IJARED 3(1), 83-91 © The Author(s) 2015 [email protected] www.emeacollege.ac.in ISSN:2348-3342
Akira Kurosawa: The Man and his Muses Dr. Abdul Muneer V Assistant Professor of Journalism, EMEA College of Arts and Science, Kondotti, Kerala.
Abstract: A celebrated name in Japanese cinema, Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) is one among the world’s most important film makers. Kurosawa remains a mystery for those who probe his style of filmmaking and the man himself. Several writers, from Dostoyevsky to Shakespeare, had exerted much influence on Kurosawa’s filmmaking. The way he adopted Western and Hollywood techniques invited criticism that he was “Japan’s most Western director”. Granted, analysing the style and stylistics of a legend is extremely difficult, for style is the individual. Yet, this article tries to explore various influences that shaped the life and films of one the most influential film makers in the history of cinema.
“For me, filmmaking combines everything. That’s the reason I’ve made cinema my life’s work. In films, painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.”
—Akira Kurosawa
Brushes and rushes
Kurosawa always made his story boards with detailed paintings; in fact, he sketched the entire film in story board. This sketching has got something to do with him being an art student. Painting was his passion and obsession, for he always loved the life of a painter. This passion was initially nurtured by his beloved teacher named Tachikawa during his school days. Being a progressive teacher he believed that the intelligent students should get more and introduced him to the fine arts (Richie, 1999). After usual schooling, Kurosawa was running behind western painting and, the twist, the turning point of his life, occurred when he applied for a job at a film studio. Kajirō Yamamoto, the then king maker of Japanese films, saw his job application. Impressed with his sample sketches, he decided that Kurosawa could be useful for his initial story-boarding. Thus, Kurosawa assisted Yammanto in his 24 films and that career spanned almost seven years. Before becoming a full-fledged director, he worked with some other masters as well. International Journal for Advanced Research in Emerging Disciplines (IJARED)
Though the career was shifted, his first love towards painting still remained with him. He brilliantly infused the techniques of painting to his films. Amazing shots, talent to incorporate rich visuals to go with emotional effects are best examples of his painting skills that enhanced his filmography. He was well informed in Japanese painting and in western school of thoughts; European impressionism and expressionism as well. It is the proven fact that, the training in painting helped him in filming arresting visual styles. The most acclaimed movies, Ran and Throne of Blood are best examples of this painter sensibility that found its way into film (Davies, 2012). The painter, who was in an eternal love with colours, avoided colours in his films for a long time. Only in 1970, with the film Dersu Uzala he experimented colour in his cinema (Russell, 2002).
The film maker always adopted a unique approach when it came to the filming of nature and landscapes. Rain is a very prominent presence in his films. Fog, wind, mist and snow, the romantic atmospheric conditions, too have notable screen space in those movies. Particularly, the severe weather conditions played important role in many of his films. The films which were shot in urban settings utilized these weather conditions to attain the qualities of compassion and humanism. For example, the snowfall characterized in the final scene in Ikiru, added more meaning and without that the climax might have lost its charm (Russell, 2002).
Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, and others
Authors from Dostoyevsky to Shakespeare exerted much influence on Kurosawa in his thoughts and ways of filmmaking. He interpreted the classics; Macbeth and King Lear to make the films Throne of Blood (1957) and Ran (1985). He retold those dramas as tales of war and political conspiracy happens in Japan (Dave charpentier, 2010). Throne of Blood and Ran are as valued as the Shakespearean adaptations of Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh respectively (Richie, 1996 in Desser, 1998).
The filmmaker was also influenced by Russian literature. “He grew up reading the classics of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who was his favorite writer,” says Alina Leschuk an independent filmmaker from Korsakov and she added “You can clearly understand that he was inspired by Russian literature if you see some of his earlier films.” Kurosawa directed
84 International Journal for Advanced Research in Emerging Disciplines (IJARED) adaptaions of dostoyevsky’s ‘The Idiot’ and Maxim Gorky’s ‘The Lower Depths’. The 1975 film Dersu Uzala won the Oscar for the best foreign language film which is based on the life of the Russian explorer and writer Vladimir Arsenyev. The Japanese- soviet co- production Dersu Uzala has got many firsts to its credit. It was directors’ first and only 70 mm film and his first non-Japanese language film (Kamalakaran, 2015).
Western and Hollywood stylistics
The clichéd statement is that Kurosawa is “Japan’s most western director”. Mainly due to government pressures, Japanese film makers always stayed away from western film styles and stylistics. Though they followed a unique style of filmmaking, Kurosawa refused to jump on the band wagon. Hollywood narrative styles grabbed his attention and American pulp novels too lured him. He tried to combine the best of the both worlds, East and West. This blend helped him gain international audience and won numerous accolades in International film festivals. In his cinematic text, traditional Japanese culture blended smoothly into the western narrative to produce films that easily grabbed the attention of international audience (Richie, 1996). In 1951 Kurosawa’s Rashomon was awarded Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival which brought Japanese cinema to international arena. After this, many more international successes came in- the Berlin Film Festival 1954 -Ikiru ; 1959- Hidden Fortress, and the Venice Film Festival in 1954 Seven Samurai.
