Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan

<p> The samurai films of legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa are set in the past but they tell us much about the present as do his crime stories romances military films medical dramas and art films. His movies are beloved for their timeless protagonists and haunting vistas of old Japan but we haven't yet fully grasped everything they can teach us about modern Japan. Kurosawa's films evolved as Japan redefined and reinvented itself from movies made for the wartime regime to those made amid the trials of American occupation. From the lavish epics of the economic miracle years to searching masterpieces made with international assistance in a globalizing world Kurosawa's movies responded to changing times.</p><p> This detailed study of all 30 of Kurosawa's films analyzes the links between the thrilling narratives onscreen and the equally remarkable events that occurred in Japan over his long productive career. This book explores how Kurosawa's classics depict the political economic cultural sexual and environmental upheavals of a nation at the center of a turbulent century both directly and through period-piece mythmaking.</p>