Ranking Lab ― The Measured Editorial Desk
Editorial Research Ranking

Where Does Akira Kurosawa Peak?
— All 30 Films He Claimed, on Six Yardsticks

KByline: Someone who reads as far as who put up the money (All 30 films on six axes: image, structure, record, sound, people, distance travelled)

Rankings of Akira Kurosawa are usually decided by whether samurai appear and whether Toshiro Mifune is in it. So the first thing this piece did was count. Of the 30 films Kurosawa acknowledged as his own, 11 are set before the Meiji era and Mifune appears in 16. Both are around half; the rest are films about business suits, black markets, hospitals and municipal offices. The six yardsticks are these. How was the image built? Was the shape of the telling made for this film alone? Does the reality of its time survive on screen as a real thing? Was the music set against the image rather than with it? Can you tell every last figure apart? Has it been used by other filmmakers across borders, eras and genres? The overall No. 1 is Seven Samurai (1954). Box office and the number of awards are not among the axes. And while counting, something else came into view. The years when he was called the world's Kurosawa were the same years when Japanese film companies stopped putting money into his films. Of the last seven, four were financed from abroad and one was made against a mortgage on his own house. Change the yardstick and the king changes (try the lenses below). This is not a verdict on his greatest work; it is an ordering under six disclosed axes.

How This Ranking Is Built (Methodology)

Rather than settle which Kurosawa film is best in a single sentence, this piece splits the question into six independent axes and combines them with weights (total = Σ(axis × weight)/100). Box office, distribution revenue, admissions, the number of awards, name recognition and the contemporary critical placings are not among the axes. Those are records of a market and of a moment, not of how a film was built. Neither is whether samurai appear, nor whether Toshiro Mifune is in it. The method is to score without them and then, afterwards, split the results into groups by those two properties and compare. Awards and foreign remakes are used as evidence for the distance travelled, but the count of awards is never a score. Who put up the money is not scored either — the source of financing is not the quality of a film (it is treated separately in the text).

AxisWhat It MeasuresWeight
The design of the imageHow a single frame was built: composition, colour, space, and the methods newly devised to obtain that image17%
The design of the structureWhether the shape of the telling was made for this film alone, rather than borrowed whole from an existing pattern18%
The record of the realWhether the reality of its time survives on screen as a real thing rather than a construction: actual places, people and events16%
The design of soundWhether music runs with the image or against it, and where silence and diegetic sound were placed13%
Distinguishing the peopleWhether an actor reads as a person rather than a role, and whether every last supporting figure is identifiable16%
The distance travelledWhether other filmmakers used it across borders, eras and genres, with adaptations and citations on the record20%
Normalization Rule
Box office, distribution revenue, admissions, the number of awards, name recognition and the contemporary critical placings are excluded from the axes (that exclusion is itself the era adjustment, so that records of a market and a moment are not read as records of how a film was built). Whether samurai appear and whether Toshiro Mifune is in it are likewise not axes; they are used only as properties for splitting the results into groups after the scoring is finished. Because the span runs fifty years, from 1943 to 1993, technical progress is never itself a credit (no film gains points for being in colour or in scope). The distance travelled is measured by whether later filmmakers used the film, which needs time to accumulate, so the five films from 1980 onward carry an era-adjusted flag that holds their travel score down. Films cut or shelved by wartime and occupation censorship are not penalised for that.
Scope / Unit
All 30 films Akira Kurosawa acknowledged as his own, from Sanshiro Sugata in 1943 to Madadayo in 1993. Unit = film; one film is one entry. This is not an editorial selection; it is the line the director himself drew. The 1946 film Those Who Make Tomorrow was co-directed with Kajiro Yamamoto and Hideo Sekigawa, but Kurosawa struck it from his own list on the grounds that he could not think of it as his work, so it is struck here too. Screenplays he wrote for others, films he worked on as a production manager, and scripts filmed by other directors after his death are all out of scope.
Data Sources
Release years, screenplays, music, cinematography, production companies, awards and foreign remakes were confirmed in the article for each film. That Kurosawa took part in writing all 30 screenplays, that he worked with Toshiro Mifune on 16, when multi-camera shooting began, the practice of setting music against the image, the end of his exclusive contract with Toho and the suicide attempt in 1971, and the financing by Mosfilm, Twentieth Century Fox, Serge Silberman and Warner Bros., were confirmed in the article on Kurosawa himself. The British Film Institute poll placings were tallied here directly from the 264 listed entries (four are Kurosawa films). The Academy Awards ceremony numbers and dates were confirmed in the article for each ceremony.
Compiled / Subjectivity
2026-08-05. The distance travelled carries the most weight on the editorial judgement that whether strangers are still using a film fifty years later is the evidence of a strong design. There are no exact ties; 1st, Seven Samurai (8.55), leads 2nd, High and Low (8.51), by 0.04.
Switch the scoring lens ― changing the weights moves the ranking (recalculated on the same evidence, same scores)

