Page "Art film" Paragraph 32

Japanese filmmakers produced a number of films that broke with convention.

Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon ( 1950 ), the first Japanese film to be widely screened in the West, depicts four witnesses ' contradictory accounts of a rape and murder.

In 1952, Kurosawa directed Ikiru, a film about a Tokyo bureaucrat struggling to find a meaning for his life.

Tokyo Story ( 1953 ) by Yasujirō Ozu explores social changes of the era by telling the story of an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children, but find the children are too self-absorbed to spend much time with them.

Seven Samurai ( 1954 ) by Kurosawa, tells the story of a farming village that hires seven masterless samurai to combat bandits.

Fires on the Plain ( 1959 ) by Kon Ichikawa explores the Japanese experience in World War II by depicting a sick Japanese soldier struggling to stay alive.

Ugetsu ( 1953 ) by Kenji Mizoguchi is a ghost story set in the late 16th century which tells the story of peasants whose village is in the path of an advancing army.

A year later, Mizoguchi directed Sansho the Bailiff ( 1954 ), which tells the story of two aristocratic children sold into slavery ; in addition to dealing with serious themes such as the loss of freedom, the film features features beautiful images and long and complicated shots.