Akira Kurosawa

The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa became known to international audiences with his breakthrough film "Rashomon" in 1950, which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and also received an honorary Academy Award as best foreign film. Its cast included Toshiro Mifune, who made a total of 16 films with Kurosawa in one of the all-time great pairings of a director and an actor. HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano discuss Kurosawa's background, his interest in western art and literature, and an impressive career that includes such classics as "Ikiru" (1952), "Seven Samurai" (1954), "Throne of Blood" (1957), "Yojimbo" (1961) and "Ran" (1985).