Start with Seven Samurai despite the length: it invented most of the grammar every ensemble action film still uses, and it is genuinely fun. Then Yojimbo for the leanest version, Rashomon for the structural experiment, and Ikiru if you want the one that will take you apart.
Kurosawa is filed under difficult classic cinema and is in practice one of the most accessible major directors of the twentieth century. The films are propulsive, funny in places, and structurally clear, and their influence is so complete that a modern viewer already knows the vocabulary: the assembled team, the wipe transition, the standoff shot in wide.
He worked across genres for fifty years, and the samurai films that made his international reputation are a fraction of the output. There is a Dostoevsky adaptation, a Shakespeare adaptation, a corporate procedural, a slum ensemble and a hostage thriller that Spielberg has called a formative influence.
Where to start
Seven Samurai, and do not be put off by three and a half hours. It is structured in clear movements with natural breaks, the characters are individuated within twenty minutes, and it moves. If the length is genuinely prohibitive, Yojimbo does much of the same work in ninety-five minutes.
Top picks
Filmography
- Drunken Angel (1948)
- Stray Dog (1949)
- Rashomon (1950)
- Ikiru (1952)
- Seven Samurai (1954)
- Throne of Blood (1957)
- The Hidden Fortress (1958)
- The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
- Yojimbo (1961)
- Sanjuro (1962)
- High and Low (1963)
- Red Beard (1965)
- Dodes'ka-den (1970)
- Dersu Uzala (1975)
- Kagemusha (1980)
- Ran (1985)
- Dreams (1990)
Sources and further reading
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FAQs about Akira Kurosawa
Is Seven Samurai too long to start with?
It is three and a half hours and it does not feel it. The structure is clearly divided into recruitment, preparation and battle, with natural stopping points, and the seven are individuated within the first twenty minutes. If the length is genuinely prohibitive, Yojimbo does much of the same work in ninety-five.
Which of his films influenced Star Wars?
The Hidden Fortress most directly: Lucas has cited its structure of telling a war story from the perspective of two low-status characters, which became the droids. Seven Samurai contributed the assembled-team shape, and the wipe transitions throughout the Star Wars films are lifted straight from Kurosawa.
Do I need to know anything about Japanese history?
No. The samurai films establish their own factions and obligations as they go, and the contemporary films are set in a recognisable postwar Japan that the films explain themselves. Knowing the period adds detail; nothing in the plotting depends on bringing it with you.