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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. In Rashomon, Kurosawa wants to recapture the excitement he once felt from what?

2. Why did Akira apply to PCL at 26?

3. The film One Wonderful Sunday reconnected Akira with whom?

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

5. Which is not an additional job that assistant directors had on set with Yamamoto Kajiro?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What character flaw does Akira Kurosawa admit to at the end of Something Like an Autobiography?

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

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

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

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

7. How did One Wonderful Sunday reunite Akira and Mr. Tachikawa?

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

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

10. What was the talent like at the PCL?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Akira Kurosawa makes a series of honest admissions about his personal failings throughout his autobiography, but he invariably includes a defense of these faults in the course of the admission. Write an essay about three such admissions and their defenses:

Part 1) What is the exact nature of Akira Kurosawa's physical weakness? How does it affect his ability to succeed in certain realms? Couched in his admission that he was physically weak, what strengths does the author assert? Discuss the physical exploits that Akira insists he accomplished as a teenager.

Part 2) When discussing the beginning of his directing career, Akira admits that he is a stubborn man with an awful temper. Why does he feel the need to tell the reader this? Does is inform some of the bold and often ill-conceived decisions he makes on set? Does it add some context to his unbridled success?

Part 3) At the very end of SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Kurosawa admits to being a fantastic egotist. What indications of this fact are there throughout the narrative of the book? What final act of egotistical indignation perfectly illustrates this self-regard? How has it served him well in his early career?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout much of the book, young Akira has difficulty choosing to take a stand, leading to his being called a crybaby, a coward, and a weakling. Write an essay about inaction in Something Like and Autobiography. How does Akira fail to stand up to a tyrannical teacher in his school when given the chance? Discuss how the War affords him many opportunities not to act. How, as a result of his brother's suicide, does Kurosawa nearly choose not to get into film.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about Akira Kurosawa as an outsider in his own life. Begin by discussing his earliest memories, how he has transformed them into mini-films. What other situations from his early childhood have become fodder for his films? Discuss how his early life is marked by an analytical appraisal. Why is he able to so easily dissect his though process in deeply emotional moments from this period?

(see the answer keys)

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