Today, March 23, is a very special day - all around! First, it's my mom Gail's birthday - Happy Birthday Mom! Also, it's Rachael Berube's 30th birthday - Happy Birthday Rachael! And it would have been the 100th birthday of master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, born on this day in 1910 in Tokyo.
Because of Kurosawa, the world has been blessed with some of the most beautifully shot films of the 20th century. These include Rashomon, Seven Samurai (later remade as The Magnificent Seven), Yojimbo (later remade as A Fistful of Dollars), Red Beard, Kagemusha, and Ran - just to name a few. Kurosawa was a huge fan of American Cinema - especially the Westerns of Ford and Mann - and the influence that this country's filmmakers had on the Japanese writer/director/movie genius is easily noticed. It also comes as no surprise that his films made for fantastic Western remakes - even by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone. Kurosawa is a filmmaker who should be watched and studied in order to gain an appreciation of what the filmic medium is able to accomplish. Happy Birthday and Thank You, Akira Kurosawa. You left an incredible filmography, and the world is better because of it.
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