The Over-accepted eastern director director- Akira Kurosawa -by Angel

The topic of my final report is The Over-accepted Director-Akira Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa is a famous Japanese director, who is not only popular on the international plane but also being praised in inter-Asia. I wonder why people can agree with his title- the giant of eastern culture; as a result, I did some research and made some conclusion.

First, the reason why people can identify him as the symbolization of Asia culture is because the issue he chose. For example, the soldiers’ spirits in Dream which can represent the memory of war like ghost haunted in people’s mind-especially in Asia, where the war is the common memory. The other example is The Seven Samurai.  The Samurai spirit includes brave, loyal, sacrifice. It emphasize on groups, on cooperation, which is also valued in Confusion culture. The themes he chose in the movie can not only evoke the resonance among people in Asia but also meet the image from the western world.

Interestingly, The Seven Samurai attracted much attention internationally. If we can see this phenomenon as the eastern culture being accepted by the western world, we cannot miss another cinema of Kurosawa- Yojimbo. Yojimbo is also a samurai. However, Yojimbo is more like the cowboy in US Westerns. The difference between Yojimbo and The Seven Samurai is that Yojimbo highlight the individual, which is more like the culture in the west. In this film, Kurosawa combined the western culture with the eastern culture artfully. Let’s move on talking about the other reason for his successful- the combination of west and east.

Take RAN for example. Kurosawa adapted the work from Shakespeare-King Lear and added some Japanese elements. In addition to the script, the editing skills and technique are also being influenced by the western worlds. Mixing Japanese culture with other culture and turn into a brand new one can not only being seen in Akira Kurosawa, but also in Japan.

Nowadays, there three types of words can be used in Japan-Chinese character, hiragana and katakana. Chinese character is influenced by Confusion culture; hiragana is growing from traditional Japanese culture and katakana is used to translate foreign words. These three types can exist at the same time and finally become a part of Japanese culture. Some people will say that Akira Kurosawa is a bridge that connects the eastern world and the western world. In my opinion, maybe Japan plays this role as well.