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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Kurosawa learn of Japan's defeat in the war?
(a) The studio head announces it.
(b) Via radio.
(c) By a newsreel.
(d) A newspaper.

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

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

4. What is the PCL?
(a) A massage parlor.
(b) A photo lab.
(c) A sales firm.
(d) A film school.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In what time period does Rashomon take place?

3. Which of the following was not a demand Kurosawa made of his actresses in The Most Beautiful?

4. Why did Akira choose to leave the Proletariat Artists League?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What demands did Kurosawa make of his actresses in The Most Beautiful?

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

3. What was Akira's editing experience under Yanamoto?

4. How is Akira Kurosawa angered by the state of Japan's film industry?

5. How did Mifune Toshiro and Kurosawa begin work together?

6. How did Akira accept japan's defeat in the war?

7. How did an army major and Akira Kurosawa come to an agreement regarding cutting a scene from one of his films?

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

9. What was the break from the Toho, and how did it affect Kurosawa?

10. What was the talent like at the PCL?

(see the answer keys)

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