Akira

May 21, 2001 — Akira Kurosawa’s period film not only commemorated historical Japanese myths with new, vivid feeling but also created the source for many of the enduring entertainment tropes in world cinema today.

Jan 15, 1996 — If Akira Kurosawa is the John Ford of Japanese samurai dramas, then director Kihachi Okamoto—a specialist in action films, with a particulat accent on violence and raw characterizations—is the samurai film’s Sam Fuller.

Jan 8, 1996 — Dodes’ka-den was made at a low point in Akira Kurosawa’s long career-perhaps the lowest that the director has ever known. In the preface of the filmmaker’s autobiography, critic and translator Audie Bock reports that Kurosawa’s commercial prospects became bleak in...

Dec 2, 1991 — Director Akira Kurosawa had wanted to make Throne of Blood for some time. “After finishing Rashomon [in 1950] I wanted to do something with Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but just about that time Orson Welles’s version was announced, so I postponed mine.”...

Nov 19, 1989 — After finishing High and Low (1963), director Akira Kurosawa recalls, “I started looking around for something else to do and quite by accident picked up [the novel] Red Beard by Shugoro Yamamoto. At first I thought it would make a...

Oct 12, 1987 — Akira Kurosawa’s thrilling Cinemascope epic is set squarely within the traditions of the Japanese film genre known as the “Chambara.”

The fashion designer shares his close personal connections to Withnail and I and My Beautiful Launderette, finds inspiration in Breathless, and praises Akira Kurosawa’s use of color in Kagemusha.

The actor shares her longtime love for the films of Akira Kurosawa, talks about seeing Children of Paradise at an art-house cinema in the 1940s, and fondly recalls riding a scooter with Richard Roundtree.

The writer and director of Sinners talks about the impact of seeing Malcolm X in his youth, compares the work of Michael Mann and Christopher Nolan, and praises the rebellious spirit of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu.

The actor talks about feeling immersed in The Tree of Wooden Clogs, praises Small Axe as an “extraordinary piece of work,” and suggests that all film lovers see every film by Akira Kurosawa.