Akira Kurosawa — Director (31)
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Those Who Make Tomorrow (1946) WikiData IMDb TMDB
明日を創る人々
director: Hideo Sekigawa / Kajirō Yamamoto … actor: Chieko Nakakita / Mitsue Tachibana …
other title: I costruttori di domani / Aqueles que Constroem o Futuro …
In postwar Japan, two sisters—a film studio script girl and a revue dancer—become swept up in the growing labor movement when workers around them strike for better conditions. As their conservative father opposes their activism, his own dismissal forces him to confront the realities of class struggle and join their fight for a fairer future. Now considered a lost film, Those Who Make Tomorrow was produced by Toho to promote unionization during Japan’s Allied Occupation.
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Song of the Horse (1970) IMDb TMDB
馬の歌
director: Akira Kurosawa / Ryō Kinoshita actor: Hiroyuki Kawase / Noboru Mitani
other title: Canção do Cavalo / La canción del caballo …
Akira Kurosawa’s only television work—a lyrical documentary that follows a thoroughbred from birth and training to the Japan Derby—framed by a grandfather’s narration to his grandson about the fading bond between people and horses.
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The Most Beautiful (1944) WikiData IMDb TMDB
一番美しく
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Takashi Shimura / Shōji Kiyokawa …
other title: Lo spirito più elevato / A Mais Bela …
Young women at a precision optics factory in wartime Japan push to exceed production quotas, enduring illness, injury, and personal hardship to “serve the country.” Led by Tsuru Watanabe, they fight fatigue and setbacks to keep their line moving—even when duty collides with grief.
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Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945) WikiData IMDb TMDB
續 姿三四郎
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Denjirō Ōkōchi / Susumu Fujita …
other title: Sanshiro Sugata 2 / A Saga do Judo 2 …
A few years after his breakthrough, Sanshiro resumes his path to judo mastery—testing his discipline against an American prizefighter and later facing vengeful karate brothers. As rival schools and public spectacle push him toward violence, he must reconcile strength with restraint and the true spirit of his art.
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No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
わが青春に悔なし
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Setsuko Hara / Susumu Fujita …
other title: Non rimpiango la mia giovinezza / Não Lamento a Minha Juventude …
After her anti-fascist professor father is dismissed, Yukie navigates love, political repression, and wartime upheaval—ultimately forging her own path in pre- and post-WWII Japan.
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The Idiot (1951)
白痴
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Setsuko Hara / Masayuki Mori …
other title: L'idiota / O Idiota …
A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.
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Dodes'ka-den (1970)
どですかでん
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Yoshitaka Zushi / Kin Sugai …
other title: どですかでん / Dodeskaden - O Caminho da Vida …
This film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on.
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The Quiet Duel (1949) WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
静かなる決闘
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Miki Sanjō …
other title: Il duello silenzioso / Duelo Silencioso …
A young army surgeon, Kyoji Fujisaki, accidentally contracts syphilis during a WWII field operation. Back at his father’s clinic, he treats himself in secret and breaks off his engagement rather than risk his fiancée’s future, even as he confronts the irresponsible patient who infected him—testing his ethics, pride, and capacity for sacrifice.
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The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1952) IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
虎の尾を踏む男達
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Denjirō Ōkōchi / Susumu Fujita …
other title: Gli uomini che mettono il piede sulla coda della tigre / De, som træder på tigerens hale …
Yoshitsune Minamoto, disguised with his retinue as monks, must make do with a comical porter as their guide through hostile territory en route to safety.
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Madadayo (1993) IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
まあだだよ
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Tatsuo Matsumura / Kyōko Kagawa …
other title: Madadayo - Il compleanno / まあだだよ …
Based on the life of Hyakken Uchida, a Japanese author and academic. The film opens with Uchida resigning his job as a German professor at the onset of WWII. The story is told mostly in vignettes as he is cared for by former students in his old age.
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Rhapsody in August (1991) IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
八月の狂詩曲
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Sachiko Murase / Hidetaka Yoshioka …
other title: Rapsodia in agosto / 八月の狂詩曲 …
The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, whose husband was one of 80,000 human beings killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him before he dies.
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One Wonderful Sunday (1947) IMDb TMDB Douban
素晴らしき日曜日
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Isao Numasaki / Chieko Nakakita …
other title: Una meravigliosa domenica / 素晴らしき日曜日 …
Yuzo and his fiancée Masako spend their Sunday afternoon together, trying to have a good time on just thirty-five yen. They manage to have many small adventures, especially because Masako's optimism and belief in dreams is able to lift Yuzo from his realistic despair.
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Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
姿三四郎
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Denjirō Ōkōchi / Susumu Fujita …
other title: Sanshiro sugata / A Saga do Judo …
A hotheaded youth in 1880s Meiji Japan apprentices to judo master Shōgorō Yano, trading brute jujutsu bravado for discipline and humility. As Sanshirō matures, he proves judo’s spirit against old-guard challengers—including a deadly duel—while falling for his vanquished opponent’s daughter. Based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita, son of Tomita Tsunejirō, the earliest disciple of judo.
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The Lower Depths (1957) IMDb TMDB
どん底
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Isuzu Yamada …
other title: I bassifondi / どん底 …
Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.
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I Live in Fear (1955) IMDb TMDB
生きものの記録
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Takashi Shimura …
other title: Testimonianza di un essere vivente / 生きものの記録 …
Kiichi Nakajima, an elderly foundry owner, is convinced that Japan will be affected by an imminent nuclear war, and resolves to move his family to safety in Brazil. His family decides to have him ruled incompetent and Dr. Harada, a Domestic Court counselor, attempts to arbitrate.
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The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
悪い奴ほどよく眠る
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Masayuki Mori …
other title: I cattivi dormono in pace / O Mal Dorme Bem …
In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.
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Yojimbo (1961)
用心棒
★ 8.0 (15 ratings) director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Tatsuya Nakadai …
other title: La sfida del samurai / Livvagten …
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
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Sanjuro (1962)
椿三十郎
★ 8.4 (7 ratings) director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Tatsuya Nakadai …
other title: 椿三十郎
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
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Stray Dog (1949)
野良犬
★ 8.0 (5 ratings) director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Toshirō Mifune / Takashi Shimura …
other title: Cane randagio / Cão Danado …
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.