Kurosawa connected Jidai-geki (Japanese period drama) to Hollywood cowboy film with the help of western cinematic and narrative devices. These films on the other hand influenced Hollywood directors to produce remakes. The films Seven Samurai and Yojimbo were remade as The Magnificent Seven (Jhon Sturges, 1960), and A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) respectively. Whether it is the adaptation of western literature or westernization of Japanese genre films, Kurosawa employed a humanist approach in all his films. His vision always rose above the geographical barriers (Standish, 2015).
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Samurai, the warrior
Kurosawa addressed the Japan shattered by World War II through his films and he tried his level best to reform this society using the very medium, film. Affection towards the samurai class -warrior culture is a salient feature of his earlier films (Prince, 1991). Moreover he was born in a family of Samurai tradition. The lineage of his family could be traced back to 11th century, which describes it as descendants of Samurai.
Between the 10th and 15th century, Japan had witnessed many civil wars. The warriors who fought the bloody wars for feudal landlords were samurai .They were also present during the Tokugawa period (1603-1868). And it is believed that weapons unique to Japan had been the specialty of those samurai. Different traits of Samurai life found its way to samurai films. Though it might be viewed as contradictory, the fact is that, Samurai were highly educated and cultured class of warriors. They exhibited proficiency in sculpture, painting, traditional dance, theatre, and calligraphy. That is why Samurai are defined as cultured warriors. They appreciated both swordsmanship and poetry. Daisho, Bushido, Seepuku, Hara-kiri, Ronin (unemployed samurai) are the terms describing various aspects of Samurai. Katana (long sword) and Wakazashi(short sword) are immensely important to them and these swords are popularly known as Daisho. Bushido describes the code of conduct, and it defines the character and moral strength of Samurai. Honesty and obedience are the corner stones of Bushido codes .Seepuku or Hara-kiri is the ritual suicide which is considered honourable compared to the death at the hands of enemies (Thorne, 2008)
It is an undisputed fact that Kurosawa was the father of modern samurai films. He influenced this genre the most, and vice-versa. Seven Samurai (1954), his master piece, marked the beginning of his samurai films. It was the result of a long-cherished dream of making a real jidai-geki film. Though half of all Japanese films made during that period were jidai-geki genre, the “real” ones were very rare (Richie, 1996). It differed in many ways from his early films (1950s) of the same genre. He inculcated a sense of reality in those films. The lengthy battle scene-the scene towards the end of Seven Samurai -is considered as one of the superb battle scenes ever on reels. As
86 International Journal for Advanced Research in Emerging Disciplines (IJARED) mentioned earlier, In 1960, it was remade as a western by John Sturges titled Magnificent Seven (Thorne, 2008).
Stage to Screen, Kabuki
Kabuki is a traditional theatre form in Japan. Kurosawa disliked kabuki and in the initial years of his filmmaking; he intentionally tried to distance his works from Kabuki. But he couldn’t succeed as drama films of that period were highly influenced by its conventions. He utilized the modified version of Kabuki elements which was a tool of social criticism. The word ‘Kabuku’ itself means ‘to slant’. Like folk songs, Kabuki songs spread among people through word of mouth and how these songs found their way to stage is not yet clear. However, the myth says that a Ronin (un employed samurai) who loved Okuni, (the famous dancer) organized kabuki. Okuni is believed to be the girl who began performing earlier forms of kabuki in the river beds of Kyoto (Vahdani, 2010).
Kurosawa explains it in Yoshimoto (2000, p.111), “I do not like kabuki for its lack of reality”; he calls kabuki “a theatre of artificiality and unnecessary establishment.” Without doubt we can say cinema of Japan is influenced by Kabuki. Being a studio director Kurosawa followed studio’s film making traditions on which Kabuki conventions have much influences. There comes the question, then how could he hate this theatre form? However, Rashomon (1950), Yojimbo (1964), Kagemusha (1980), Tora no o wo fumu otoko (English translation - The men who step on the tiger’s tail) (1945), etc. were the films influenced by Kabuki tradition (Vahdani, 2010).
Kurosawa and Thoshiro Mifune
Speaking of influences on the legendary director one cannot ignore the name of an actor, Thoshiro Mifune. Directors often have favorite actors, and actors too prefer certain directors. Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich, John Ford and John Wayne, Anthony Mann and James Stewart, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Max von Sydow and Ingmar Bergman were some notable director-actor collaborations in Hollywood films. Undoubtedly Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune forms the greatest director-actor duo in the history of Japanese as well as world films. The fortune and career of both were linked closely, and in a special way, one
87 International Journal for Advanced Research in Emerging Disciplines (IJARED) could even state that Mifune was the supreme Kurosawa creation (Richie, 1999). Between 1948 and 1965 they made 16 films together. Kurosawa made only one film during that time without Mifune that is Ikiru (1952).
