Why is Akira Kurosawa called the "Emperor of Movies"

Author: Martin

Link: /question/20418026/answer/15080561

Source: Zhihu

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Actually, this was probably a sarcastic title at first.

Kurosawa is tall (1.81 meters). He is very strict in directing the filming scene. He requires perfection in everything and is stubborn. He often yells and scares the staff until their legs weaken, so he was given the nickname He was nicknamed "Emperor". (You must know that at that time, Japanese people were generally not tall, and they spoke softly and in a roundabout way. Kurosawa was an outlier in both of these aspects, and he was the best of the outliers)

Because of his outstanding achievements in the film industry, Later this title became an absolute honorific. (Oshima Nagisa learned this trick and wanted to scream out his dentures)

The picture above shows Akira Kurosawa on the left and Andrei Tarkovsky on the right (1.71m) The picture above shows Akira Kurosawa on the left and Tarkovsky (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1.71m) on the right.

His notes Nogami Teruyo once wrote a book called "Waiting for the Clouds to Arrive". Because the best expression of the character of "Emperor Kurosawa" is that he can make the entire crew stop and wait for Yun just to get a good shot. When filming "Heroes of the Warring States", he waited for 100 days to get a satisfactory shot of sunny weather. While filming "Heaven and Hell", he found that the second floor of a private house was blocking his shot of actors throwing cash from the Shinkansen, so he demolished the second floor of the house.

I don’t want to explain Kurosawa, but it is precisely because of his passion for movies that he is stubborn, so serious, and able to make so many excellent "Kurosawa movies." Kurosawa's belief in film is unimaginable today. After "Red Beard" (1965) Mifune couldn't stand Kurosawa's tyranny and left. In September 1970, Akira Kurosawa's "Tora!" was fired halfway through. Tiger! Tiger! " was released and became a box office hit in Japan that year. In October of the same year, Akira Kurosawa's film "Little Market Without Seasons" (also known as "Train Mania") without Mifune was released and failed miserably. On December 22, 1971, Kurosawa attempted suicide. Regardless of the movie, I admire this strong sense of shame. In contrast, when faced with failure, today's directors only talk nonsense like "I made this movie for myself" and "This movie is a gift from God" to cover up their ugliness, without any sense of shame.

Tell me two more short stories:

1. After the fiasco of Trammania, Kurosawa had no choice but to leave the Soviet Union to film "Dersu Uzala" (1975). After returning to Japan, he wanted to make "Kagemusha", but unfortunately no investors were willing to cooperate with this stubborn old man. It forced Emperor Kurosawa to swear, "I want the audience to see the pictures in my mind, even if it's not a movie, even if these pictures are still! So I sat at the table and painted day and night, and unknowingly painted more than 200 paintings. , there is a belief that supports me to continue painting: one day I will make "Shadow Warrior" into a movie!" In the end, it was two idiot fans from the United States who attracted investment for him and helped him complete the movie. Not only that, the two of them were so enthusiastic that they flew across the Pacific Ocean to Japan to take photos with their idols. (In today's film industry, few people would invest like this...)

The picture above is a photo of the two of them with Akira Kurosawa when they flew from the United States to Japan to visit the filming set of "Kagemusha". These two American idiots One fan is Francis Coppola and the other is George Lucas. (Thank you, the picture above is a photo taken with Akira Kurosawa when the two flew from the United States to Japan to visit the filming set of "Kagemusha". One of these two idiot American fans is named Francis Coppola and the other is named George Lucas.

(Thanks to teacher @Lucifer for providing the picture)

The above is the image of Takeda Shingen, the protagonist of "Kagemusha" written by Akira Kurosawa. The above is the image of Takeda Shingen, the protagonist of "Kagemusha" written by Akira Kurosawa.

When Kurosawa was conceived in the early stage, he had already thought of having the famous Japanese actor Shintaro Katsu play this role (as you can see from the picture above). Shintaro Katsu had previously played the role in the "Zatoichi" series of movies and became a big name in Japanese sword and sword films. At that time, his influence in Japan was definitely greater than that of Akira Kurosawa. Although he knew Kurosawa's temper, Katsu Shintaro still said that he would fully cooperate and work hard to complete an excellent movie. The picture above is the blind hero Zatoichi played by Shintaro Katsu. The picture above is the blind hero Zatoichi played by Shintaro Katsu.

However, when Shintaro Katsu was filming the first scene on the set, he asked his assistant to use a home video recorder to simultaneously The act of filming his own performance angered Kurosawa, and the two got into a fight on set. No one expected that Kurosawa would directly expel Shintaro Katsu from the crew and call Nakadai Tatsuya that night to replace him with the starring role. The picture above shows Takeda Shingen played by Tatsuya Nakadai, which can be compared with Kurosawa's original painting. The picture above shows Takeda Shingen played by Tatsuya Nakadai, which can be compared with Kurosawa's original painting.

Firing the actor whose original setting was made in the first scene is something that only Akira Kurosawa can do, right?

2. After that, Nakadai Tatsuya starred in Akira Kurosawa's film "Ran". The old man is still alive. The Japanese Film Festival came to Beijing last year. Chinese fans at the scene asked him to briefly comment on the differences in the styles of directing actors between Director Akira Kurosawa and Director Mikio Naruse. This is what he said: "As for the differences between director Akira Kurosawa and director Mikio Naruse, I actually don't think they are any different. (If I have to say,) I just finished filming director Kurosawa's film and entered the film industry. When I was on set with Director Naruse, Director Naruse would constantly tell me, “Be quiet! Be quiet! "

Toshiro Mifune, who chose to leave the Kurosawa group, when asked about Akira Kurosawa, he replied:

""That guy!" "Mifune smiled a little after recalling: "Kurosawa is a film director, but he is more serious than others in every aspect. However, we as actors are not puppets, and we cannot do whatever he says. Akira Kurosawa made sure to tell me his requirements for the role before filming. If I followed his instructions and pushed myself to the top, he would not restrain me much. ”’

This unrestricted imperiousness may have made his later achievements less successful than those during his collaboration with Mifune, but generations of filmmakers around the world will still draw nourishment from Kurosawa’s films.