Reply #14: Everyone is welcome to their opinion, of course,...

[Benfea]

…but your opinion happens to be counter to the vast majority of hoitey-toitey movie critics, most of the big name Hollywood directors, most of the average movie-afficionados on the street, and heck, even actors.

A very young Clint Eastwood once watched Yojimbo in a theater. Afterwards, he remarked "That would make a great western, but no one would have the balls to make it." Later in his career, he starred in just such a movie (although I can't think of the title off the top of my head).

Although Kurosawa was a huge influence on American film, oddly enough he wasn't very popular in his own country. People dismissed his movies because they were "too western." Japanese are silly about this sort of thing, but their thinking was if westerners like his film, then that means they can understand it, which means Kurosawa's films can't possibly be "Japanese enough." They didn't start appreciating him until after he died.

Of course, the accusation of being "too western" may be right on. Kurosawa himself admitted that his primary influences were Japanese theater (especially kabuki and noh), American westerns, and Shakespeare. Some of his movies were even direct translations of Shakespeare plays into a feudal Japanese setting (e.g. Ran is based on King Lear).