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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. At the end of Marriage, how did Akira decide to make more money?
(a) Write more screenplays.
(b) Edit more films.
(c) Draw from his inheritance.
(d) Take on a teaching job.

2. What settled the debate regarding the cutting of the scene?
(a) A court order.
(b) A treat of firing.
(c) A drinking contest.
(d) An actors' strike.

3. Why did the censors remove a gate from a Kurosawa film?
(a) It was shot on a state holiday.
(b) The gate had an imperial symbol on it.
(c) They thought it was a vaginal metaphor.
(d) They did not want any films over 90 minutes.

4. What was the American censor response to No Regrets for Our Youth?
(a) They refused to approve it.
(b) They approved it.
(c) They didn't even watch it.
(d) They trimmed it significantly before approving it.

5. What happened to most of the actresses in The Most Beautiful after the shoot?
(a) They went on to have stellar careers.
(b) They joined the war effort until the armistice.
(c) They retired.
(d) They remained in his company.

6. How did film-goers know that a particular night shot in Sugata Sanshiro was shot during the day?
(a) They heard no crickets or frogs.
(b) They saw a tarp used to block the sun.
(c) They heard lotus blossoms opening.
(d) There was no moonlight in the shot.

7. Which is not an additional job that assistant directors had on set with Yamamoto Kajiro?
(a) Serving as extras.
(b) Editing.
(c) Screenwriting.
(d) Giving actor's direction.

8. What era was Kurosawa trying to capture in The Stray Dog?
(a) Wartime Japan.
(b) Medieval Japan.
(c) Turn of the century Japan.
(d) Post-war Japan.

9. Which of Akira's family members died during the filming of The Drunken Angel?
(a) His Aunt.
(b) His father.
(c) His mother.
(d) His older sister.

10. At the end of A Salmon's Old Stories, what does Kurosawa accuse Japanese directors of emulating?
(a) Television.
(b) His work.
(c) American films.
(d) The theatre.

11. Which of the following was the first movie that Uekusa and Akira wrote together?
(a) One Wonderful Sunday,
(b) Sugata Sanshiro, Part II.
(c) No Regret for Our Youth.
(d) Drunken Angel.

12. Why did Fushimizu Shu suddenly stop making movies?
(a) He was elected Mayor of his hometown.
(b) He died.
(c) He renounced the art of cinema.
(d) He was blacklisted as a Communist.

13. How old was Kurosawa when he got married?
(a) 35.
(b) 23.
(c) 29.
(d) 40.

14. What innovation in movies arrived in the chapter An Alleyway in the Floating World?
(a) Panorama.
(b) Talkies.
(c) 3-D.
(d) Color photography.

15. What emotion did Mifune Toshiro choose to present in his audition from Akira Kurosawa?
(a) Anger.
(b) Excitement.
(c) Bemusement.
(d) Remorse.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happened to Akira and his wife's first house?

2. What does Kurosawa say was Takizawa's great talent in Good People?

3. What was different about The Most Beautiful's shooting concept?

4. What terrifying job did Yamamoto Kajiro give Akira as chief assistant?

5. In A Story I Don't Want to Tell, who had a premonition that Akira's brother might kill himself?

(see the answer keys)

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