Japanese Film Director Kurosawa Dies at 88
September 6, 1998 5:08 AM EDT
By Jon Herskovitz

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's most famed director Akira Kurosawa, dubbed the emperor of Japanese cinema for films such as ``The Seven Samurai'' and ``Rashomon,'' died on Sunday at the age of 88, his production company said.

Kurosawa's movies put Japanese cinema on the international map and inspired U.S. film makers such as Steven Speilberg and George Lucas.

The only director to have won two Oscars for best foreign film, Kurosawa in 1990 received a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but modestly said he had not yet earned it.

Kurosawa began his work in movies in 1936, hoping to use his skills as a painter for films being made by PCL Studios, a prewar predecessor of Japan's leading studio Toho Co. His first film credit was as an assistant director in the 1936 film ``Senman Choja.''

Kurosawa emerged as a giant of Japanese cinema after the war, especially when he teamed up with the actor Toshiro Mifune. His 1948 film ``Drunken Angel'' that starred Mifune earned the two immense fame in Japan.

Mifune died last December at the age 77.

The pair vaulted to world fame when ``Rashomon'' won the ``Golden Lion'' at the Venice International Film Festival for best picture. The Grand Prix at Venice was the first international recognition achieved by any Japanese director, and the film later won an Oscar for best foreign film in 1952.

``Rashomon'' tells the story of a murder from varying perspectives and epitomizes the inability to ever know the truth.

His 1954 film ``Seven Samurai'' about villagers terrorized by a gang of bandits who hire seven sword fighters for protection won widespread acclaim and became the model for the Hollywood western ``The Magnificent Seven'' starring Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen.

His 30th and last film ``Madadayo,'' released in 1993, was a story about the relationship between a retired university teacher and his former students and also marked the 50th anniversary of his career as film director.

His 1991 film ``Rhapsody in August'' with Richard Gere as a second-generation American-Japanese who visits his Japanese relatives in Hiroshima and apologizes for the U.S. atomic bombing on the city in August 1945 stirred controversy abroad for failing to address Japan's war guilt.

Kurosawa was married to a former movie actress and has a son, Hiroshi, who is a movie producer.

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Added September 6,  1998