 1880s and was based on a book by Tsuneo Tomita. The movie is about Sanshiro who is taught by a wise master the process of self-realization and the art of Judo. The movie became an instant hit in Japan and got the National Incentive Film Price. Judo Saga II followed in 1945 where Sanshiro is made to fight an American boxer. Like other directors during the post war period, Kurosawa concentrated on the effects of the war on his country. In 1944, he filmed The Most Beautiful and in the process met an actress, Yoko Yaguchi whom he married. (Walsh, 1998) Kurosawa met Toshiro Mifune in 1948 and used the actor in a series of successful movies. They started with Drunken Angel (1948) and followed it with Stray Dog a year later. The director’s international success however came with his movies in the 1950s and 1960s. Rashomon is considered one of his best works and is the project that plunged Kurosawa to international recognition. It garnered the Best Foreign Film Oscar in American and the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival. The movie is about a bandit that follows a woman and her husband. He rapes the woman and kills the man in a fair fight. Toshiro again acts as the bandit. This movie was remade as Outrage by Martin Ritt in 1964. His next piece Ikuru was also a hit. At the Berlin International Film Festival, it was honored with the Silver Bear award. Considered one of his masterpieces, it is about a bureaucrat who tries to find purpose in life as his life draws to a close. (New World Encyclopedia, 2012) Thrones of Blood was an adaptation of Macbeth by William Shakespeare and was received by critical acclaim in America in 1961. The Hidden Fortress was a success commercially and it inspired George Lucas in the making of Star Wars. The film won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Festival and International Film Critics Prize. Dersu Uzala was awarded the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Award. Despite all the awards that his previous works collected, his samurai series, the Seven Samurai is the most popular in the west. However, Japanese critics openly disliked this project as they viewed it as heavily influenced by the west. Kurosawa acknowledged that indeed he was inspired by John Ford. (Your Dictionary, 2010) The movie is about farmers who hire samurais to protect them from bandits who are threatening to take away their livelihood. The main feature of this film is the use of fast action sequences that are mostly absent in Kurosawa’s movies. The production of seven samurai was imitated by The Magnificent Seven, a Hollywood movie. In 1963, Kurosawa made a kidnapping movie called High and Low, and later received threatening calls from people who wanted to kidnap his daughter. He won the prominent Asahi Cultural Prize in Japan with Red Beard in 1965. Kurosawa was spendthrift and spent huge sums treating his filming crew with many delicacies, especially meat that he so much loved. On one occasion, John Ford was shocked by his spending behavior and he said, “You really like rain.” Kurosawa replied, “You have really been paying attention to my films.” Despite the accolades and fame that Kurosawa enjoyed, he attempted to commit suicide. This was after his movie about a slum, Dodes Kaden flopped at the box office. He slit his throat and wrist several times. After recovering from the ordeal, he went to Siberia where he shot Dersu Uzala for four years. It was based on In the Jungles of Ussuri, an autobiographical book of Vladimir K. Arsenjev. It won an Academy Award as a Soviet film and not as Japanese. In 1980, he returned to creating historical epic movies like Kagemusha and Ran in 1985. Ran was an adaptation of King Lear by Shakespeare. The ‘90s marked the end of this charismatic director’s work. His last works include Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, Rhapsody in August and Madadayo. He died in Tokyo on September 1, 1998. (New World Encyclopedia, 2012) The biggest challenge that Kurosawa faced was finances as he could not get sponsorship in his own country. For instance, Ran was financially supported by George Lucas and Francis Coppola. However, this did not deter this iconic director from doing what he loved and he rose beyond heights that are imaginable to most of us. He therefore is the most famous Japanese director in the west. After The Rain, his last script was finished by his long time friend and colleague, Takashi Koizumi. After filming Ran and Kagemusha on the Kyushu Island, the city of Imari was chosen as the ideal place to set up Kurosawa memorial museum as tribute to the work to the director for his contribution to the island. Kurosawa’s influence on the world cinema can only be envied if not replicated. His works have been reworked and remade by the best in the industry. Seven Samurai influenced three Hollywood movies: The Magnificent Seven, Battle Beyond the Stars and A Bug’s Life. The movie also inspired several Hindi movies: Sholay by Ramesh Sippy and China Gate by Rajikumar Santhoshi. Rashomon was remade as The Outrage by Martin Ritt. The storytelling concept in Rashomon is also adopted by Virumandi and Antha Neal. Bruce Willis’ Last Man Standing and A Fistful of Dollars by Sergio Leone borrow heavily from Yojimbo. Star Wars, one of the biggest movies ever made was also influenced by Kurosawa. George Lucas admittedly used characters in The Hidden Fortress to mould his own robotic characters C3PO and R2-D2. Furthermore, Lucas borrowed the wipe transition effect used extensively by the Japanese director in his films. Aside from actually opening Japanese cinema to the world, Rashomon was also assimilated by the English language to refer to inconsistent and fractured narratives. References “Akira Kurosawa.” Your Dictionary, 2010. Web. November 14 2014. . “Akira Kurosawa.” New World Encyclopedia, 11 Sep 2012. Web. 14 Nov 2014 < http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Akira_Kurosawa&oldid=963643>. Walsh, David. Akira Kurosawa’s Achievements, 9 Sep 1998. Web. 14 Nov 2014 < http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1998/09/kuro-s09.html>. Read More