Page 8 - Pastiche Vol 1 Edition 1 January 2019

Posthumously named "Asian of the Century" as being among the five

people who most prominently contributed to the improvement of
Asia in the 20th century and regarded as one of the most important
and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, the Japanese film
director and screenwriter Akira Kurosawa directed over 30 films
within the span of 57 years of his career.

Akira Kurosawa was born on March 23, performances, besides exhibiting his
1910, in Ōimachi in the Ōmori district of paintings and working for the left-wing
Tokyo. His father Isamu Kurosawa was a Proletarian Artists' League. But "putting
member of a samurai family from Akita unfulfilled political ideals directly onto the
Prefecture, and his mother Shima Kurosawa canvas" didn’t bring him money and he lost
came from a merchant's family living his enthusiasm for painting. Akira moved
in Osaka. Akira was the eighth and youngest back in with his parents when Heigo began
child of the moderately wealthy family. to lose work with the increasing production
of talking pictures in the early 1930s. In July
The major childhood influences of Akira 1933, Heigo committed suicide and only four
Kurosawa were his father Isamu, months later, Kurosawa's eldest brother also
his elementary school teacher Mr Tachikawa, died, leaving Akira, at age 23, the only one of
and his older brother Heigo Kurosawa. Once the Kurosawa brothers still living with his
Heigo took Akira to view the devastation three surviving sisters.
after the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923
where the 13years old Akira was shaken by In 1935, the new film studio Photo Chemical
the human corpses and animal carcasses Laboratories, now Toho, advertised for
scattered everywhere, but Heigo encouraged assistant directors. Despite no interest in
Akira to face his fears by confronting them film as a profession, Kurosawa submitted the
directly. This incident later influenced required essay, which asked applicants to
Kurosawa's artistic career, as the director discuss the fundamental deficiencies of
was seldom hesitant to confront unpleasant Japanese films and find ways to overcome
truths in his work. Akira also them. His half-mocking view, that if the
studied calligraphy and Kendo sword deficiencies were fundamental, there was no
fighting. way to correct them, earned him a call to
take the follow-up exams. The 25-year-old
Heigo became a benshi in the late 1920s, and Kurosawa got hired in February 1936, on the
Akira planning to become a painter, moved insist of director Kajirō Yamamoto, who was
in with him. With Heigo's guidance, Akira among the examiners.
devoured films along with theater and circus Contd…

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