View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What innovation made One Wonderful Sunday a sensation in Paris?

2. On what does Kurosawa blame the loss of so many good Japanese directors?

3. At the end of A Salmon's Old Stories, what does Kurosawa accuse Japanese directors of emulating?

4. In An Alleyway in the Floating World, how long did Akira's brother let him stay in his tenement room?

5. Which individual's death does Kurosawa not describe in the book?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Akira's brother die?

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

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

4. How did Kurosawa end up directing Sugata Sanshiro?

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

6. How did Rashomon catapult Kurosawa to a new level of international recognition?

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

8. What was the talent like at the PCL?

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

10. Why does Kurosawa think his writing process was flawed in Scandal?

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

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,043 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample