In 1990 Martin Scorsese was asked to play Vincent Van Gogh in Kurosawa’s 31st feature film ‘Dreams’, and duly flew to Hokkaido in Japan, excited to be working with his hero. When shooting wrapped and the time came for him to go back to America (to begin the edit of Goodfellas), Kurosawa presented him with a gift: some miraculous drawings he had done visualizing his scenes in the film. In return, Scorsese gave Kurosawa a picture he had himself drawn years before depicting a frame from Seven Samurai. The master took it, studied it closely in silence for a long time, then turned to him and said: “The sword is in the wrong hand.”
Akira Kurosawa sometimes made hundreds of these representative concept pictures when preparing his films, and this considered approach is a good example of the rigor with which he made his movies – 33 in all, and a body of work that is regarded as one of the most electrifying and brilliant in cinema history. This level of detail and precision is at the heart of what makes his work so hugely compelling, timeless and transcendent of genre.
Master of visual storytelling
His meticulousness extended to all aspects of his auteurship, from writing right through to editing and producing – roles that he took on or oversaw right the way through his 52-year career. This ensured he had complete control over every scene and every shot. Unlike many of cinema’s great directors, almost nothing in his work was ever unplanned (it’s been said that he even personally stitched some of the character’s costumes in Seven Samurai).
This thoroughness allows his films a constant purity of expression, even in the most potentially complicated of set-ups. If we look at any of the famous battle scenes in his epic 1985 jidai-geki (period-film)Ran, for example, it is remarkable how easy the action is to follow in what is, in essence, absolute chaos. Hundreds of soldiers and horses sweep through the frame, but his ability to tell the story within this melee is emblematic of how studied and detailed his cinematic style is.
Storytelling though detailed blocking and camera work is evident in its simplicity throughout his body of work. You only need to look at the poise in framing of the shot in Seven Samurai where all the titular characters share the same frame but do not look at one another, all heads bowed in frustration, to get a glimpse into the absolute precision of his visual storytelling.
There is also a constant acuteness in the movement within the frame in Kurosawa’s films. His blocking of bodies and their dynamics is one of the hallmarks of this work. As Scorsese recalled from the set of Dreams: “I was supposed to draw another picture and discard it. ‘I tear that one up too, right?’ I asked. ‘No,’ said Kurosawa, ‘that one you fold over then move four more paces.’” Precision personified.
A dominant force in film
Characters in his films move in a unique, mannered and often exaggerated way – all precisely orchestrated by the director in order to impart the most simplistic visual storytelling possible.
Kurosawa dominated every aspect of the film making process on each of his projects. His attention to detail is intrinsic to all stages of the production, from his beautiful initial concept drawings right though to the final edit itself. His films are themselves expressions of his character in all its dedication and precision, and are some of the most awe inspiring, nuanced, and original that the world of cinema has ever seen.
