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Akira Kurosawa: Interviews published

University Press of Mississippi’s book Akira Kurosawa: Interviews has been published and is now available for purchase. The listed retail price is $20, but Amazon.com currently sells the 224 page book for $13.60, while the price at Amazon.co.uk is £8.71.

For more information about the book, see the press release below:

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AKIRA KUROSAWA: INTERVIEWS

Edited by Bert Cardullo
University Press of Mississippi
ISBN 978-1-57806-997-2, paper, $20
ISBN 978-1-57806-996-5, unjacketed cloth, $50

Book News for Immediate Release

Interviews show Akira Kurosawa’s mastery of Eastern, Western storylines

Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998) moved with ease and mastery from the mysterious and internal to the spectacular and panoramic. Kurosawa was a man of all genres and all periods, bridging the traditional and the modern, the old and the new, the East and the West.

Akira Kurosawa: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi) features detailed interviews with the master director of Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Ran, and Throne of Blood. Editor Bert Cardullo has assembled interviews from such periodicals as The New Yorker, the New York Times, Sight and Sound, as well as an interview conducted by Gabriel García Márquez.

Perhaps most intriguing is Kurosawa’s grasp of a storytelling technique that is not culture-bound. As the first Japanese director to gain notoriety in the West, his film techniques and storytelling innovations have greatly influenced European and American film. Kurosawa has enjoyed particular success in the western genre as well as adapting Western classical literature for the screen.

Because of his ability to manage all aspects of film production and to maintain artistic control on almost all of his projects, Kurosawa was known throughout Japan as “the Emperor.” Despite a nickname that suggests omniscience, Kurosawa remained demure about his abilities, noting, “Only through further work in cinema will I ever be able to come to a full understanding of this wonderful art form.”

Akira Kurosawa: Interviews collects interviews that range from 1952 to 1993 and captures the master filmmaker in his most articulate and revealing conversations. This volume also includes a chronology and filmography for quick reference.

Bert Cardullo is professor of American culture and literature at Ege University, in Izmir, Turkey. For University Press of Mississippi he has edited Federico Fellini: Interviews, Jean Renoir: Interviews, and Satyajit Ray: Interviews, among others.

For more information contact Clint Kimberling, Publicist, at ckimberling@ihl.state.ms.us.

Read more about Akira Kurosawa: Interviews at http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1063

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While neither Amazon nor the press release say anything about the contents, this is what I was told in May would be the contents list:

  1. Chronology
  2. Filmography
  3. Introducing Japan’s Top Director (by RAY FALK)
  4. A Personal Record: Kurosawa and I (by DONALD RICHIE)
  5. Akira Kurosawa: Japan’s Poet Laureate of Film (from SHOW BUSINESS ILLUSTRATED)
  6. Interview with Akira Kurosawa (from CINEMA)
  7. An Afternoon with Kurosawa (by R. B. GADI)
  8. Interview with Akira Kurosawa (by YOSHI SHIRAI)
  9. Interview with Akira Kurosawa (by JOAN MELLEN)
  10. The Warrior Returns (by DAN YAKIR)
  11. Tokyo Stories: Kurosawa Interviewed (by TONY RAYNS)
  12. Kurosawa on His Innovative Cinema (by AUDIE BOCK)
  13. Profiles: Kurosawa Frames (by LILLIAN ROSS)
  14. Kurosawa Directs a Cinematic Lear (by PETER GRILLI)
  15. Kurosawa: An Audience with the Emperor (by JOHN POWERS)
  16. Making Films for All the People: An Interview with Akira Kurosawa (by KYOKO HIRANO)
  17. The Conversation – Kurosawa and García Márquez (by GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ)
  18. An Interview with Kurosawa Akira (by KAWAMOTO SABURO)
  19. Akira Kurosawa (by JUDY STONE)
  20. “I Am Simply a Maker of Films”: A Visit with the Sensei of the Cinema (by BERT CARDULLO)
  21. The Emperor of Film – No, Not Yet! (by FRED MARSHALL)

For more information about Akira Kurosawa books, see the section on Kurosawa books.


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Discussion

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Ben

I suppose this is rather exciting, but I seem to recall a discussion all us AK fans had about the contents and how it seemed much of it was re-published from other books etc. Am I confused here?

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Vili Maunula

Well, they have all been published somewhere or other before, but at least I don’t know of any book that would this comprehensively have collected Kurosawa’s interviews in English. Therefore, I am really looking forward to getting it.

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Jeremy Quintanilla

Awesome, going to buy it tonight.

Even if some of it is rehashed stuff, its nice to see it organized, and translated properly. Most of the interviews I’ve read where in Japanese, and I could only understand small parts using various translators and I am sure the vast majority I have never read.

Plus hopefully there will be enough sales to warrant further development of other Kurosawa stuff for these guys and others. I feel I should do what I can and at least buy a copy, and whats $20. I just spent that on a horrible fast food meal.

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Ben

Well it is going to make a wonderful companion gift for the Eclipse Post War set.

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Jeremy Quintanilla

I have the book, the chronology and filmography chapter are nice if when the chronology being just a stentence or two summing the year and the filmography listing the important people involved in the movie.

The rest as already known is stitched together interviews, but they are nicely organized, some broken down into the specific movies the question are relating to.

Its worth is price, as very few interviews have I read before, and the there are quite a few interviews in which they translated so this would be the only way to read of them.

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Vili Maunula

Thanks for the input, Jeremy!

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BMWRider

Received my copy today, It has about 184 pages of interviews, a chronology, and a filmography. It is a solid investment.

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