Kurosawa is a master artist and filmmaker, no question about it. He made films with tremendous ambition and moral urgency, always seeking to elevate the humanity of his characters living within a fragmented society. I like to refer to him as the Spielberg of Japan, because he was so immensely versatile in the genres he explored.
While Spielberg did adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, biopics and children's media, Kurosawa did police procedurals, family dramas, social realism, hard-boiled yakuza, samurai epics, and Shakespeare and Dostoevskian adaptations.
Kurosawa’s range alone was ridiculous. He could pull off the sweeping epic scale of something like SEVEN SAMURAI or KAGEMUSHA, the philosophical complexity of RASHOMON, the moral compassion and good-heartedness of RED BEARD and IKIRU, the exhilarating adventure of THE HIDDEN FORTRESS,…
Kurosawa is a master artist and filmmaker, no question about it. He made films with tremendous ambition and moral urgency, always seeking to elevate the humanity of his characters living within a fragmented society. I like to refer to him as the Spielberg of Japan, because he was so immensely versatile in the genres he explored.
While Spielberg did adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, biopics and children's media, Kurosawa did police procedurals, family dramas, social realism, hard-boiled yakuza, samurai epics, and Shakespeare and Dostoevskian adaptations.
Kurosawa’s range alone was ridiculous. He could pull off the sweeping epic scale of something like SEVEN SAMURAI or KAGEMUSHA, the philosophical complexity of RASHOMON, the moral compassion and good-heartedness of RED BEARD and IKIRU, the exhilarating adventure of THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, the purity and autobiographical intimacy of DREAMS, the satirical comedy of SANJURO, as well as the dark, dark nihilism of RAN or THE LOWER DEPTHS.
Guy was a total badass. ⚔️🇯🇵
He found himself straddled somewhere between high and low-brow worlds of representation, though it's probably safe to say he was more arthouse than commercial-driven. He made tales of personal heroism and existential despair. His films buoyed up the ruined nation in which he lived, but they also never shied away from the dark complexities hidden in the human spirit. Kurosawa was profoundly humanist and existentialist at the same time. He valued free will over determinism, individual autonomy over collective scapegoating, and was always most interested in how people responded to their environments.