The association between Kurosawa and the actor began with the film Drunken Angel (1947). The role of a small- time hood in this film made the actor a star. The stardom found new heights with the roles of the bandit in Rashomon, the farmer's son in Seven Samurai, the Cop in Stray Dog. He played title roles in Yojimbo and Sanjuro. In his book The Emperor and the Wolf, The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, Stuart Galbraith IV (2002) says "Their faith in one another resulted in their own self-discovery. In this work, it is my hope to uncover the essence of these two great artists". After 1965's "Red Beard", the actor-director duo never worked together and what happened between them was still a subject of debate. Galbraith states Mifune "the artistic benefits of working with Kurosawa were outweighed by the overwhelming business concerns that constantly plagued him" and that "Kurosawa felt betrayed and refused to understand how the actor could appear in inferior films" (Richie, 2002). However, any one can’t blame Mifune because he was fed up with the authoritarian style (his nick name in the shooting set was “the emperor”) of Kurosawa, who often took months of planning, rehearsing, and shooting (Russell, 2002).
In the words of Donald Richie (1999, pp. 238), “It is as though Kurosawa has been able to draw from Mifune something that even Mifune did not know he possessed”. Indeed after his departure, the films of Kurosawa lost something and one could feel such a sense of loss in his succeeding films starting with Dodesukaden. Kurosawa frankly revealed once about the actor’s influence on him, “Well, the older actors, those who are used to working with me, like Mifune and Shimura, they often advice me. Japanese directors are terribly prone to do everything by themselves and in their own way without really caring whether the actors understand or not. This is the reason why there are few actors who ever realize themselves. They become puppets for the director. I suppose that is why one actor may be terribly good with one director and quite poor with another” (Cited in Richie, 1999, pp. 237).
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Conclusion
Analysing the style and stylistics of a legend is extremely difficult, for style is the individual. Kurosawa still remains a mystery for those who probe in to his style and the man himself. This humble attempt to trace the influences on Kurosawa reveals that his passion towards painting had impacted much on his visual language. The stalwarts of world literature, from Dostoyevsky to Shakespeare, influenced much on his subjects and the ways of narrative storey-telling. Legacy and tradition as a member of a cultured-warrior family left indelible marks on his Samurai genre. Though he was subjected to the harsh criticism for being the most western director of Japan, he was inspired by the Hollywood stylistics and adapted it in different way in his films. Apart from the effects of Kabuki theatre and jidai-geki genre, Kurosawa had drawn much from his own actors like Mifune and Shimura.
FILMOGRAPHY
YEAR TITLE 1943 Sanshiro Sugata (Judo Saga) 1944 The Most Beautiful 1945 Sanshiro Sugata Part II (Judo Saga 2) The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail 1946 No Regrets for Our Youth Those Who Make Tomorrow 1947 One Wonderful Sunday 1948 Drunken Angel 1949 The Quiet Duel Stray Dog 1950 Scandal Rashomon 1951 The Idiot 1952 Ikiru (To Live) 1954 Seven Samurai 1955 I Live in Fear (Record of a Living Being) 1957 Throne of Blood (Spider Web Castle) The Lower Depths 1958 The Hidden Fortress
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FILMOGRAPHY
YEAR TITLE 1960 The Bad Sleep Well 1961 Yojimbo (The Bodyguard) 1962 Sanjurō 1963 High and Low (Heaven and Hell) 1965 Red Beard 1970 Dodesukaden 1975 Dersu Uzala 1980 Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) 1985 Ran 1990 Dreams (Akira Kurosawa's Dreams) 1991 Rhapsody in August 1993 Madadayo (Not Yet)
References:
Galbraith IV, Stuart. (2002). The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. Faber and Faber.
Prince, Stephen. (1991). The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa. Princeton: University Press.
Richie, Donald. (1999). The Films of Akira Kurosawa. Chennai: East West Books.
Russell, Catherine. (2002). Men with Swords and Men with Suits: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa, Cineaste, 28(1), 4-13.
Standish, Isolde. (2015). In Justin Wintle (ed.). New Makers of Modern Culture.
Thorne, Roland. (2008). Samurai Films, Japan: Kamera Books.
Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro. (2000). Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema, Durham, N.C: Duke University Press.
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Web Sources
Davies, Andrew. (2012). The noirzone.blogspot.in/2012/02/shakespare-on- film-akira-kurosawas.html.
Kamalakaran, Ajay. (2015). When Akira Kurosawa brought the Russian Far East to the silver screen, www.rbth.com .
Richie, Donald. (2002). Irreconcilable differences / A fascinating account of Mifune and Kurosawa's artistic partnership and split.www.sfgate.com.
Vahdani, Alireza. (2010). Offscreen.com, 14(10)
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