Page "History of film" Paragraph 182

During Japanese cinema's ' Golden Age ' of the 1950s, successful films included Rashomon ( 1950 ), Seven Samurai ( 1954 ) and The Hidden Fortress ( 1958 ) by Akira Kurosawa, as well as Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story ( 1953 ) and Ishirō Honda's Godzilla ( 1954 ).

These films have had a profound influence on world cinema.

In particular, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai has been remade several times as Western films, such as The Magnificent Seven ( 1960 ) and Battle Beyond the Stars ( 1980 ), and has also inspired several Bollywood films, such as Sholay ( 1975 ) and China Gate ( 1998 ).

Rashomon was also remade as The Outrage ( 1964 ), and inspired films with " Rashomon effect " storytelling methods, such as Andha Naal ( 1954 ), The Usual Suspects ( 1995 ) and Hero ( 2002 ).

The Hidden Fortress was also the inspiration behind George Lucas ' Star Wars ( 1977 ).

Other famous Japanese filmmakers from this period include Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Hiroshi Inagaki and Nagisa Oshima.

Japanese cinema later became one of the main inspirations behind the New Hollywood movement of the 1960s to 1980s.