Overall Ranking

★ First Edition

Findings Against Conventional Wisdom

① Seven Samurai (8.55), 1st overall, takes 1st place in none of the four lenses. It is 2nd in the image, 2nd in the structure, 7th in the record and 5th in sound. What puts it on top are the two axes with no lens on them: distinguishing the people (10) and the distance travelled (9). High and Low (8.51) sits 0.04 behind, and that film places in the top 6 in all four lenses. Not a case of one axis standing out, but a type that stands because it has no gaps.
② Whether Toshiro Mifune is in it turned out to be another way of saying whether it was shot in those seventeen years. The 16 films with Mifune average 7.03; the 14 without him average 6.11, a gap of 0.92. So far the received view holds. But all 16 Mifune films fall inside the seventeen years from 1948 to 1965. The 17 films inside that span average 7.09 and the 13 outside it average 5.95: a gap of 1.15, larger than the Mifune gap. And exactly one film in those seventeen years has no Mifune in it — Ikiru — and its 8.18 is above the average of the 16 Mifune films and stands 4th overall.
③ Only 11 of the 30 are samurai-era films. The 11 set before the Meiji era average 6.98 and the other 19 average 6.38, a gap of 0.60. But this piece has deliberately put in one axis that favours the modern-day films — the record of the real (16%) looks for actual places and events on screen, so period films shot on built sets are structurally pushed down. Take that axis out and score on five, and the gap widens from 0.60 to 1.37. Even with a yardstick tilted toward the modern-day films, the period films still average higher. The received view is not wide of the mark. The reason, though, is not the samurai; it is that those films cluster inside the seventeen years of ②.
④ The world's Kurosawa was a title and also a description of where the money was. To pay for Red Beard (1965), Kurosawa mortgaged his own house, and later lost it. In July 1966 he ended his exclusive contract with Toho, and both of his Hollywood projects collapsed. For Dodes'ka-den in 1970 he mortgaged the house again, the film failed at the box office and the debt stayed. Early on 22 December 1971, Kurosawa cut his own throat and wrists in the bathroom of his house. Of the five films after that, four were made with foreign money — Mosfilm in the Soviet Union; Twentieth Century Fox, after Lucas and Coppola went to its president; Serge Silberman in France; and Warner Bros., after Spielberg moved. Only the last two were made on domestic capital alone.
⑤ And none of this began in his old age. Rashomon (1950), the film that made the world's Kurosawa, is not a Toho picture either. It is one of the films he shot at Daiei while the Toho labour dispute kept him out of his own studio. All five films of that period — The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog, Scandal, Rashomon and The Idiot — were shot at other companies. The work by which Kurosawa was discovered abroad was made in the years when he could not be at his own company. The film that moves furthest when you change one yardstick is not a famous one either. The Most Beautiful, from 1944, rises from 25th overall to 5th in the record lens, a swing of 20. It is a wartime picture, made by putting 23 new actresses into an actual factory for about two months.

