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This is the second and the final part of Akira Kurosawa's filmography, if you haven't read the first part click here. The one film that got the spotlight on Akira Kurosawa was Rashomon. This film inspired many upcoming films across the globe. In Rashomon and many other of his films, Kurosawa has always tried to express the feeling of the characters without using the dialogues or without using close ups of the faces of the actors. Kurosawa uses the entire body of the character to express an emotion. When the character is sad, he sits looking at the ground and when he is happy or energetic he stands tall. The most interesting thing about his films is that there are very less number of emotions expressed by the characters. Either the characters are sad, happy or angry. By limiting the use of emotions the camera can be placed at one spot and a lot of long takes can be shot.
Kurosawa loves rain, in many of his films like Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Yojimbo and others. The use of rain is very evident. The rain is a very good catalyst to trigger any sort of emotion. When you compare a character crying in a sunny day to a character crying in a rainy day. The rain always amplifies the emotion. Even if the emotion is very subtle, the rain helps us feel it. The wetness also helps while shooting long takes, the rain in the background keeps the viewers eyes busy and keeps them engaged in the story. He also has experimented with other weather conditions like snow and sunny. In Seven Samurai the use of wind is very evident. The wind helped amplify the anger in the faces of the Samurais.
Like many early film makers, Kurosawa was also known for his single continuous shots. What makes Kurosawa's continuous shots distinct is the use of composed movements. The camera moves with the actors, but even if you pause the footage the shots will still be well composed. This is also seen in Steven Spielberg's works. The use of movements to express an emotion or what the character has in his mind is very evident.
A Kurosawa film showcases a lot of contrast between the cut from one scene to another. He writes the scenes in such a way that there is a lot of contrast of the emotions. If one scene is filled with pain, the next scene will be full of joy or happiness. This makes his films unpredictable for an audience and because of this, the audience will be always engaged throughout the film. Because of the fact that Kurosawa edits his films himself, he was able to experiment with it a lot.
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