Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dynamic style, strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it; he was involved with all aspects of film production.
Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 in the Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japanese history, during the reign of Emperor Ōgimachi and his Chancellor Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who seek to hire rōnin to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.
Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese jidaigeki film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama. The film stars Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada in the lead roles, modelled on the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in over 150 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration (1948–1965) with Akira Kurosawa in such works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo. He also portrayed Miyamoto Musashi in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy and one earlier Inagaki film, Lord Toranaga in the NBC television miniseries Shōgun, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in three different films.
Sanjuro is a 1962 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. It is a sequel to Kurosawa's 1961 Yojimbo.
Red Beard is a 1965 Japanese jidaigeki film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, in his last collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. Based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, Akahige Shinryōtan, the film takes place in Koishikawa, a district of Edo, towards the end of the Tokugawa period, and is about the relationship between a town doctor and his new trainee. Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Humiliated and Insulted provided the source for a subplot about a young girl, Otoyo, who is rescued from a brothel.
Yojimbo is a 1961 Japanese samurai film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Atsushi Watanabe. In the film, a rōnin arrives in a small town where competing crime lords vie for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard.
Stray Dog is a 1949 Japanese film noir crime drama directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. It was Kurosawa's second film of 1949 produced by the Film Art Association and released by Shintoho. It is also considered a detective movie that explores the mood of Japan during its painful postwar recovery. The film is also considered a precursor to the contemporary police procedural and buddy cop film genres, based on its premise of pairing two cops with different personalities and motivations together on a difficult case.
Samurai Assassin is a 1965 Japanese film directed by Kihachi Okamoto and starring Toshiro Mifune, Koshiro Matsumoto, Yūnosuke Itō, and Michiyo Aratama. It is set in 1860, immediately before the Meiji Restoration changed Japanese society forever by doing away with the castes in society and reducing the position of the samurai class.
Scandal is a 1950 Japanese film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film stars Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura and Shirley Yamaguchi.
The Lower Depths is a 1957 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, the screenplay by Hideo Oguni and Akira Kurosawa was based on the 1902 play The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky. The setting was changed for the film from late 19th-century Russia to Edo period Japan.
Snow Trail is a 1947 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Senkichi Taniguchi from Akira Kurosawa's screenplay. It was the first film role for Toshirō Mifune, later to become one of Japan's most famous actors. Mifune and the other main actor in the film, Takashi Shimura, later became long-term collaborators of film director Akira Kurosawa.
Tora-san Goes NorthakaTorasan, Remind Shiretoke is a 1987 Japanese comedy film directed by Yoji Yamada. It stars Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō Kuruma (Tora-san), Keiko Takeshita as the film's "Madonna", and Toshiro Mifune as Takeshita's father. Tora-san Goes North is the thirty-eighth entry in the popular, long-running Otoko wa Tsurai yo series.
The Story of Osaka Castle is a 1961 Japanese drama film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film is based on historical events taking place in Japan during the beginning of the 17th century.
The Lost World of Sinbad is a 1963 Japanese drama action film directed by Senkichi Taniguchi, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film stars Toshiro Mifune and Mie Hama.
Japan's Longest Day is a 1967 Japanese war film directed by Kihachi Okamoto. The subject of the majority of the movie is the period between noon on August 14, 1945 and noon on August 15, 1945, when Emperor Hirohito's decision to surrender to the Allies in World War II was broadcast to the Japanese people, and the attempted coup d'état to prevent that from happening. Film historian Joseph L. Anderson describes the film as "a meticulous reconstruction of the day Japan surrendered and thus ended the Pacific War.
Kōji Mitsui was a Japanese movie, TV, and stage actor. He appeared in more than 150 films from 1925 to 1975, including 29 of Kinema Junpo’s annual Top-10 winners and three of its 10 best Japanese films of all time. In 2000 the magazine named him one of the 60 most important Japanese actors of the 20th century.
The Militarists is a 1970 Japanese film directed by Hiromichi Horikawa.
Battle of the Japan Sea is a 1969 Japanese epic war film directed by Seiji Maruyama, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Yūzō Kayama, Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshio Kurosawa, Makoto Satō, Ryutaro Tatsumi, Chishū Ryū, and Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII. In the film, the Imperial Japanese Navy and army fail in their attempts to seize Port Arthur, and the Russian Pacific Fleet bears down on the Japan Sea during the Russo-Japanese War.
The Legacy of the 500,000 is a 1963 Japanese action film directed by Toshiro Mifune in his sole directorial credit. The film stars Mifune, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Sachio Sakai, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Yoshifumi Tajima, Tatsuya Nakadai, Mie Hama and Yuriko Hoshi. In the film, a man who battled in the Philippines during World War II is kidnapped by two brothers in search of the gold he buried on an island in the Philippines during the war.
