The Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa was an intensely private man who once told an interviewer “there is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself”. Kurosawa would have been pleased, then, that this addition to Reaktion’s Critical Lives series focuses primarily on his films. According to Peter Wild, Kurosawa’s 30 movies form “one of the greatest bodies of work in cinema history”. He has inspired film-makers from Sam Peckinpah to Quentin Tarantino. Martin Scorsese, who appeared in Kurosawa’s film Dodes’ka-den, described the director as “my master”. Obsessed with films from an early age, Kurosawa began working as a film-maker in 1935. Rashomon (1950) was his breakthrough movie, though the Japanese public and even his assistant directors were puzzled by it. Kurosawa explained: “This film is like a strange picture scroll that is unrolled and displayed by the ego.” From Seven Samurai to Ran, Kurosawa’s distinctive mix of compelling stories, unique atmospheres and technical brilliance entranced audiences around the world and Wild’s succinct study is packed with insights into both the man and his work.
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