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 Press, Princeton, New Jersey 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (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