The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.18 (878 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0571211526 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 848 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-09-10 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Kurosawa's films inspired blockbuster remakes and influenced directors like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. The first -- and long overdue -- English-language biography of two of the world's great cinema figures. Meanwhile, Mifune virtually invented the roaming warrior rogue, a character adapted with great success by actors like Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, Bruce Willis, and countless others. Full of behind-the-scenes details about their tumultuous lives and stormy relationships with the studios and each other, it is also a provocative look at postwar American and Japanese culture and the different lenses through which the two societies viewed each other.. After Red Beard in 1965 they would never work together again -- nor would they ever achieve the same level of success apart as they had together.The Emperor and the Wolf is an in-depth look at the life and work of these two luminaries of cinema. Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune made sixteen feature films together, including Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, and High and Low -- all undisputed masterworks of world cinema. Their impact on the international film world is undisputable, yet at the very height of their abilities, Kurosawa and Mifune went their sepa
As Galbraith recounts, the two men gradually grew apart because of drinking problems, egos, and the collapse of the Japanese film industry. Meanwhile, Mifune squandered his talents in a futile bid for international stardom in overblown film and television efforts. Recommended for public and academic libraries as a companion to Donald Richie's The Films of Akira Kurosawa (Univ. of California, 1999. Much space is devoted to Kurosawa's unhappy experience attempting to direct segments of the American Pearl Harbor epic Tora! Tora! Tora!, but as Galbraith shows, Kurosawa's overwhelming desire to create led to recovery and a distinguished body of work late in life. Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.. This is a dual biography of two Japanese film greats who brought out the best in each other, and Galbraith (The Japanese Filmography) expertly weaves together their stories. This book tells a little-known, sometimes inspiring s
Does not tell us anything about Kurosawa and Mifune the men Mellow Monk This is a filmography, not a biography. This book focuses almost entirely on Kurosawa's and Mifune's films, giving almost no insight into what their lives were like, or what they were like as people. The first half of this 800-page book is an interminable series of synopses of their early works -- films of significance today only as harbingers of much greater things to come. (Particularly annoying is the author's endless quoting of contemporary reviews from "Variety.") The second half still focuses primarily on the films and the minutiae of their production, but provides some substance abou. "Reference" according to Samurai Girl. "The Emperor and the Wolf" is a fine reference book, particularly useful in regards to filmography and timeline. The research is exhaustive. I learned quite a bit about the arc of both Kurosawa's and Mifune's careers.If you want more about Kurosawa the man, go read "Something Like an Autobiography". That's a lovely book-I've re-read it recently and felt quite close to Kurosawa as a human beingthe book is quite intimate, and I am surprised at how willing Kurosawa is to criticize himself and display his less brilliant moments. I'm afraid to use the word "honest"-since Kurosawa insists we all . "Tedious" according to Jose Toledo. The subtitle of this book, The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa, is completely deceitful. There is nothing biographical in this book about either one of its main protagonists. It is rather a chronicle of the Japanese film industry, not without interest in itself. However, the voluminous facts, tid-bits of information about every minor actor, director, script-writer, and film composer, as well as the synopsis of every film mentioned, makes for increbibly tedious reading. While the book has its merit as a source of information, not much credit should be given to the author other than for his