Though we previously explored Akira Kurosawa’s best early movies through the beginning stages of his career, we couldn’t resist highlighting the Japanese filmmaker’s most successful projects throughout the second half of his extensive and exciting directorial reign as one of the most respected masters of cinema.
While a great deal of his work had intersected Japanese politics and traditional Japanese Noh theater with realistic forms of human drama, the middle-to-later part of his career (prior to his final films after Dersu Uzala) emphasized darker subject matters, where viewers see the worst case scenarios, or are led to believe that the worst will ultimately happen throughout the film. Akira Kurosawaembraced dramatic tragedies after World War 2 and Hiroshima, and also Japanese variations on the American Western after the massive success of his Seven Samurai.
Throughout his earlier years of filmmaking, Kurosawa had constructed an unconventional method of filmmaking that he had perfected by the 1950s. In this stylistic technique, he utilized telephoto lenses to shoot from a distant angle, due to his belief that strategically placing actors farther away from cameras would produce stronger performances. Additionally, Kurosawa ran multiple camera angles, all at the same time, to capture action from many angles. When he did do close-ups, he often liked to form triangular structures in which characters complimented each other. He was also known for his frequent actor-director collaborations, working with Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura numerous times.
Kurosawa was not only an icon, but also an artist who was willing to come up with new ways to break traditional barriers; as a result, he was deemed a perfectionist who took extensive amounts of time to carve out his innovative vision, but it always paid off. Here’s a look at Akira Kurosawa’s most prestigious middle-period works, released between the 1950s to the late 1970s.
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6 Rashomon
Daiei Film
Both heartbreaking yet endlessly intriguing, Rashomon was one of the first films to utilize conflicting perspectives and multiple flashbacks, and the first film to literally stare directly into the sun (a beautiful symbol for Kurosawa’s rebellious innovation). Rashomon is based on a number of flashbacks, as key characters narrate the story of a murder and rape. As a priest and a woodcutter take temporary refuge from an intense rainstorm, both men recount the story of a murdered man, as his body was discovered three days prior in the forest grove, by the woodcutter. Rashomon redefines the narrative form, while searching for the significance in truth with what might be the first postmodern film.
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5 Throne of Blood
Toho
Resetting the narrative behind William Shakespeare’s Macbeth into feudal Japan, Throne of Blood is commonly regarded as one of the best Shakespeare adaptations in movie history. Samurai warriors Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki) are followed by a spirit who predicts their futures while returning to their fellow lord’s castle. Once the first part of the spirit’s prophecy comes true, Washizu’s wife, Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), schemes and pressures him to speed up the spirit’s prophecy by murdering his lord and standing in his place.
4 Yojimbo
Struggling to take control of a local gambling trade in a small Japanese village, two successful but rival businessmen (and basically gang leaders), are met by a nameless samurai in Yojimbo. After the samurai (played by Toshirô Mifune, in one of his most charming performances for Kurosawa) takes the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, he convinces both men, Tazaemon (Kamatari Fujiwara) and Tokuemon (Takashi Shimura), to hire him as a personal bodyguard.
Kuwabatake then sets up a full out war between the two men, manipulating everyone along the way. Action-packed and full of thrilling and humorous moments, Yojimbo will leave you on the edge of your seats wanting more (and luckily, there is, with Sanjuro, one of only two sequels Kurosawa made).
3 Red Beard
The quiet epic Red Beard is centered around the character of Noboru Yasumoto (Yûzô Kayama), a recent medical student who becomes disappointed as his first official job post takes him to a tiny countryside clinic, under the direction of the doctor known as Red Beard (Toshirô Mifune, in his sternest, most authoritative performance). After graduating from medical school, Yasumoto is introduced by Red Beard to the rigorous and unglamorous side of the job, giving him the task to care for a prostitute (Terumi Niki) who had been rescued from a local brothel. This film will definitely put things into perspective for those who are used to TV medical dramas and predominately see the Hollywood version of being a doctor.
2 The Bad Sleep Well
The Bad Sleep Well was one of the most insightful and damning exploration of revenge (no matter what the cost), both for the viewers and the characters, since Chan Wook-Park’s revenge trilogy. In this very loose adaptation of Hamlet, a vengeful young man plots to marry the daughter of a corrupt industrialist while on a quest to seek personal justice. As Nishi (Toshirô Mifune) climbs the Japanese corporate ladder and marries the daughter of his company’s Vice President Iwabuchi (Masayuki Mori), he secretly looks to avenge the death of his late father, which had been part of a company cover-up. The Bad Sleep Well may arguably be Kurosawa’s darkest film, as indicated by a title which suggests that bad people still sleep well at night.
1 Ikiru
Inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Ikiru takes its title (’to live’) literally, by underlining the importance of living life to its fullest while always remaining present with yourself and those around you. The groundbreaking film follows a bureaucratic office worker, Kanji Watanabe (a heartbreaking Takashi Shimura), as he discovers he has terminal cancer. Wanting to do something meaningful before he dies, he tries to create honest relationships for the first time, while constructing a playground in an underprivileged neighborhood. This poignant masterpiece has been inspiring people ’to live’ their best lives for 70 years.
