Akira Kurosawa, who is one of most famous Japanese Movie Directors, had desired to be a professional painter when he was young. He confessed he always had dreams　with colorful images because he is so keen to "color". However, to our surprise, Kurosawa's first color movie was "Dodes’ka-Den," which was produced in 1970. Considering that the first color movie in Japan, "Carmen Comes Home", was shot by Keisuke Kinoshita in 1951, Kurosawa had stuck to "Black and White" for about 20 years. Kurosawa said he did not make color movies because he could not satisfy the color technique at that time and it is assumed that his artistic educational background may not have allowed the undertaking of a color movie without careful consideration. I think this dilemma of desiring a color movie and the lack of technical capability results in incredible power of expression in his masterpieces, "Seven Samurai" (1954) and "Yojinbo" (1961), which we will forget are "black and white" in no time. Not only　that, but we can definitely feel the "color" in those movies. Camellia is undeniably bright in red in another "black and white" masterpiece, "Sanjuro"(1962).

Akira Kurosawa is popular to the world, especially in United States where he was invited to make movies in Hollywood in the later 1960s. Two of those projects were "Runaway Train", and a spectacular war movie, "Tora! Tora! Tora!". All of those　projects were unfortunately not realized even though Kurosawa's manuscript was completed, and they were shot by different directors later on. I speculate that one of the big reasons why Kurosawa can not make the movie in Hollywood is "Color".

To be continued...

confess
keen
stick
undertaking
dilemma
incredible
masterpiece
in no time
definitely
undeniably