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Without a doubt Japan's, and certainly
Toho's, best director. Akira Kurosawa is the best
known Japanese director outside of Japan, and
his films have been the inspiration for numerous
movies around the world such as The Magnificent
Seven and Star Wars. After a failed
career as a painter, Kurosawa started his career
at Toho (Photo Chemical Laboratories at the time)
as a assistant director. In 1941 and 1942 he launched
his writing career. The very next year, in 1943,
he directed his first movie: Sanshiro
Sugata . Five years later Kurosawa would
meet Toshiro
Mifune and cast him in his 1948 movie Drunken
Angel. Kurosawa would cast Mifune many
more times up until 1965, when after Red
Beard the pair had a dispute and split
their separate ways. His films have won many awards
over the years, including academy awards, as he
opened the world of Japanese cinema up to many
moviegoers of the west. Many of his western admires
have worked with him on projects, such as George
Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin
Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Unfortunately
in Japan his films were not as highly regarded,
and for the most part the Japanese public looked
down on his obviously western influenced films.
Thankfully, Kurosawa continued his work and became
good friends with director Ishiro
Honda, for who he collaborated with on most
of his productions near the end of his career.
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