Kurosawa in the bfi National Library

Although Kurosawa was the breakthrough director for Japanese cinema, outside a chapter here and there in a general work on Japanese cinema, there seems to be a dearth of dedicated books on his life and work. (Perhaps this reflects Japanese cinema as well). Indeed, the Donald Richie book (originally published 1965 and now in its third edition, see below) was considered by many to be the only useful English language study for nearly 20 years and is still worthwhile consulting. The first major English language biography, an 800+ page opus by Stuart Galbraith IV containing an impressive filmography, has had to wait until now (see below). (Dare I suggest no Kurosawa bfi Film Classic until now either).

Some writers have suggested that because of his enormous success outside Japan, implying an international/commercial appeal of his films, recent critical attention has been focused upon more 'Japanese' directors such as Ozu and Mizoguchi. In the last few years, however, there have been several new and useful titles on the work of the great man and explore the themes in his work, the influences, and peer into the, almost inevitably, inscrutable enigma of Kurosawa himself.

In his 1979 book on Japanese cinema, Noel Burch provides a hypothesis to which all the following works draw upon. He argues that Kurosawa adopted a "Western" form of film-making and built upon it. David Desser (1983) applies this model and looks at where Kurosawa's films follow or diverge from it. He also examines the influence of Kurosawa upon the work of John Sturges and Sam Peckinpah. Like Desser's work, Stephen Prince (1991, 1999) also aims to plugs gaps in the research and tackles Kurosawa's career in four stages: the early period; the heroic/reconstruction films; the transitional & pessimistic; and the "psychobiography" of the last films.

James Goodwin (1994) applies intertextuality rather the previous traditional 'auteur' approaches and with unabashed use of theory sets the films in the context of other contemporary media and events. At the same time, Goodwin also edited a collection of writings and intertviews by other film artists from Anderson to Spielberg, film critics and Kurosawa himself. The latest work on Kurosawa's films by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto (2000) benefits by being the latest as it builds on what has come before. It offers a readable but "theoretically informed study" that provides a very useful scholarly review of work on Japanese cinema to date and a film by film approach (like Richie and Goodwin) to Kurosawa's work. As a Japanese American, he may be better placed to offer a fresh insight of Kurosawa, especially on the innate Japanese-ness of his work.

Complete listing of books on Akira Kurosawa in the bfi National Library, with full bibliographic details

Selected sources on Akira Kurosawa

Below is a short listing of the more useful, frequently requested and more readily available texts. For any further information on materials on Akira Kurosawa and on how to access them, then please contact Library Services or telephone on 020 7957 4764

(** - denotes title in still in print Jan 2002).

ANDERSON, Joseph L. and RICHIE, Donald (with a foreword by Akira Kurosawa)

The Japanese film: art and industry (expanded ed) **

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982. 526p.illus.appendices.bibliogs.index

BOCK, Audie

Japanese film directors

Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1985. 378p.plates.bibliog.filmogs.index.

BURCH, Noel

To the distant observer: form and meaning in the Japanese cinema

London: Scolar Press, 1979. 387p.illus.bibliog.appendices.filmogs.indices.

DESSER, David

The samurai films of Akira Kurosawa. **

Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1983. 164p.illus.bibliog.indices

GALBRAITH, Stuart IV

The Emperor and the Wolf **

Faber, 2001. 823p.illus.appendices.filmogs.index. (NB Still on order 21/1/02)

GOODWIN, James

Akira Kurosawa and intertextual cinema

Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1994. 265p.illus.bibliog.index.

GOODWIN, James

Perspectives on Akira Kurosawa

New York: GK Hall & co, 1994. 285p.bibliog.filmog.index.

KUROSAWA, Akira

Something like an autobiography **

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982 205p.[8]plates.appendix

PRINCE, Stephen

The warrior's cinema: the cinema of Akira Kurosawa (revised ed) **

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. 417p.illus.filmog.bibliog.index.

RICHIE, Donald

The films of Akira Kurosawa (3rd ed) **

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996. 271p.illus.bibliog.index.

RICHIE, Donald

A hundred years of Japanese film: a concise history **

Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2001. 311p.illus.gloss.index.

SATO, Tadao (translated by Gregory Barnett)

Currents in Japanese cinema

Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1982. 288p.plates.chronology.index.

YOSHIMOTO, Mitsuhiro

Kurosawa: film studies and Japanese cinema **

Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. 485p.illus.filmog.bibliog.index.