How the Landscape Changes When You Change the Weights (Sub-Views)

LensNo. 1Biggest MoversWhat It Measures
Overall balance (default)Seven Samurai 8.550.04 ahead of High and Low (2nd, 8.51); Stray Dog (3rd, 8.40), Ikiru (4th, 8.18) and Rashomon (5th, 8.00) followSix axes in balance, measuring how a film was built
Design of the imageRan 8.80Seven Samurai (2nd, 8.76) and High and Low (3rd, 8.76) follow; Dreams rises from 20th to 15th and Dodes'ka-den from 17th to 12thHow a single frame was built
Design of the structureRashomon 8.96Seven Samurai (2nd, 8.76) and High and Low (3rd, 8.76) follow; The Bad Sleep Well rises from 11th to 9th and The Idiot sits 28thWhether the shape was made for this film alone
Record of the realStray Dog 9.28High and Low (2nd, 8.24) and Dersu Uzala (3rd, 7.76) follow; The Most Beautiful rises from 25th to 5th and Red Beard sits 27thWhether the reality of its time survives as a real thing
Design of soundDrunken Angel 8.80Stray Dog (2nd, 8.76) and Throne of Blood (3rd, 8.28) follow; The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail rises from 28th to 20th and No Regrets for Our Youth sits 27thWhether music runs with the image or against it

Debate and Limitations

The 0 to 10 on each axis is the writer's judgement, not a fact. What the sources support are release years, credits, production companies, awards, the source of financing and the record of remakes; beyond that, whether an image is designed and whether a structure was made for this film alone are editorial calls. The sources list references for facts only, and there is no source for a score (because none exists).

The record-of-the-real axis favours the modern-day films (the largest bias here): it looks for actual places, people and events on screen, so films shot on built sets are necessarily pushed down. This is not a claim that constructed worlds are lesser. It means a bias running against the received view was put in on purpose. Its effect is made countable: take the axis out and score on five, and the gap between period and modern-day films widens from 0.60 to 1.37.

Set before the Meiji era is the writer's own classification: draw the line elsewhere (is a samurai the protagonist? how did the studio classify it?) and the count of 11 changes. Likewise, whether Mifune is in it looks only at whether he appears, not at how much.

The distance travelled works against the later films: it is measured by whether other filmmakers used the work, so the five films from 1980 onward have not had the time. An era-adjusted flag holds their score down, but holding it down itself pushes the newer films lower.

For some films, the version available now is not the maker's version: The Idiot was finished at four hours and twenty-five minutes and cut to 166 minutes at the distributor's instruction, and the complete version is said not to survive. Sanshiro Sugata also exists in a shortened re-release version, and the longest surviving print is shorter than the one first shown. This piece scores the version available now. What the lost versions were like cannot be known.

Who put up the money is not among the axes: the source of financing is not the quality of a film. Financing appears in the text as a record of what determined the conditions of Kurosawa's work, and it is not reflected in the scores at all.

On the figure of 30 films: this is not an editorial call but the director's own declaration — which is to say that it depends on his judgement. Ways of counting that include the co-directed Those Who Make Tomorrow also exist.

What is not in the text: box office and distribution revenue are not compared between films, because sums from 1943 to 1993 cannot simply be lined up (individual figures appear on a card only where they bore directly on the conditions of production). Running times are not used, because many films exist in differing versions. Nor is the contribution of individual cinematographers and art directors separated out, because the sources do not allow it to be identified.

Related

🎬 More on film — TokyoEiga.com 👻 The All-Time Horror Movie Ranking 🔔 The Doraemon Movie Ranking 📊 More rankings — 10i.jp hub

