4. Akira Kurosawa
Filmography:
Sanshiro Sugata, The Most Beautiful, Shanshiro Sugata Part II, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, No Regrets for Our Youth, One Wonderful Sunday, Drunken Angel, The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog, Scandal, Rashomon, The Idiot, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, I Live in Fear, Throne of Blood, The Lower Depths, The Hidden Fortress, The Bad Sleep Well, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, High and Low, Red Beard, Dodesukaden, Dersu Uzala, The Shadow Warrior, Ran, Dreams, Rhapsody in August, Not Yet. Japan's Akira Kurosawa may well be the greatest filmmaker of all time or the most underrated filmmaker of all time, it depends on who you ask. One thing that is undeniable however, is that his entire filmography does not possess a single poor film. Kurosawa's output was incredibly wide-ranging, from samurai epics like Seven Samurai to police procedurals like the masterful High and Low to the loose adaptations of Shakespeare in The Bad Sleep Well. He made thirty films in fifty years which is a formidable record for any director, let alone one as masterful and prolific as Kurosawa. Around a dozen of Kurosawa's movies are purely faultless - The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low being the very best in his filmography - but it was not always so easy for Kurosawa. The late sixties and seventies was a troubling time for Kurosawa and led to an attempted suicide after some commercial failure and a struggle for funding. 1965's Red Beard was the last time Kurosawa worked with long time friend Toshiro Mifune after sixteen films together, but still the quality of his films didn't decrease, though Red Beard had some issues. Kurosawa refound his feet in the 80's and created two back to back masterpieces in Ran and Dreams before his death in 1993. Kurosawa's influence is wide reaching, in particular the New Hollywood directors saw Kurosawa as a huge influence. George Lucas even helped him get financing at the low point of his career. Everybody from Martin Scorsese to Takeshi Kitano, who is considered Kurosawa's successor in Japanese cinema have called Kurosawa a prominent influence. Some of Kurosawa's earlier films are difficult to find, but are so worth it. The praise even some of Kurosawa's lesser works is testimony to his reputation as an icon of cinema.