He’s one of cinema’s greatest filmmakers, but his talent extended far behind the pen and the camera. Akira Kurosawa, who would have celebrated his 104th birthday next month, began his career in the arts as a painter, but after finding it difficult to make a living, he entered what we would come to know him for today. As one can tell from any number of his films, his artistic eye came along with him and he would even come to use these skills in his later works.
While they’ve been floating around for some time, we’d be remiss if we didn’t share these gorgeous compositions. Today we have a gallery (with some coming from Reddit) of his hand-painted storyboards for a number of his later features, including Rhapsody in August, Ran, Kagemusha and Dreams. Full of details, these are a stunning backbone to his works and there’s even reports that indicate his longtime collaborator Ishirō Honda directed a scene from Dreams based solely off these. Check them out by clicking the gallery below and to see side-by-side comparisons with his films head over to Listal, while Popmatters has more of the background for these works of art.
Which storyboard is your favorite?