The Warriors' Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa

368 Pages·1991·29.64 MB·English

by  Stephen Prince

THE WARRIOR'S CAMERA

THE CINEMA OF
Akira Kurosawa
The
Warrior's
Camera
STEPHEN P R INC E
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright © 1991 byPrinceton University Press
Published byPrinceton University Press, 41William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Inthe United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford
All Rights Reserved
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Prince, Stephen, 1955-
The warrior's camera: the cinema ofAkira Kurosawa /
by Stephen Prince.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0-691-03160-6 (cloth: acid-free paper)
ISBN0-691-00859-0 (paper: acid-free paper)
1.Kurosawa, Akira, 1910- --Criticism and interpretation.
I.Title.
PN1998.3.K87P75 1991
791.43'0233'092--dc20 90-36647
This book has been composed in Linotron Melior & Optima
Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and meet the guidelines forpermanence and durability
ofthe Committee on Production Guidelines
forBook Longevity ofthe Council
on Library Resources
Printed inthe United States ofAmerica byPrinceton University
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(Pbk.) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FOR M Y PARENTS
Contents
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
1 Viewing Kurosawa 3
2 The Dialectics of Style 32
3 Willpower Can Cure All Human Ailments 67
4 Experiments and Adaptations 114
5 Form and the Modern World 155
6 History and the Period Film 200
7 The Late Films 250
Notes 293
FilmsDirected byAkiraKurosawa 327
Bibliography 329
Index 339

Illustrations
Frontispiece. Toshiro Mifune asWashizu in
Throne of Blood.
1. Akira Kurosawa. 4
2. Kurosawa on location during the filming
ofSeven Samurai. 12
3. The influence ofKurosawa: direct re-
makes asin TheMagnificent Seven
(1960),freely adapted from Seven
Samurai. 19
4. and 5. The influence ofKurosawa:
lessons in wide-screen composition and
the stylization ofviolence. 20
6. Kurosawa directs Toshiro Mifune on
the set ofHigh and Low. 29
7. KajiroYamamoto's Horse, onwhich
Kurosawa served asassistant director. 39
8. Surrounded byhowling winds, Sanshiro
(Susumu Fujita) confronts Higakifortheir
climactic duel. Sanshiro Sugata. 49
9. Still aboyatheart, Sanshiro gently tends
to Sayo.Sunshiro Sugata. 53
10. The individual alone and determined: a
young factory worker prays before begin-
ning the search foramissing lens. The
MostBeautiful. 54
11. Serving the needs ofwartime, Sanshiro
symbolically thrashes the American
boxer in Sunshiro Sugata, Part II. 57
12. The antics ofatimid, bumbling porter
(KenichiEnomoto) undercut the historical
drama ofYoshitsune's flight in They Who
Tread onthe Tiger's Tail. 59
13. and 14. Dreams oftheir own coffeeshop
cheer an impoverished couple, amid the
postwar rubble. OneWonderful Sunday.
Diseaseas asocial metaphor: ayoung
doctor (Toshiro Mifune) battles syphilis
in postwar Japan. The Quiet Duel 74
15. The corrupt lawyer Hiruta (Takashi Shi-
mural and his victim [ToshiroMifune).
Scandal. 76
X ILLUSTRATIONS
16. Yukie (Setsuko Hara) before her transformation, as aprivileged
professor's daughter. No Regrets for Our Youth. 79
17. Matsunaga [Toshiro Mifune) struggles with Sanada (Takashi
Shimura}, the doctor who wishes to cure his diseased body and
spirit in Kurosawa's allegorical Drunken Angel. 82
18. Matsunaga falls under the influence ofthe gang boss, Okada.
Drunken Angel. 87
19. Competing visual tensions in Stray Dog. While Sato (Takashi
Shimura) questions awitness, two geisha set offasparkler in
the corner ofthe frame. 90
20. Murakami [Toshiro Mifune) and Sato hunt for the killer. Stray
Dog. 96
21. Watanabe's (Takashi Shimura) intensely personal confrontation
with death alienates those around him and challenges the social
order. Ikiru. 104
22. Watanabe tries to reach out to Toyo but discovers that he re-
mains alone. Ikiru. 108
23. Kurosawa, "the last ofthe samurai." 115
24. The Kurosawa hero. Kambei (Takashi Shimura) in Seven
Samurai. 119
25. The bandit [Toshiro Mifune) and the warrior (Masayuki Mori):
characters "going astray in the thicket oftheir hearts."
Rashomon. 129
26. Hushornon's forest imagery was meant by Kurosawa to embody
the dark labyrinth of the human heart. 131
27. Toshiro Mifune and Masayuki Mori as the Rogozhin and Mysh-
kin characters in The Idiot. 140
28. Washizu [Toshiro Mifune) meets his end in afusillade of ar-
rows. Throne of Blood. 145
29. The painterly style of Throne ofBlood. Bleached sky, fog, and
desolate plains create acosmic frame for this tale ofhuman
ambition and violence. 148
30. Spatial fragmentation and the stress of linear form in The Lower
Depths. 153
31. Anxieties ofthe nuclear age: Nakajima (Toshiro Mifune) con-
templates the apocalypse in Record ofa Living Being. 161
32. Nakajima cannot escape the social space ofhis family. Record
of a Living Being. 169
33. Compulsions of atortured Kurosawa hero [Toshiro Mifune). The
Bad Sleep Well. 177