Kurosawa museum planned at Imari

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

TOKYO, OCT. 15. Japan's American connection is not only legendary but often appears to be growing almost uncontrollably, contrary to what one is given to understand here. The latest to come under this ``net'' is the proposed Akira Kurosawa Memorial Museum. To be built at Imari in the Saga Prefecture (on the island of Kyushu), the museum has just been offered help by three American directors, Mr. Steven Spielberg, Mr. George Lucas and Mr. Martin Scorsese.

Kurosawa, who died in 1998, has a foundation named after him. It will help complete the Yen 1.5-billion museum in 2003 with the active assistance of the three American auteurs.

The construction will begin in the middle of next year. Imari was selected because Kurosawa was particularly fond of the place. He had remarked during the shooting of the 1985 movie, ``Ran'', that he was completely bowled over by the sunset over the Imari Bay.

The museum is expected to be hugely popular, given the kind of awe and respect that the film-maker enjoys in Japan, and of course, elsewhere. In fact, Japanese cinema hit international headlines only after Kurosawa won recognition at Venice in 1950 with his ``Rashomon''.

And the only director among the current Japanese crop who comes close to this kind of veneration is Mr. Takeshi Kitano. Already, writings have appeared that talk of 1989 as a benchmark in the nation's cinema.

That was the year in which Mr. Kitano made his tryst with motion pictures, although he had, prior to that, been a well known comedian on television. A lift boy working in a Tokyo striptease joint, he was spotted by a television director, desperate to find a replacement for an actor who had taken ill.

Mr. Kitano never had to go back to operating escalators. What is more, at time in the 1990s when Japanese cinema was passing through a terrible phase, Mr. Kitano proved to be the proverbial silver lining on a dark cloud.

His pictures - with ``Fireworks'' walking away with the top Golden Lion at Venice in 1997 - helped draw world attention once again to Japanese cinema.

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Section  : International
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