Kurosawa, Akira, << koo roh sah wah, ah kee rah >> (1910-1998), became the first Japanese motion-picture director to gain worldwide fame. He established his international reputation with Rashomon (1950). This film tells the story of a crime seen from four points of view. Ikiru (To Live, 1952) movingly illustrates the Christian maxim, “He who will lose his life shall find it.” In contrast, Stray Dogs (1949) is a tough crime melodrama.
Kurosawa’s other major films include his series on Japanese warriors called samurai—Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo (1961), and Sanjuro (1962). He also directed Japanese adaptations of the Shakespearean tragedies Macbeth (Throne of Blood, 1957) and King Lear (Ran, 1985). Many of these movies seem to say that by the time people are wise enough to understand where their true interests lie, they are caught in a tangle of events created by their own passions. Kurosawa described his career in Something Like an Autobiography (1982). He was born on March 23, 1910, in Tokyo. He died on Sept. 6, 1998.
