Kurosawa sues NHK

[Aaron Gerow]

The news services reported that Kurosawa Hisao, son of the director 
Kurosawa Akira, has sued the public television network NHK for 
violating copyright of the Seven Samurai in the production of the NHK 
taiga drama Musashi. Kurosawa asserts that the first episode of that 
series included 11 elements, from a village hiring samurai to protect 
itself from brigands, to the hero preparing swords by sticking them in 
the ground, that strongly resemble the 1954 film. Kurosawa asserted 
that such uses did not fall under the rubric of parody or homage and 
thus is suing NHK for 154 million yen in damages and is asking the 
court to prevent rebroadcast and production of DVDs or videos of the 
series.

The press had already reported the significant similarities between the 
two productions. NHK had already apologized to Kurosawa, but had 
refused to pay damages.

This all reminds me of the case of Futarikko, the very popular NHK 
morning drama from the mid 1990s which was very similar to Sakamoto 
Junji's Ote in many ways. I remember Sakamoto telling me that NHK also 
came to apologize to him over that, but he did not end up suing.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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