Kurosawa

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

Now that the news of Kurosawa's death has sunk in, I wonder if anyone is 
interested in discussing place in Japanese cinema and his legacy.  

Looking over the obituaries and press reports here, it seems the main 
narratives for talking about Kurosawa have been "sekai no Kurosawa" and 
"eiga no kyosho."  The first has emphasized his role in opening up 
Western awareness of Japanese cinema, but is unfortuntaly not too 
different as a narrative from the pride shown in Godzilla making it good 
abroad.  Speilberg and other Western directors he influenced are cited, 
as if Kurosawa is only important to the degree Hollywood celebrates him.  
The second narrative cites some vague "love of cinema" in Kurosawa--his 
life dedicated to cinema--but addresses none of the issues of cinema that 
concerned Kurosawa.  _Rashomon_ was repeatedly cited as "the first film 
to break the taboo against pointing the camera at the sun," but I saw 
very little discussion of the film's themes or message.  Very few people, 
with the exception of Yodogawa and Shirai, even mentioned him as a 
humanist.

Well, we can't expect the popular press to be film scholars, but what do 
we make of this image it is constructing?  What can we say about 
Kurosawa's position in Japanese cinema?  What about his status as someone 
almost perpetually related to the "West"?  What can we say about his 
legacy as a "humanist" (how would we define that term in relation to 
him?), especially if few people in Japan are now discussing him in 
relation to that?  What were the cinematic issues he posed and how have 
they affected subsequent Japanese cinema?  

Any thoughts?

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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