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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Kurosawa learn of Japan's defeat in the war?

2. Why does Akira Kurosawa think his brother killed himself?

3. Which Japanese director is not mentioned in Good People?

4. In A Coward and A Weakling, why was Akira arrest?

5. When does Kurosawa traditionally use the song The Cuckoo Waltz in his films?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Kurosawa meet a famous American director without knowing it?

2. How did Akira find his brother in An Alleyway in the Floating World?

3. How did Akira discover the similarity he had to his brother?

4. How did Akira become disillusioned with the Proletariat Artists League?

5. What terrible experience does Kurosawa relate at the end of An Alleyway in the Floating World?

6. What was Kurosawa trying to evoke, visually, with Rashomon?

7. Who were Akira's major influences in becoming the man he became?

8. Why does Kurosawa think Sugata Sanshiro, Part II, was a failure?

9. What was the talent like at the PCL?

10. How did Kurosawa's father's death affect his use of music in films?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Akira Kurosawa finds his way through the film industry with contemporaries. Write an essay about three individuals of approximate age to his. How did each affect his decisions regarding the career of filmmaking? To what extent is each a collaborator and a foil to him? Does he break company with any of them? If so, what is the reason for this parting, and how does it affect Akira?

Part 1) Akira's brother.

Part 2) Uekusa.

Part 3) Mifune Toshiro.

Essay Topic 2

When Akira Kurosawa began to establish himself in the film industry, the War was still going on and a group of Japanese censors were reviewing his films. Write an essay about his conflicts with the censors. What specific issues do the censors have with his early pictures? How does he respond to these issues? Discuss the way Kurosawa describes the censors int he text. How did the conflict between the censors and Kurosawa end with the War?

Essay Topic 3

Akira Kurosawa ends his autobiography with the success of Rashomon, leaving out the following 35 years. Write an essay discussing Kurosawa's choice to end his book at this point. How does this decision create a tight narrative? What story is the author telling, if he is not telling his complete life story? To what extent is this book only the first chapter of Kurosawa's life, the period leading to his break into international stardom?

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