Hollywood filmmaking, especially the work of John
Ford. However, aside from familiar cinematic tech-
nique, his films are thoroughly Japanese in their
fatalistic attitude toward life and death. He initi-
ated the postwar rebirth of Japanese cinema with
Rashomon(1950), which tells a single story—the
rape of a woman—from four different points of
view. Kurosawa shows us that we all remember and
perceive differently and that truth is relative to
those telling their stories. With this profound state-
ment on the power of cinema, he produced a body of
work that is notable for its interest in Japanese tra-
dition, especially the samurai culture of medieval
Japan, and for its spectacle, action, and sumptuous
design. As John Wayne represented John Ford’s
idea of the ideal hero, so did Toshiro Mifune for
Kurosawa, who used him in 16 of his films. In addi-
tion to Rashomon, there are many other master-
pieces among his 30 films: Ikiru (1952), Seven
Samurai(1954), Throne of Blood(1957), his version of
Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Yo j i m b o(1961), Kagemusha
(1980), and Ran (1985), his stylized version of
Shakespeare’s King Lear. In creating these works,
Kurosawa was a classic auteur, involved in every
phase of filmmaking.
If Kurosawa is the master of the samurai as well
as contemporary social problem films, then Kenji
Mizoguchi, a sublime artist, is the master of mise-
en-scène, pictorial values, the long shot, and the
moving camera. His stories are about place as much
as anything else, and his films, no less than Kuro-
sawa’s, have had worldwide influence. Although
they are much less known in the United States than
they deserve to be, that may be due to the fact that
were less influenced by Western filmmaking conven-
tions than Kurosawa’s were. Unlike Kurosawa, he
had a flourishing career before the war. Mizoguchi’s
films are highly regarded for their treatment of
women. Indeed, his major concerns are women’s
social, psychological, and economic positions (or
lack of them), the differences between women andDas neue Kino and HollywoodGerman New Wave
filmmakers had a genuine affection for Hollywood genres,
including film noir. In Wim Wenders’s The American Friend
(1977), a crime thriller and neo-noir (shot in color), the title
refers to the character of Tom Ripley, played by the American
actor Dennis Hopper, shown here. Also appearing in the
movie are two distinctly American movie directors: Nicholas
Ray (who directed Hopper in Rebel without a Cause[1955])
and Samuel Fuller (Pickup on South Street[1953]). Although
the film was shot mostly in Germany, some scenes were
photographed in New York City.
In the Realm of the Senses: sex and violenceWhen
Nagisa Oshima’s most provocative movie, In the Realm of the
Senses(1976), was released, it was banned (or cut) in many
parts of the world. It explores various sexual activities,
including the power dynamics between a man and a woman
obsessed with one another, and ends in one of the most
disturbingly violent incidents in movie history. This image,
a comparatively tame moment, depicts eroticism in eating,
where actor Tatsuya Fuji is playfully fed a rare mushroom by
his lover. The overall movie is based on a true story involving
death-obsessed eroticism and is widely thought to be
pornography.1947—PRESENT: NEW CINEMAS IN GREAT BRITAIN, EUROPE, AND ASIA 465