Sources

  1. The article on Akira Kurosawa himself: that he acknowledged 30 films as his own; that he struck the co-directed Those Who Make Tomorrow from that list; that he took part in writing all 30 screenplays; that he worked with Toshiro Mifune on 16; music set against the image (the black market and the cuckoo waltz in Drunken Angel, La Paloma and the sonatina in Stray Dog); multi-camera shooting and when it began; rehearsal practice and the building of sets; the changes of screen format; that he cut his own films; the end of the exclusive Toho contract in July 1966 and the collapse of the Hollywood projects; the mortgage and box-office failure of Dodes'ka-den; the suicide attempt on 22 December 1971; the financing by Mosfilm, Twentieth Century Fox, Serge Silberman and Warner Bros.; and the foreign remakes and the influence on Star Wars. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BB%92%E6%BE%A4%E6%98%8E
  2. British Film Institute, Sight and Sound, The Greatest Films of All Time (critics' poll), for the listed placings. This piece retrieved the 264 listed entries and tallied them, confirming that four are Kurosawa films (Seven Samurai 20th, Rashomon 41st, Ikiru 157th, Ran 185th). https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time
  3. That the 24th Academy Awards (held 20 March 1952, for films of 1951) gave Rashomon an honorary award for foreign language film, and the wording of that citation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24th_Academy_Awards
  4. The date of the 48th Academy Awards (held 29 March 1976), used to confirm the year of the foreign language film award to Dersu Uzala. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/48th_Academy_Awards
  5. How the cuckoo waltz came to be chosen for Drunken Angel: that a song from The Threepenny Opera was given up over rights, and Kurosawa's own experience of hearing the waltz on the day he learned of his father's death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunken_Angel
  6. Seven Samurai: release date, screenplay, music, cinematography, the production cost of 210 million yen, the shooting period (27 May 1953 to 19 March 1954, against an original plan of 90 days), the halt and restart, that the rainstorm battle was shot in midwinter, the injuries during filming, multi-camera work (three cameras for the battle, eight for the burning of the fort) and the adoption of telephoto lenses, the Silver Lion at Venice, and the remakes from The Magnificent Seven onward. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%83%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AE%E4%BE%8D
  7. High and Low: release date, screenplay, the Ed McBain source novel, music, cinematography, distribution revenue, the smoke tinted in an otherwise black-and-white film, that the Edgar was a nomination and not a win, the kidnappings after release and the 1964 revision of the criminal code, and the 2025 Spike Lee version. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A9%E5%9B%BD%E3%81%A8%E5%9C%B0%E7%8D%84_(%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  8. Stray Dog: release date, screenplay, music, cinematography, the production arrangement, that the black-market sequence was shot in hiding in the actual market at Ueno (Ishiro Honda standing in for Mifune, an assistant hiding the camera in a box), the use of real baseball footage from Korakuen, the placing of music against the image, and the 1973 refilming. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%8E%E8%89%AF%E7%8A%AC_(1949%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  9. Ikiru: release date, screenplay, music, cinematography, that Takashi Shimura leads and Toshiro Mifune does not appear, that the Berlin prize was not the Golden Bear but a special prize of the Senate of Berlin (with the note that it has been reported in Japan as a Silver Bear), the Kinema Junpo 1st place, and the 2022 British remake Living. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%9F%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8B_(%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  10. Rashomon: release, screenplay, the Akutagawa source story, music, cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa, that it was produced by Daiei, the shooting into the sun and the mirror lighting, the ink mixed into the rain, the fires at the studio, the Golden Lion at the 12th Venice Film Festival in 1951, that the multiple-testimony method acquired a name abroad, and adaptations such as The Outrage. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%BE%85%E7%94%9F%E9%96%80_(1950%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  11. Yojimbo: release date, screenplay, music, cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa, the production arrangement, distribution revenue, Mifune's Venice acting prize, that A Fistful of Dollars adapted it without permission, that Toho and Kurosawa's side sued for infringement, and that in November 1965 they settled for the distribution rights in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea plus 15% of worldwide distribution revenue, and Last Man Standing. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%A8%E5%BF%83%E6%A3%92
