Category "akira-kurosawa"

Did Kurosawa make so many Shakespeare-adaptations to avoid censorship?

Shortly after World War II the Americans did observe and censor the newly made movies in Japan. Did Kurosawa make that many Shakespeare-adaptations in that time

Why was Kurosawa the first director to shoot the sun?

Akira Kurosawa is often credited as the first director to point his camera towards the sun in his film Rashomon (1950). Was this an artistic first, or was there

Is the beard on Toshiro Mifune's samurai characters an exception?

I'm not sure whether historically samurai — members of the Japanese warrior caste — were supposed to always be clean-shaven or not. But I seem to re

Has there ever been a drama film with an unreliable death scene confession?

This film is prompted by watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In Venice, the crewman gasps "it was Grey, not Skinner", and dies. Various aspects of s

In what ways was "Star Wars" influenced by "The Hidden Fortress"?

I've heard many times that George Lucas got some of his ideas for his 1977 movie Star Wars from Akira Kurosawa's movie The Hidden Fortress. I can see how Tahei