© Eline Nijdam
Films, Talks & Events
Akira Kurosawa
Back on the Big Screen
26 June — 3 September 2025
still Ran (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1985)
Seven Samurai, High and Low, Ikiru and Yojimbo are just a few of the many highlights from Kurosawa's impressive oeuvre that the true film lover cannot miss.
After an absence of more than 30 years, Eye is bringing the films of one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers, Akira Kurosawa, to the big screen again, some in digitally restored versions. In his films, Kurosawa blends Japanese history and culture with literary and cinematic influences from the West.
still High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1963)
still Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1950)
Akira Kurosawa brought Japanese film to the attention of the West with his drama Rashomon, which was awarded at the Venice Film Festival in 1951. Rashomon, screening exclusively in Eye in a new 4K restored version, is a treatise on lies, opportunism and the impossibility of knowing the truth: universal themes that speak to our imaginations today as powerfully as ever.
Vice versa, Kurosawa was also hugely inspired by Western culture – from Shakespeare’s tragedies and Dostoyevsky’s novels to the westerns of John Ford, American pulp and detective novels and the films of William Wyler and Frank Capra. At the same time, Kurosawa’s films are deeply anchored in Japanese culture and history.
still Dreams (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1990)
still Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1980)
It was this mix of East meets West and his dynamic visual style that made Kurosawa popular with international audiences. Peter Jackson was inspired by Kurosawa’s dramatic use of rain in Seven Samurai for the set-piece battles in Lord of the Rings. The makers of award-winning hit series Shogun were inspired by Kurosawa’s samurai films.
Several of Kurosawa’s films had been remade, either in Hollywood or in Europe: Seven Samurai (The Magnificent Seven), Yojimbo (A Fistful of Dollars, Last Man Standing) and more recently Ikiru (Living). George Lucas has cited The Hidden Fortress as a major source of inspiration for Star Wars.
poster The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1958)
still Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1952)
still High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1963)
© Eline Nijdam
Films, Talks & Events
still Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, JP 1954)
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