Akira Kurosawa had an amazing talent. Just to realise he influenced more cinema in one single movie than most people have in their entire career. The Seven Samurai helped the creation of a raft of movies from westerns to space epics, and it continues to influence our cinema to this very day.
So what’s the news? His son, Hisao Kurosawa, is about to lift the megaphone and enter his fathers realm, and not just with any old film either. Hisao is to complete Akira’s unfinished script Oni before he directs it.
The story sounds wonderful, and promises much, especially if we find that Hisao carries his fathers huge talents. My only reservation was the final comment made in the BBC films news story:
“…a samurai’s struggle to discover his destiny in 16th century Japan. It’s scheduled for release in 2006 and will also be adapted into a videogame for PlayStation 2.”
My hackles went up when I heard it was already scheduled to be made into a videogame. I hope that this is a decision that has been made independant of the script and the movie, and is heading off for separate development. My fear would be if the two are tied, or the game influences (or even restricts) the writing and production.
Whatever the outcome, I do think this will be a movie and script to watch carefully. It will be interesting to see if another generation of Kurosawa magic is coming to grace the dulled and incredibly retrospective cinema of today.