  12. Dersu Uzala: release date, screenplay, the Arsenyev source, music, lead casting, that it was produced by Mosfilm, the production agreement signed on 14 March 1973 with its undertaking to respect Kurosawa's artistic and creative judgement fully, the shooting period (27 May 1974 to 28 April 1975), the conditions in Siberia, and the foreign language film award at the 48th Academy Awards as the Soviet entry. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A6%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9_(1975%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  13. Throne of Blood: release date, screenplay, the Shakespeare source, music, cinematography, production cost and distribution revenue, that real arrows were fired for the closing sequence, the use of Noh convention in building the faces, the awards, and the screening as the opening film of the first London Film Festival. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%9C%98%E8%9B%9B%E5%B7%A3%E5%9F%8E
  14. Ran: release date, screenplay, music (the clash with Toru Takemitsu and his return), cinematography, the financing (Serge Silberman in France and Herald Ace, and the delay caused by the 1983 restriction on taking francs abroad), the total cost of 2.6 billion yen against distribution revenue of 1.67 billion yen, the castle built at Gotemba for 400 million yen and burned in one take with eight cameras, and the four nominations at the 58th Academy Awards with Emi Wada's award for costume design. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%B1_(%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  15. Drunken Angel: release date, screenplay, music (the first work with Fumio Hayasaka), cinematography, that it was the first film with Toshiro Mifune, the Kinema Junpo 1st place, and that the black-market set was carried over from the previous year's film. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%86%89%E3%81%84%E3%81%A9%E3%82%8C%E5%A4%A9%E4%BD%BF
  16. The Bad Sleep Well: release date, screenplay (five writers), music, cinematography, that it was the first film produced by Kurosawa Production, direct production cost and distribution revenue, the box-office failure, and that the opening wedding scene is held to be the source for the opening of The Godfather. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%82%AA%E3%81%84%E5%A5%B4%E3%81%BB%E3%81%A9%E3%82%88%E3%81%8F%E7%9C%A0%E3%82%8B
  17. The Hidden Fortress: release date, screenplay, music, cinematography, the production cost of 195 million yen against a plan of 90 million and 147 shooting days against a plan of 83, distribution revenue, the Silver Bear for direction at the 9th Berlin International Film Festival, that George Lucas took it as the starting point for Star Wars and that the two droids were modelled on the two peasants, and that the overrun led to the founding of Kurosawa Production. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9A%A0%E3%81%97%E7%A0%A6%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%89%E6%82%AA%E4%BA%BA
  18. Kagemusha: release date, screenplay, music (Masaru Sato's withdrawal and the appointment of Shinichiro Ikebe), cinematography, the production cost and the distribution revenue of 2.7 billion yen, that Lucas and Coppola approached Twentieth Century Fox and that the two served as producers of the foreign version, Katsu Shintaro's withdrawal, the Palme d'Or at the 33rd Cannes Film Festival, and the two nominations at the 53rd Academy Awards. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%B1%E6%AD%A6%E8%80%85_(%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  19. I Live in Fear: release date, screenplay, that the score was Fumio Hayasaka's last (he died on 15 October 1955 and Masaru Sato completed it from his sketches), cinematography, that Toshiro Mifune played the old man at 35, how the project began, the typhoon that destroyed the outdoor set, the full adoption of multi-camera shooting, and Kurosawa's remark that it was the only film of his to lose money. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%9F%E3%81%8D%E3%82%82%E3%81%AE%E3%81%AE%E8%A8%98%E9%8C%B2
  20. One Wonderful Sunday: release date, screenplay, music, cinematography, the ending in which the characters ask the audience to applaud and Kurosawa's own account of how that turned out, the Kinema Junpo 6th place and the Mainichi award for direction, and Kurosawa's statement that he was not fond of the film. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%A0%E6%99%B4%E3%82%89%E3%81%97%E3%81%8D%E6%97%A5%E6%9B%9C%E6%97%A5
  21. Sanjuro: release date, screenplay, the Shugoro Yamamoto source, music, cinematography, distribution revenue, and that the spurting blood was done with a pump although the device had already been used in the previous film. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A4%BF%E4%B8%89%E5%8D%81%E9%83%8E
  22. Dodes'ka-den: release date, screenplay, the Shugoro Yamamoto source, that it was Kurosawa's first film in colour, music (his first work with Toru Takemitsu), that it was the first film of the Four Horsemen group, that the outdoor set was built on a rubbish dump from scrap gathered on site, that it was shot in 28 days, that Kurosawa raised the money against a mortgage on his house, the box-office failure, and the nomination for foreign language film at the 44th Academy Awards. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%A9%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99%E3%81%8B%E3%81%A7%E3%82%93
  23. Red Beard: release date, screenplay, the Shugoro Yamamoto source, music, cinematography, that it was Toshiro Mifune's last Kurosawa film, that two years went into the script and a year and a half into shooting, that Kurosawa mortgaged his house to raise the money and later sold it, the Kinema Junpo 1st place and the Venice acting prize, and that it was his last black-and-white film, with the Toho contract ended the following year. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B5%A4%E3%81%B2%E3%81%92
