How Akira Kurosawa weathered the elements and changed cinema forever
There are few directors who have had a more profound influence on cinema than Akira Kurosawa. Many of his contributions to the medium are so ubiquitous that it can be difficult to grasp how groundbreaking he was. Whether it’s stories being told from multiple characters’ viewpoints like in Rashomon, transforming the works of William Shakespeare into brand new contexts like in Ran and Throne of Blood, or filming action sequences with multiple camera set-ups to allow for more immersive editing, Kurosawa’s fingerprints are all over modern cinema.
One of his greatest and most under-appreciated contributions is weather. When you watch a movie where a couple argues while a storm rages outside or a battle sequence in which the mud practically splashes off the screen, you can thank the Japanese director. Throughout his films, he used weather as a character unto itself, an expressive entity that externalised the unspoken and heightened drama without a single plot device.
While Hollywood directors confined themselves to soundstages, Kurosawa took his productions outside, embracing the unpredictability and messiness of the natural environment and treating it as a creative collaborator rather than a hindrance. There is no glamorous perspiration or gently blowing tendrils of perfectly coiffed hair in Kurosawa’s movies. Characters sweat in the sweltering heat, their clothes cling to them in downpours, and forests and castles turn mystical through layer upon layer of fog.
He used weather in subtle ways, too. When dark clouds gather overhead as a band of men ride toward a small town, it leaves an ominous sensation. In contrast, when a ray of sunlight bathes a lone rider in a warm glow, it leaves a sense of majesty.
In 1985’s Ran, a film based on King Lear and the legend of the feudal lord Mōri Motonari, the director used wind as a pervasive element, tearing at clothes, grass, and nerves. It mirrors and heightens the turbulence of the story while also making the world immersive. It’s loud, chaotic, and destructive, making the film a visceral experience rather than merely a spectacle.
Not surprisingly, Kurosawa spent a lot of time trying to work around the elements. When his assistant director, Teruyo Nogami, wrote a memoir about her experiences with him, she titled it Waiting on the Weather. For all the boredom, money, and scheduling nightmares that this caused, however, Kurosawa’s movies are proof that his refusal to film in a studio or to create artificial weather paid off. The elements saturate every frame, defining his visual style in a way that is sometimes less tangible but equally as essential as his dynamic editing and careful staging of sequences.
There are many directors who have been influenced either directly or indirectly by Kurosawa’s use of weather. Wim Wenders falls into the former category. In a 2023 conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival, he recalled an interview he did with the director in which they talked almost exclusively on the topic. “Kurosawa is just such a master,” he said on another occasion. “And if you ever have a movie with rain or snow or anything, just don’t do it before you see… and study and read how he produced weather… Just don’t do it without consulting Kurosawa.”
