The Japanese are a traditional and withdrawn nation. Likewise, it only opened its doors to the outside world at the beginning of the last century, so they carried their traditionalism to this day, albeit by decreasing. That’s why they have so many different disciplines of life and work from the West. What makes director Akira Kurosawa so special is that she can emerge from this traditionalism and inspire the entire art world.
Of course, one of the reasons kurosawa cinema is so successfully accepted in the West is that it carries influences and traces from Western cinema, which it admires in its films. Because his father and brother, who were of great importance in the development of his art, introduced Kurosawa to Western cinema from an early age and unwittingly shaped his understanding of future cinema.
Although the art of cinema is generally seen as a means of disconnection from the real world for the audience, in Kurosawa films it is the opposite. There is a pessimistic tone that insists on confronting the audience with the realities of life (especially death). The reason for this is that Kurosawa witnessed the deaths of his brothers one by one, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the second world war, when Japan suffered terrible destruction.
Rashomon and Seven Samurai were the films that made the director famous worldwide – which is ironic that they are purebred samurai films. In particular, Seven Samurai has gained a very important place in the history of cinema and has been adapted to many different cultures. Personally, I can say that what I admire most is that it shows the true face of samurai culture, which is marketed as an example to the whole world in its films. Because I’d like to add that he comes from a samurai family.
In Kurosawa’s most successful films, we can observe one-on-one the effects of the devastation he has experienced in his personal life and the health problems he has experienced one after the other. Ran’s finale tells the story of God abandoning man, a man with cancer who knows he is going to die in Ikiru questions the purpose of his life, and in Tengoku to jigoku, hatred between the social classes is depicted (whose beloved brother committed suicide from unemployment). In fact, one of his latest films, Yume, tells the story of kurosawa’s complicated dreams for years. He had already attempted suicide several times, and in 1993 he became wheelchair-bound in an accident on set and died five years later.
Undoubtedly one of the most inspired directors of world cinema is Kurosawa. He made Japanese cinema known around the world, brought a legendary actor like Toshiro Mifune to the cinema (which he also starred in many of his films), co-shot war-torn Japan, inspired Ishiro Honda to create Godzilla, and his films were adapted into many different cultures because of the universal themes they contained, although they contained Japanese culture.
Kurosawa is a painful soul dedicated to cinema enough to want to die on film sets. But he chose to turn his pain into an art that affected millions of people rather than turn it into a victimization. I believe this is one of the noblest leaps a man can make.
|
Some of His Most Successful Films:
|
..
