Japanese Film Director Akira Kurosawa and the Subjective Paradigm

Akira Kurosawa is by far the most popular and critically acclaimed Japanese film director of all time. One must simply watch a Kurosawa film to understand why he has inspired prominent filmmakers like George Lucas and Sergio Leone. There is something about his films that is awe-inspiring and motivational. Kurosawa has a very distinct style that somehow reaches into the human soul and visually portrays its complexity and the reality of what it means to be human in a simplistic and reflective manner. It is my belief that Kurosawa accomplishes this feat through a subjective world-view. In this paper I will show how Akira Kurosawa draws on the Subjective Paradigm in his life, the filmmaking techniques he uses, and the content and subject matter of his films and how these things define his distinct style of filmmaking. However, in order to do this I must first give a simple explanation of the Subjective Paradigm.

The Subjective View is the less common way of looking at world and is characterized by qualitative, relativist, descriptive, and modern ways of defining and portraying reality. Subjectivists believe that nothing can be said outside of their own experiences; which assumes that reality lies inside the observer. They see the universe as a "soup of matter" made up of interdependent elements created or constructed between people and objects. According to the subjective paradigm reality is indeterminable and unstable and knowledge is a non- progressive process in which we change the definition of truth as we go. I will now write concerning the subjective paradigms relativity to Kurosawa's life.

In his book "Something Like an Autobiography" Kurosawa offers a glimpse into his soul through the portrayal of his upbringing and the beginning of his film career. The book contains countless stories and comments that support the subjective world-view and show how Kurosawa adopted it in his life. While reminiscing on his childhood and upbringing he spoke of his family, especially his father and brother, and their subjectivist examples that helped to shape his outlook on life.

He spoke of his father, a strict military man, displaying very modern ideals while he was growing up. For instance his father would regularly take the family to silent films at a time when such a practice was shunned in Japan. He also spoke of his father introducing all types of foreign sports to the gymnastics school at which he taught. He boasted that sometime between 1915 and the early 1920's his father built the first swimming pool in Japan as well as popularizing baseball. These were all very modern and bold moves at a time when traditional Japanese values still ruled and only Japanese sports like Judo and Kendo were practiced. He commented on his father's subjective influence saying this "his ideas have stayed with me."

Another subjective influence was his older brother Heigo. His brother had a very modern and individualistic personality, rivaling many of Kurosawa's film characters, and rebelled against societal norms of Japanese culture. Heigo brought foreign literature into the home and occasionally influenced Akira to sneak out of the house to see foreign films. In this same manner the two brothers displayed many subjectivist moments of rebellion together. One such incident occurred during the Buddhist funeral of their older sister when Kurosawa found himself laughing at the ritualistic chanting of sutras accompanied by drum and gong sounds. His father became angry and sent him out of the Buddhist Temple along with Heigo. Once outside Heigo exclaimed "Idiotic." Kurosawa said that it made him happy to hear that his brother felt the same way. This pattern of rebellion against the norm continued well into his filmmaking career.

A more distinct and gruesome example of Heigo's subjectivism and its effect on Kurosawa occurred after the great Kanto earthquake that shook Tokyo in 1923 destroying most of the city and killing many people. Heigo took Kurosawa on what was called a "horrifying excursion" in which they walked the streets of Tokyo surveying the devastation and death. Kurosawa said that they saw all manner of corpses in every shape, color, and form as far as the eye could see. When Akira became scared or sickened and wanted to close his eyes to rid his mind of the gruesome sight Heigo intervened saying "if you shut your eyes to a frightening sight, you end up being frightened. If you look at everything straight on, there is nothing to be afraid of." This statement would lay the foundation for Kurosawa's world-view from that day forward and also translate into his films. In fact there are so many example of Kurosawa's subjectivism his Autobiography that I could write the entire paper solely on this topic, but that would not do his film style any justice. I will, however, continue to interject further examples from his life in relation to the characteristics of his subjectivism and film style throughout the paper.

The films of Akira Kurosawa are of vast topic and subject matter as well as cultural background. He adapted many classical Japanese and foreign novels as well as scripted original material. Throughout his amazing film career spanning nearly 60 years he defined and redefined his distinctive style while pushing the bounds and tenets of filmmaking to new heights. His cinematic style has been called humanistic and is characterized by subjective techniques that are used to portray the moralistic journey that is represented in his films. His heroes, much like his brother Heigo, take on an individualistic attitude toward the world and society and undergo an allegorical journey of self-discovery and self-definition; a subjective idea in a culture focused on community versus individuality. In fact Kurosawa openly admitted that his idea for success in post-WWII Japan lied in individuality and "that without the establishment of the self as a positive value there could be no freedom and no democracy."

