Film Director, Screenwriter and Producer. Kurosawa is probably the most well-known of all Japanese directors, and ironically is far more popular outside of Japan than within. He first studied art before turning to film. He worked under director Kajiro Yamamoto before he began his own directorial career with "Sanshiro Sugata,"(1943), a film about the 19th century struggle for supremacy between adherents of judo and jujitsu that so impressed the military government, he was prevailed upon to make a sequel, "Sanshiro Sugata Part Two." Following the Second World War, he began producing a series of films that cut across all genres, from crime thrillers to period dramas. In 1951, "Rashomon" became the first postwar Japanese film to find wide favor with Western audiences, and simultaneously introduced leading man Toshiro Mifune to Western viewers. His 1954 classic, "The Seven Samurai," however, made the largest impact of any of his movies outside of Japan. It became one of the most popular Japanese films of all time in the West, and every subsequent Kurosawa film has been released in the U.S. During this time, American and European filmmakers began looking at his movies as a source of plot material for their own work. In 1964, "Rashomon" was remade in a Western setting as "The Outrage," while "Yojimbo" was remade by Sergio Leone as "A Fistful of Dollars." "The Seven Samurai" served as the basis for John Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven," which had been the original title of Kurosawa's movie and this remake actually did better business in Japan than the original. Kurosawa developed a Westernized style that found a wider audience and more financing opportunities in Europe and America than he did in his own country. Many film critics compare his work to that of John Ford.