Q 01/05

In what year was Akira Kurosawa born?

A) 1898

B) 1905

C) 1910

D) 1922

Answer · why

C) 1910

Akira Kurosawa was born on 23 March 1910 in the Ōimachi district of Tokyo, the eighth and youngest child of Isamu Kurosawa, a former army officer.

Q 02/05

How many feature films did Kurosawa direct across his six-decade career?

A) 41

B) 30

C) 34

D) 52

Answer · why

B) 30

Kurosawa directed 30 feature films, from Sanshiro Sugata (1943) to Madadayo (1993); he also wrote screenplays for other directors, which paid better t...

Q 03/05

What was Kurosawa's 1943 directorial debut, a judo story adapted from a Tsuneo Tomita novel?

A) Stray Dog

B) Sanshiro Sugata

C) The Most Beautiful

D) Drunken Angel

Answer · why

B) Sanshiro Sugata

Sanshiro Sugata (1943), adapted from Tsuneo Tomita's judo novel, was Kurosawa's first film as director; he read the novel in one sitting and had Toho ...

Q 04/05

Which famous director's intervention got Kurosawa's debut past Japan's wartime censors?

A) Kajirō Yamamoto

B) Yasujirō Ozu

C) Mikio Naruse

D) Kenji Mizoguchi

Answer · why

B) Yasujirō Ozu

Yasujirō Ozu, sitting on the wartime censorship panel, spoke up for Sanshiro Sugata and got it approved; a 1944 re-release nonetheless cut about 17 mi...

Q 05/05

Which unknown actor did Kurosawa cast in Drunken Angel (1948), beginning a 16-film partnership?

A) Ken'ichi Enomoto

B) Takashi Shimura

C) Toshiro Mifune

D) Tatsuya Nakadai

Answer · why

C) Toshiro Mifune

Toshiro Mifune's explosive turn as a tubercular yakuza stole the film from its nominal hero, the alcoholic doctor; the two men went on to 15 more film...