<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On Jan 17, 2011, at 11:52 AM, Dolores Martinez wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">You need to think of Kurosawa's age in the 1920s (just in his teens!), but also about his older brother who was a radical and a benshi. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></blockquote></div><div><br></div>Wikipedia provides an interesting gloss ...<div><br><blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">Heigo was academically gifted, but soon after failing to secure a place in Tokyo's foremost <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_education_in_Japan#Upper_secondary_school" title="Secondary education in Japan" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">high school</a>, he began to detach himself from the rest of the family, preferring to concentrate on his interest in foreign literature.<sup id="cite_ref-Kurosawa_1983_17_5-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa#cite_note-Kurosawa_1983_17-5" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></a></sup> In the late 1920s, Heigo became a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benshi" title="Benshi" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">benshi</a> (silent film narrator) for Tokyo theaters showing foreign films, and quickly made a name for himself. Akira, who at this point planned to become a painter,<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>[</span>11<span>]</span></a></sup> moved in with him, and the two brothers became inseparable.<sup id="cite_ref-Galbraith_IV_2002_19_12-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa#cite_note-Galbraith_IV_2002_19-12" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>[</span>12<span>]</span></a></sup> Through Heigo, Akira devoured not only films but also theater and circus performances,<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>[</span>13<span>]</span></a></sup> while exhibiting his paintings and working for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics" title="Left-wing politics" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">left-wing</a> Proletarian Artists' League</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div></blockquote></div></body></html>