Kurosawa Akira

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Kurosawa Akira

• Film Style

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Perfectionist

• Movie directors, or should I say people who
  create things,
• are very greedy and they can never be satisfied.
  Thats
• why they can keep on working. Ive been able to
  work for
• so long because I think next time Ill make
  something
• good."

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Perfectionist

• Total control over his film
• I am my film nothing
• more and nothing less.
• Kurosawa Akira
• Screenwriter, director and editor
• He expected the same enthusiasm and dedication
  from his staff and co-workers.

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PerfectionistAnecdotes

• Nickname Emperor
• The director who made something impossible
  possible.
• 20 tons of water was used for the opening scene
  of Rashomon and the local area ran out of water.
• The water was coloured with calligraphy ink.
• He demanded all furniture had to be antique and
  they had to be filled with antique clothes and
  materials.

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Perfectionist

• Kurosawa got the roof of a house removed to film
  a short scene from a train in High and Low.
• Kurosawa demanded to change the direction of
  river flow for better visual effects.
• Kurosawa asked actors call each other by the
  names of the characters that they played and wore
  their costumes before, during and after
  rehearsals.

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Perfectionist

• Kurosawa used real arrows for the concluding
  scenes of Throne of Blood. Master archers aimed
  at the targets only inches away from Washizus
  body.

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Realism

• Thorough historical research
• Gritty (exaggerated - hyper) realism - costume
  designs, set designs, befitting the living
  conditions of characters

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Realism

• Even samurai look extremely shabby and hopelessly
  poor, when their fortune declines or become
  masterless ronin.
• More realistic rendition of the Medieval time in
  Japan than in other conventional genre films.

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Realism

• Kurosawas gendai geki (contemporary drama) are
  (dramatized) records of the immediate post-war
  period Japan - poverty, desolation and recovery
• Lives of ordinary people and people desperate for
  survival.

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Realism

• (Hyper-) real fighting rather than theatrical
  display of chanbara (sword play)
• Performance to show a fight for life rather than
  showy swordsmanship

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Heightened-realism

• Are Kurosawas films realist? - No.
• The reality in his films is modified and
  exaggerated - heightened reality
• The representation of reality is backed by
  heightened aestheticism and stylistics

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Heightened Stylism

• Film style to appeal to the emotion rather than
  intellect of the spectator
• Psychological rather than mimetic realism
• (Mimesis mimicry and copying of reality)

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• The emotional effects are enhanced by dynamic
  visual images and sound effects being brought
  together.
• Heightened psychological and exaggerated
  realism - expressive mise-en-scène (acting,
  lighting, camera work, and composition).

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Contrast between stillness and movement
  quietness and excitement
• On the spur of the moment a quiet scene is cut to
  a scene full of movements and excitement

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Dynamism of movement enhanced by swish pan,
  graphically matched and quick editing.

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Sudden movement of samurai in response to a false
  alarm in Seven Samurai

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Suspense created by trick photography telephoto
  lens shortens deapth, Red Beard

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Visual dynamism and kineticism - epic scale
  movement of the subjects on the screen shot by
  multiple camera and edited in frantic paces.

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Dynamic movements unusual in Japanese cinema
  against expansive landscape and large horizon
• Throne of Blood and Western films

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Cinematic sound is that which does not simply
• add to, but multiplies, two or three times, the
• effect of the image.
• Kurosawa Akira

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• The final battle sequence of Seven Samurai shot
  with 8 cameras and edited in a frantic pace.
• Sound effects of beating rain, running horses,
  their cries, splashing water, mens yelling
  which are mixed together to create dynamic sound
  track in Seven Samurai.

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Emotional appeal and heightened realism achieved
  by lighting and camera work.
• Rashomon - shot by Miyagawa Kazuo, the
  photographer of Mizoguchi Kenji using reflecting
  mirrors.

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Geometrical and painterly compositions enhance
  psychological effects on the audience - two
  police detectives pursuing the murderer who has
  killed people using the gun that he stole from
  them - vertical shadows of grills create create
  psychological suspense (photo, Stray Dog)

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• The bed of flowers on which the young couple lie
  or sit - creating lyrical effects in No Regrets
  for Our Youth and Seven Samurai

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Paisley patters of the futon hang to dry in Red
  Beard was shot with a telephoto lens. Depth
  disappeared and two dimensional quality
  emphasized the patterns.

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Natural phenomenon visually and aurally
  emphasizes the atmosphere of the scene.
• Howling wind and fierce rain
• Strong wind churning up sand - bleak townscape
  Yojinbo

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• The opening scene of Rashomon, a ruined gate in a
  great storm.
• Natural phenomenon reveals the smallness and
  weakness of the human being and its rational
  power and moral strength.

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Snow in the park whose creation Watanabe
  contributed and where he dies. Ikiru
• Loneliness and ephemerality

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Intense heat in Stray Dog and High and Low
• Heat is metaphor for corruption, social
  impoverishment, and criminality

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Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Dense fog and mist - hinting the existence of
  super-natural being and super-human power.
• Throne of Blood, Ran and Dreams