Akira KurosawaMention Kurosawa to your average film geek and they'll bow their head reverentially before whispering a quick "thank you" to the movie gods. He stands on the short list of the greates...

Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo OguniThe three screenwriters for Seven Samurai were all staples of the Japanese movie industry, and the two not named "Akira Kurosawa" were his go-to gu...

Toho StudiosChances are, you've probably heard of them. In fact, Toho Studios may be one of the only movie companies outside of Hollywood that Westerners can spot. That's because they specialized i...

35 mm FilmKurosawa was known to be a director deeply involved in all aspects of production, including doing his own editing. The mode of production was pretty typical for the time: 35 mm film, shot...

Fumio HayasakaHayasaka began his career with traditional music, and actually won some prizes before the war for his orchestral compositions. That gave him some real teeth when he moved to Tokyo in...

Seven Samurai fans tend to be film nuts in general, drawn to the way it shook up the whole medium and how Kurosawa provided inspiration for just about every blockbuster ever made. They don't dress...