Kurosawa also had an aesthetic style of descriptive visuals that seemed to portray the essence of his films and ultimately the underlying message of humanity without the use of words. This style of descriptive visual can be traced back to his artistic roots as a painter as well as his love for silent films. Since his childhood he was a huge fan of silent films which relied almost entirely on the visual to portray the message of the film. He therefore held a high value for aesthetic content and professed the idea of re-emphasizing the lost origin of film as a medium; which is purely visual. He explained, "Everything I want to say is in the film itself." The idea behind this statement and Kurosawa's visual style is clearly based in the subjective paradigm. It is not only descriptive and qualitative but it also relates to the assumptions that reality is made of interdependent elements created from inside the observer; in this case between Kurosawa and the medium of film.

So far I have given a brief portrayal of the qualities relating to Kurosawa's aesthetic film style. I will now discuss some of the subjective and expressionistic film techniques which he used to construct brilliantly complicated narratives that reach the farthest depths of the human soul. The first category of these definitive and innovative filmmaking techniques is Cinematography. As I said above Kurosawa was a very devout visual stylist who took advantage of all available means in the area of cinematography in hopes of getting the perfect visual. In many instances he achieved his goal while at the same time introducing innovative techniques and pushing the limits and possibilities of the visual in film. From his very first film, Sanshiro Sugata, he utilized the capabilities of the moving camera to the fullest extent, in many cases doing what had never been done before. Along with the moving camera he also emphasized other subjectivist camera techniques like the long take, which sometimes lasted for several minutes with no cutting. He often combined these two camera techniques together to produce long scenes characterized by deep-focus tracking shots that equal that of Citizen Kane.

Kurosawa was also a big fan of telephoto lenses which, according to scholar Stephen Prince, he uses to make the movement in frame "vibrate in two dimensions rather than flow in three" which with the help of camera movement and cutting "disturbs these spatial fields to, charge them with visual tensions." With the advent of the anamorphic frame Kurosawa he took the telephoto lens to new capacities; setting out to stretch the limits of the new wide screen format. In this manner he effectively utilized every millimeter of the frame to perfectly describe the mood of the scene visually; whether it was the cramming of the frame to create a claustrophobic or chaotic quality or the us of a reflective long shot resembling the Japanese art of sumi-e; an art form based on principles of Zen Buddhism in which only a small part of the canvas is utilized and the rest is left empty in an attempt to reveal the profound qualities of a "positive compositional element." Whatever his intention Kurosawa was able to transmit his visual message through the use of these subjective camera techniques. These visually significant techniques along with his trademark montage style editing and the subjective use of wipe transitions versus dissolves characterize and define the Kurosawa aesthetic.

Aside from the various technical and compositional elements of Kurosawa's cinematography he managed to develop a new technique of simultaneous multi-camera filming. According to Stephen Prince Kurosawa uses this technique as a way of overpowering the tendency of actors to remain conscious of a single camera's position. It also helps in editing because there are several different shots of the exact same take to choose from. This idea of multi-camera shooting was very subjective at the time and drew criticism from film company executives claiming that Kurosawa was wasting film stock. Kurosawa, however, got his way and continued to use the technique of multi-camera shooting throughout his remaining career.

These film techniques are just a few ways that Kurosawa used the subjective paradigm to enhance the meaning and symbolism of his films. However, I feel that the subjectivity in his use of filming techniques can be summed up by a comment he made about his personal emphasis on content over form. He said, "Techniques are only there to support a director's intentions. Yet techniques do not enlarge a director, they limit him and tend to undermine the basic idea which should prevail." This statement clearly shows his modernistic idea of filmmaking and defines the underlying assumption that reality is within the observer and co-created between the director and filmmaking techniques.

As I stated before subjectivists believe that nothing can be said outside of your own experiences and therefore reality and truth lie within the observer. It is no surprise then that when Kurosawa writes a film script he includes content drawn from, and sometimes paralleling, his own experiences and views. In fact the most of his films contain distinct correlations to his real-life experiences. To demonstrate this principle I will use examples of theme and content by drawing information from my reference materials and personal notes in regard to his films that I have watched, including: Ikiru, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress, Rashomon, and Red Beard.

