Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa Movies and TV Shows

Akira Kurosawa (Kyūjitai: 黒澤 明, Shinjitai: 黒沢 明 Kurosawa Akira; March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director in 1943, during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (a.k.a. Judo Saga). After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown actor Toshirō Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another 15 films. Rashomon, which premiered in Tokyo in August 1950, and which also starred Mifune, became, on September 10, 1951, the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was subsequently released in Europe and North America. The commercial and critical success of this film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese film artists. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kurosawa directed approximately a film a year, including a number of highly regarded films such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961). After the mid-1960s, he became much less prolific, but his later work—including his final two epics, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to win awards, including the Palme d'Or for Kagemusha, though more often abroad than in Japan. In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.Posthumously, he was named "Asian of the Century" in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, cited as "one of the [five] people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years". Description above from the Wikipedia article Akira Kurosawa , licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Personal info

  • Gender: Male
  • Date of birth: 3/23/1910 (114 years old)
  • Place of birth: Shinagawa, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
Year
Genre
IMDB
TMDB
Available on the following streaming services in the United States
Living
IMDB 7.2
TMDB 70%
role:
Original Film Writer
2022

Drama

7.2
70%
2016

Action

Adventure

Western

6.9
64%
And the Oscar Goes To...
IMDB 7.1
TMDB 70%
role:
Self (archive footage)
Not available
2014

Documentary

TV Movie

7.1
70%
Not available
2013

Documentary

6.1
64%
1996

Action

Crime

Drama

Mystery

Thriller

6.4
63%
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Runaway Train
IMDB 7.2
TMDB 70%
role:
Screenplay
1985

Action

Adventure

Drama

Thriller

7.2
70%
Ran
IMDB 8.2
TMDB 81%
role:
Editor & 2 more
1985

Action

Drama

History

8.2
81%
Kagemusha
IMDB 7.9
TMDB 79%
role:
Executive Producer & 4 more
1980

Action

Drama

History

War & Politics

7.9
79%
Dersu Uzala
IMDB 8.2
TMDB 81%
role:
Director & 1 more
1975

Action

Adventure

Drama

8.2
81%
Tora! Tora! Tora!
IMDB 7.5
TMDB 71%
role:
Screenplay
1970

Drama

History

War & Politics

7.5
71%
A Fistful of Dollars
IMDB 7.9
TMDB 79%
role:
Original Story & 1 more
1964

Western

7.9
79%
High and Low
IMDB 8.4
TMDB 84%
role:
Producer & 3 more
1963

Crime

Drama

Mystery

Thriller

8.4
84%
Sanjuro
IMDB 8.0
TMDB 80%
role:
Editor & 2 more
1962

Action

Comedy

Drama

8.0
80%
1960

Western

7.7
75%
The Hidden Fortress
IMDB 8.1
TMDB 80%
role:
Writer & 4 more
1958

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Drama

8.1
80%
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Throne of Blood
IMDB 8.1
TMDB 80%
role:
Producer & 3 more
1957

Drama

History

8.1
80%
Seven Samurai
IMDB 8.6
TMDB 85%
role:
Editor & 2 more
1954

Action

Drama

8.6
85%
Ikiru
IMDB 8.3
TMDB 84%
role:
Editor & 2 more
1952

Drama

8.3
84%

FAQs

Some movies or TV shows available in the United States starring or involving Akira Kurosawa are, for example, Living, The Magnificent Seven and What is Cinema?.
The streaming services with the largest selection are Amazon, Prime Video and iTunes.
The best Anystream ratings are Seven Samurai (8.6), Ikiru (8.4) and High and Low (8.4).
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