Kurosawa’s “innate understanding of movement"

In my monthly email news round-up for May 2016, I shared a link to a video about Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

Today I thought I’d also share it in a post for those who don’t see my emails. 

In looking for an image to share with the post I found the most famous one from “Throne of Blood” (1957). At the same time I discovered something I hadn’t previously realised about Kurosawa (March 23rd, 1910 – September 6th, 1998) in that he has a total of three films based on plays by William Shakespeare; “Throne of Blood” (1957) based on “The Scottish Play” (the title of the play about a king in Scotland for any superstitious theatre types!); “The Bad Sleep Well” (1960) based on Hamlet; and  “Ran” (1985) based on King Lear. 

It is always humbling when a great artist pays tribute to another - somehow it makes us feel a line of time and a thread of connection across continents. Time and space shrink.

In this case my respect must also go to the owner of the Youtube channel "Every Frame A Painting”, the editor Tony Zhou, for this wonderful documentary where he shares insight into what he calls Kurosawa’s “innate understanding of movement and how to capture it onscreen.” Being an editor himself Zhou analyses the “movement of objects in the frame.” 

“For the past ten years, I’ve been editing professionally. Yet one question always stumps me: “How do you know when to cut?” And I can only answer that it’s very instinctual. On some level, I’m just thinking and feeling my way through the edit. So today, I’d like to describe that process: how does an editor think and feel?” Tony Zhou

Any one like me who has a shared passion for dance and film will be needing to watch this video quite a few times!

Equally it is the year in which we commemorate the 150th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, it is somehow therefore all the more poignant. 

Akira Kurosawa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doaQC-S8de8

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​Another link with brief information on Akira Kurosawa: http://www.top10films.co.uk/archives/23101