The first subjective characteristic of the above films is the prominent idea of individualism compared to the popular Japanese norm of community emphasis. Ikiru stresses the importance of individuality through Watanabe's mission to build the local park as a final means of attaining importance in life. Kurosawa portrays this in a similar manner in Red Beard as young Dr. Yasumoto rebels in his early stages at the local clinic; refusing to offer his notes to Red Beard saying that they are his own personal property. In Hidden Fortress this ideal is portrayed by Tahei and Matakishi the wandering "slaves" whom in the face of danger fear only for their own lives and whom in times of peace seek individual riches which they fight over the entire film. Yojimbo and Sanjuro are interesting examples of individuality because they stress the central individuality of the character Sanjuro, yet at the same time a group ideal shows through in his willingness to help the town rid itself of corporate corruption in Yojimbo and later in the rebellion of a group of young warriors against a corrupt government regime in Sanjuro. In Seven Samurai, Kurosawa shifts the individualistic focus from the group of samurai hired to protect the farmers from bandits, to the individualistic farmers whom are more concerned for their own well-being, their crops, and the innocence of their daughters in the presence of the samurai. Rashomon on the other hand only contains a hint of the individualist theme of Kurosawa in the form of the inquisitive wanderer whom steals from the baby and exclaims something to the effect of "everyone must look out for themselves these days."

Along with this idea of individualism these films also portray a modernist and rebellious approach to traditional Japanese values. This is evident in Yojimbo and Sanjuro through Sanjuro's disregard of courtesy and social structure and the constant verbal insults he uses in conversation. In Red Beard this is characterized by the initial rebellious actions of Dr. Yasumoto in protesting his assignment to the "lowly" clinic. This rebellion against traditional values is also shown in Hidden Fortress after General Makabe defeats General Tadokoro and refuses to act as his second in the traditional act of Samurai seppuku, ritualistic disembowelment, after the shame of defeat.

As I mentioned Kurosawa included many of his own experiences and views in the development of scripts. Many of his films portray scenes of illness, slums, crime, torture, natural disaster, and all manifestations of pain, sorrow, and suffering. Throughout his life he himself and other loved ones endured many illnesses both physical and mental; some of which claimed the life of his young siblings, parents, and mentors as well as the suicide of his brother Heigo. In his early adulthood he lived in a slum while scrapping to make a living as an artist in the Communist proletariat. It was in these slums that he "saw for the first time the bleakness of life" through all manner of crime, including: rape, incest, child abuse, murder, torture, and suicide. He experienced natural disasters in the form of the great Kanto earthquake and survived the devastation of WWII in Japan. These portrayals of dreary and gruesome events became the subjective means by which his underlying message of humanism was able to shine through in his films. While recollecting on his brother Heigo's pessimistic attitude in life and its suicidal outcome he said, "I prefer to think of my brother as a negative strip of film that led to my own development as a positive image."

The final subjective theme in his films is the ever present idea that knowledge is not progressive and we change the definition of truth as we go; in many cases this is the central theme behind most of Kurosawa's films and character development. In this manner the heroes, and in some cases other characters, embark on an allegorical journey of self-discovery and self-mastery. The best example of this principle is exhibited in Red Beard as young Dr. Yasamoto, and in essence all of the characters except Red Beard, undergo a series of events that change the way they view life and truth. In this manner Dr. Yasamoto comes to the small community clinic in an arrogant manner displaying characteristics of subversion to the ideals and policies of Red Beard. Throughout the course of the film Dr. Yasamoto begins to see the humanity of the people and begins to feel compassion and attachment to them and to the community. At the end of the film he is offered the prominent position that he boasted of receiving in the beginning and instead begs Red Beard for permission to stay at the clinic. This idea is also central to Rashomon in which all four witnesses to the crime define their own reality through first-person accounts that contradict each other. The result of which is that we don't know how to define the truth because there is no clear explanation idealizing the theme that knowledge is not progressive and that we change the definition of truth as we go.

As Stephen Prince put it, "Kurosawa's is a cinema of profound sensual pleasure." Through the use of the subjective paradigm he defined a distinctive style that is intriguing and full of deep humanistic expressionism that touches the soul. Throughout his life his distinctive style and aesthetic have left a long lasting impression upon the film community throughout the world. Yet, his spirit will live on in his films and continue to inspire a whole new generation of filmmakers.

Bibliography

Mellen, Joan. Voices From The Japanese Cinema. New York: LiveRight, 1975.

Bock, Audie. Japanese Film Directors. New York: Kodansha International Ltd., 1978.

Erens, Patricia. Akira Kurosawa: A Guide To References and Resources. Massachusetts: G.K. Hall & Co., 1979

Kurosawa, Akira. Something Like An Autobiography. Trans. Audie Bock. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1982.

Ellis, Jack C. A History of Film. 4^th ed. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon, 1995.

Prince, Stephen. The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema Of Akira Kurosawa. Revised and Expanded Edition. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Rashomon. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Daiei, 1950.

Ikiru. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Toho, 1952.

Seven Samurai. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Toho, 1954.

Hidden Fortress. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Toho, 1958.

Yojimbo. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Toho, 1961.

Sanjuro. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Toho, 1962.

Red Beard. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Toho, 1965.