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AKIRA KUROSAWA

Asia's gift to the world of cinema

Syed Maqsud Jamil
Today marks the 15th death anniversary of internationally-acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (March 23, 1910-September6, 1998).
Kurosawa started as a painter in 1936. He worked for some time as an assistant director. Ele made his directorial debut with a commercially successful movie "Sanshiro I Igata" in 1943. In 1948, he directed "Drunken Angels", which won critical acclaim. It marked the beginning of decade-long collaborations with another great, Toshiro Mifune, who was a little known actor till then. Mifune played the leading role and Kurosawa was recognised as one of the outstanding films of Japan. Kurosawa and Mifune would go on to collaborate in 16 films.
August 1950 was a watershed in Japanese film industry with Akira Kurosawa making "Rashomon" with Toshiro Mifune in the lead role. "Rashomon" won the Golden Globe in 1951 at the Venice Film Festival. The commercial popularity and critical acclaim of "Rashomon" opened the western world for other notable Japanese filmmakers. T he making of "Rashomon" was of a kind which the film viewers found different from what they saw. Kurosawa's mastery of a black and white film was fascinating. The Japanese wooded landscape the pouring rain sunlight filtering through the tree top all made it a spectacle of absorbing beauty. Mifune played his role ofTajomaru with such aplomb! It was sheer magic in black and white quintessentially the best of Asia to the world.
"Ikiru" was another epic to follow in 1952 - the aging bureaucrat with the typical stooping gait and pile of dust covered files on his
table. The files have been piling on for years till he learns that he has cancer and few more months to live. To his mortification he overhears his son and his wife planning what they will do with his pension fund. Ele is devastated. Then he decides to enjoy his life and use it for a good cause. Ele starts going through his stack of files and finds that community works of urgency are languishing on his desk. An area does not have a community park and poor sanitation has made the open space a threat to public hygiene. The community park is eventually prepared and opened.
"Ikiru" was followed by action movie "Seven Samurai" in 1954. Its worldwide popularity encouraged an American filmmaker to make The Magnificent Seven". Kurosawa continued to make one film a year. In 1957 he made Throne of Blood" which was adapted from Shakespeare's "Macbeth". "Hidden Fortress" (1958) followed. Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well" (1960) is a highly rated movie with the story revolving around a vengeful young man marrying the daughter of a corrupt industrialist who was responsible for the suicide of his father. There
were "Yojimbo" (1961) and "Sanjuro" (1962) two comedies.
He made "Red Beard" in 1965, his last movie with Mifune. In the '60s and '70s Kurosawa seemed to be going through a lean period. He made "Dersu Uzala" (1975), a Russian collaboration movie. It is the story of a Russian explorer forming a friendship with a local hunter in a Siberian forest.
The '80s were when Kurosawa came back with his trade mark forte - the Samurai stride. In 1980 he made "Kagemusha" with the help of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. It is the story of a petty thief with great resemblance to a Samurai warlord who is picked up to act as his double. When the warlord dies he is forced to take up arms in his place. "Kagemusha" won Palm D'Or at Cannes Film Festival.
"Kagemusha" was followed by an epic "Ran" in 1985 - an adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear". It is a masterpiece in colour with green hills, bulbous clouds and thrilling sequences of horse riding spread over big canvas. It opens up with the aging King with his retinue of three sons and courtiers chasing a wild boar. Unlike Lear, he gets it with great effort. That unfolds with his declaration of division of his kingdom among his sons to the protest of his youngest son, his banishment and the King's eventual dismay at the gory outcome.
T his was followed by more personal films "Dreams", "Rhapsody in August", and "Madadayo". In 1990 Akira Kurosawa received the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. CNN spoke of him as "one of the [five] people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years."
The writer is a music and film buff.