International film giant Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) rose to success in parallel with the Japanese film industry itself, leaving behind what has now become a legacy of works for the entire world to inherit.

Indeed, Kurosawa's legacy constitutes a special era in Japanese film history separate on to its own, and his works continue to inspire filmmakers around the world to this day. Kurosawa's passion for filmmaking comes out clearly in this 120-minute extended interview.

＊A detailed account of how Kurosawa became influenced by movies as a young child.

＊An in-depth look at Kurosawa's "film genesis", using a multitude of Kurosawa's still shots from when he was an assistant director.

＊A 10-chapter presentation of Akira Kurosawa's message regarding the question,
"What is a film?": The Seed of a Film, Screenplays, Storyboards, Filming, Lighting, Art, Costumes, Editing, Music, Directing.

＊A close examination of Kurosawa's art of filmmaking, including interviews with several members of Kurosawa's film staff, who share the abundance of materials and props they use as well as precious articles inherited from Kurosawa himself.

This program is the most comprehensive presentation ever compiled on the world of Akira Kurosawa, and is appropriately narrated by Kurosawa's oldest daughter, Kazuko, who helps carry her father's message into the 21st Century.

AKIRA KUROSAWA's FILMOGRAPHY

Sugata Sanshiro (1943)
Ichiban Utsukusiku aka The Most Beautiful (1944)
Zoku Sugata Sanshiro (1945)
Tora no O wo Fumu Otokotachi aka They Who Step On The Tiger's Tail (1945 original release date 1952)
Waga Seisyun ni Kui Nashi aka No Regrets For Our Youth (1946)
Asu wo Tsukuru Hitobito (1946)
Subarashiki Nichiyoubi aka One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
Yoidore Tenshi aka Drunken Angel (1949)
Shizukanaru Ketto aka The Quiet Duel (1949)
Nora Inu aka Stray Dog (1949)
Shubun aka Scandal (1950)
Rashomon (1950)
Hakuchi aka The Idiot (1951)
Ikiru (1952)
Shichinin no Samurai aka Seven Samurai (1954)
Ikimono no Kiroku aka Record of a Living Being (1956)
Kumonosu-Jo aka The Throne of Blood (1957)
Donzoko aka The Lower Depth (1957)
Kakushi Toride no San-Akunin aka The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Warui Yatsu Hodo Yoku Nemuru aka The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
Yojimbo (1961)
Tsubaki Sanjuro (1962)
Tengoku to Jigoku aka High and Low (1963)
Akahige aka Red Beard(1965)
Dodes'ka-den (1970)
Dersu Uzala (1974)
Kagemusha (1980)
Ran (1985)
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990)
Rhapsody in August (1991)
Madadayo (1993)

AKIRA KUROSAWA's BIOGRAPHY

After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, making his directorial debut in 1943. After working in a wide range of genres, he made his breakthrough film Rashomon (1950) in 1950.
It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West.
The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Shichinin no samurai (1954) (Seven Samurai) and the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation Kumonosu jo (1957) (Throne of Blood), the later two showcasing the magnetic personality of Toshiro Mifune, who also starred in the two samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Tsubaki Sanjuro (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made the Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1974) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai epic Kagemusha (1980), which was in many ways a dry run for Ran (1985), his second Shakespeare adaptation. He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Yume (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Shichinin no samurai (1954), as Magnificent Seven, The (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as Per un pugno di dollari (1964) and Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958), as Star Wars (1977)