An Academy Salute to Akira Kurosawa
Celebrating Kurosawa
On September 18, 2008, the Academy kicked off a three-month celebration honoring renowned Japanese director and artist Akira Kurosawa with the opening of a new exhibition of his film-related artwork and a special screening of “Rashomon,” Kurosawa’s 1950 masterpiece, in Beverly Hills.
At the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan hosted an onstage panel discussion with producer Tom Luddy, who fostered early support for Kurosawa’s “Kagemusha”; Shiro Mifune, son of “Rashomon” star Toshiro Mifune; and Hisao Kurosawa, the director’s son, who currently heads Kurosawa Productions.
The Kurosawa celebration continued with screenings of “Kagemusha,” “Seven Samurai,” “Ran,” “Yojimbo” and “Dersu Uzala.”
Artwork
“An Academy Salute to Akira Kurosawa” also featured the exhibition, “Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist,” showcasing the director’s original artwork, which has rarely been seen outside of Japan.
The exhibition presented more than 100 of Kurosawa’s original pre-production drawings and paintings alongside many of the art supplies, calligraphy materials, annotated screenplays, props and hand-painted costumes that he used to explore and refine his artistic vision. Photographs, posters, marketing materials, correspondence and film clips illuminating his nearly seven-decade career rounded out the exhibition.
Video Highlights
Academy President Sid Ganis recaps the Academy’s three-month celebration of Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa’s status as a well-respected filmmaker and artist is reflected in interviews with Richard Gere, who appeared in “Rhapsody in August,” producer Tom Luddy, Kurosawa’s son Hisao Kurosawa and Kenneth Turan, film critic for the Los Angeles Times.
Highlights of the exhibition “Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist” are also shown, revealing the roots of Kurosawa’s artistic visions for his films.
Restoring “Rashomon”
“Rashomon” was restored by the Academy Film Archive in association with the Kadokawa Culture Promotion Foundation and The Film Foundation.
The project began with a survey of the world’s film archives to discover what film elements still existed. The original camera negative and soundtrack – originating on highly flammable nitrate film stock – were known to have been destroyed when the storage of nitrate was prohibited in Japan in the 1970s.
The best surviving picture element was a 35mm release print, made from the original nitrate negative, held within the collection of the National Film Center (NFC) in Tokyo. The print was scanned at 4K resolution, and digital tools were used to clear the scratches, dirt, stains and other defects that existed in virtually every frame. The numerous pops, hisses, crackles and distortions on the print’s audio track were also digitally removed.
Image Restoration
* Several missing frames from the NFC print were found in alternate elements in Fine Grain Master Positive in the Kadokawa Foundation’s library.
* Nearly every shot contained a scratch, a dig, a scuff, a piece of dirt, an abrasion, stain, or artifact of some kind. As the majority of these age-induced artifacts were part of the print image, the only way to address them was through digital technology.
* The images were processed at 2K resolution by Lowry Digital. Many of the procedures required hours of frame-by-frame correction by a team of digital artists using image processing and visual effects software.
* After all of the artifacts had been removed and the picture completely restored, RASHOMON was output back to film at 4K resolution onto two new polyester digital intermediate negatives – one which will reside in Japan and the other at the Academy Film Archive in the U.S.
* Rashomon is now archived in film and digital forms.
Audio Restoration
* Both the 1962 NFC print and the Fine Grain Master Positive were transferred into the digital realm at DJ Audio in Studio City, California. A large number of pops, hisses, crackles, and other audio distortions had been introduced into the track over the years while some anomalies may have been present at the time of the film’s original release. At Audio Mechanics in Burbank, the defects were digitally removed and the audio continuity restored.
* New elements were created of both the raw and restored files on digital tapes and drives as well as on new film and magnetic track elements. Sets of both elements will be stored in Japan and at the Academy Film Archive in the U.S.
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Celebrating Kurosawa
The Academy honored renowned Japanese director Akira Kurosawa with a three-month celebration of his films and artwork.
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Artwork
View Kurosawa’s original drawings, behind-the-scenes photographs and more from the Academy’s exhibition “Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist.”
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Video Highlights
See video highlights of the reception and onstage panel discussion at the kickoff event for “An Academy Salute to Akira Kurosawa.”
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Restoring “Rashomon”
Learn about the Academy Film Archive’s diligent restoration work on Kurosawa’s 1950s masterpiece “Rashomon.”
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