  24. The Idiot: screenplay, the Dostoevsky source moved to Sapporo in the postwar years, music, cinematography, that the finished film ran four hours and twenty-five minutes, that the distributor required a recut to three hours and two minutes and then released a 166-minute version, Kurosawa's letter saying they might as well cut the film lengthwise, that the complete version is said not to survive, and the dates of the Sapporo location work. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%99%BD%E7%97%B4_(1951%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  25. Dreams: release date, that Kurosawa wrote the screenplay alone, the eight-part anthology form, that Steven Spielberg was executive producer, the shape of the Warner Bros. deal for world distribution rights (a purchase on completion, with production money borrowed from a bank by a company based in the United States), the participation of ILM, that Martin Scorsese appeared as Van Gogh, and the production cost. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A2_(%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  26. No Regrets for Our Youth: release date, the screenplay by Eijiro Hisaita with Kurosawa's help and the rewriting of the ending after the planning committee's objection, Kurosawa's remark that he had every regret, music, cinematography, Setsuko Hara in the lead, that it was made as a democratic-education film under the occupation, the shooting at the main gate of Kyoto University and in a University of Tokyo lecture room, that deep-focus shooting was given up for lack of power, and the Kinema Junpo 2nd place. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%8F%E3%81%8C%E9%9D%92%E6%98%A5%E3%81%AB%E6%82%94%E3%81%AA%E3%81%97
  27. Rhapsody in August: release date, screenplay, the Kiyoko Murata source, music, cinematography, cast, production companies and distributor, distribution revenue, and that the author of the source novel published a piece expressing dissatisfaction with the film. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AB%E6%9C%88%E3%81%AE%E7%8B%82%E8%A9%A9%E6%9B%B2
  28. Scandal: release date, screenplay, how the project began (a headline in a train advertisement), music, cinematography, that it was produced by Shochiku, and the Kinema Junpo 6th place. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%86%9C%E8%81%9E
  29. The Lower Depths: release date, screenplay, the Gorky source moved to an Edo tenement, music, cinematography, that against a three-month shoot nearly 40 days went into rehearsal, that the script was written in two weeks, that it is the only Kurosawa film with Mifune but without Takashi Shimura, and the awards. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%A9%E3%82%93%E5%BA%95_(1957%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  30. The Most Beautiful: release date, screenplay, music, cinematography, that 23 new actresses were housed in an actual optical factory for about two months and lived as the workers did during filming, that a censor rejected the planned title, and that no credit titles existed on first release. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%80%E7%95%AA%E7%BE%8E%E3%81%97%E3%81%8F
  31. Madadayo: release date, screenplay, the Hyakken Uchida source, music, cinematography, cast, production companies and distributor, that it was released as the 50th year of his career and his 30th film, the box-office failure, and that it became his last film as director. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%BE%E3%81%82%E3%81%A0%E3%81%A0%E3%82%88
  32. Sanshiro Sugata: release date, that it was his first film as director, the Tsuneo Tomita source, screenplay, music, cinematography, the skills review under Home Ministry censorship and Yasujiro Ozu's assessment, the 1943 box-office placing, and that a shortened version exists from the re-release. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A7%BF%E4%B8%89%E5%9B%9B%E9%83%8E_(1943%E5%B9%B4%E3%81%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB)
  33. That The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail was made in 1945 and released on 24 April 1952; that the Civil Information and Education Section of the occupation classified it as an anti-democratic film and would not permit exhibition until the first release of 3 March 1952; the screenplay; the Noh play and the kabuki play behind it; music; cinematography; the running time of 59 minutes; how the project was made possible amid wartime shortages; and the arrangement of a Noh passage for chorus. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%99%8E%E3%81%AE%E5%B0%BE%E3%82%92%E8%B8%8F%E3%82%80%E7%94%B7%E9%81%94
  34. The Quiet Duel: release date, screenplay, the Kazuo Kikuta source play, music, cinematography, that it was produced by Daiei, that it was the first film Kurosawa made at another company after leaving Toho during the labour dispute, and the Kinema Junpo 8th place. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9D%99%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B%E6%B1%BA%E9%97%98
  35. Sanshiro Sugata Part II: release date, screenplay, source, music, cinematography, and Kurosawa's own statement that it did not turn out to be a very good film. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%BA%8C%E5%A7%BF%E4%B8%89%E5%9B%9B%E9%83%8E