For more than 50 years Akira Kurosawa was regarded, at home and abroad, as Japan’s premier filmmaker. Both American and European directors have paid him the highest compliment known in the movie industry by copying and adapting his most successful scripts. Kurosawa’s interests ranged from heroic (and occasionally antiheroic) portraits of Samurai warriors and naturalistic dramas based on the social problems of post-war Japan, to adaptations of Shakespearean plays. The films chosen for this class represent a selection of his most popular and critically revered work from the 50s and 60s, in particular, those featuring the artistry of Toshiro Mifune—Japan’s “John Wayne” and Kurosawa’s sometimes muse. We will see: Rashomon, The Bad Sleep Well, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and High and Low. Films will be in Japanese with English subtitles.