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Something Like an Autobiography

by Akira Kurosawa , Audie E. Bock (Translator)

4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 · rating details · 1,060 ratings · 78 reviews

"A first rate book and a joy to read...It's doubtful that a complete understanding of the director's artistry can be obtained without reading this book...Also indispensable for budding directors are the addenda, in which Kurosawa lays out his beliefs on the primacy of a good script, on scriptwriting as an essential tool for directors, on directing actors, on camera placeme ...more

Paperback , English Edition , 205 pages

Published May 12th 1983 by Vintage Books (first published 1982)

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Lists with This Book

Best Memoir / Biography / Autobiography

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Best Japanese Books

172nd out of 465 books — 2,093 voters

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Community Reviews

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Aug 25, 2014 Ahmed rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

لمن لا يعرف فإن (أكيراكوروساوا) هو مخرج اليابان الأعظم وواحد من أفضل مخرجين السينما على مر العصور.
أعماله تحف فنيه من الطراز الرفيع. ويمثل تراث فنى عظيم.
قدم الكثير من الروائيات العالميه للسينما بالاضافه الى الاعمال الاعظم التى شارك فى كتابتها وقدمها . (Seven Samurai و Rashomon و Ran ) وغيرهم وغيرهم .
ولكن هنا نقابله ككاتب من الطراز الرفيع.
من أجمل السير الذاتيه التى قرأتها فى حياتى
تقديم رائع للحياة الشخصيه والمهنيه التى مرت على الكاتب .
شرح بسيط لما مر به فى صناعة افلامه وتقديم راقى للاخراج السينما ...more

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Apr 16, 2009 Dave Russell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: autobiography , nonfiction

I was disappointed that he ended this wonderful book in 1950 the year he filmed Rashomon . I wanted to know about Ikiru , The Seven Samurai and Yojimbo . However, he gives a brilliant reason for doing so in the epilogue. The theme of Rashomon is that humans are incapable of being honest about themselves. He includes himself, which of course calls into question the entire veracity of this book.
Even so, the strength of this book is not so much what it reveals about AK, but what it reveals about the ...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Kit Fox rated it 4 of 5 stars

So pretty much like everyone else I went, "Aw, man!" out loud when the intro stated that this book only went up to Rashomon and didn't deal with any of Kurosawa's life after 1950. But the good news is that you get an intimate glimpse into Kurosawa's Taisho- and Showa-era upbringing and education. The passages on the Great Kanto Quake are horrifying and amazing and the years he spent living in a quirky-yet-incrdeibly-seedy bohemian-ish housing complex are also eye-opening. I also didn't know that ...more

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Dec 22, 2014 محمود حسني rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

للأسف لم استمتع بالعمل ولترجمته دورا في ذلك .. كانت توقعاتي لهذا الكتاب مرتفعة ولكنه خيب ظني ..

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Aug 11, 2007 Nick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: everyone who gives a damn

Kurosawa was a true humanist. This book isn't an explanation of an artist's theories or an explication of his films--just a simple account of the memories of a very full and beautiful life. Yet Kurosawa never ignores his faults either. He just tells his story like it is. Sometimes he's so emotional, he makes me emotional just reading his earnestness, here about his directing mentor, Yama-san:

"At the party celebrating completion of Tojuro's Love, Mrs. Yamamoto came and spoke to me. 'My husband wa ...more

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Sep 28, 2015 Ahmad Hamdy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

> "لا شيء في العالم يمكن أن يكشف المبدع مثل ابداعاته نفسها. لا شيء إطلاقاً"، أما كتابة المبدع عن نفسه، وعرض ما كتبه على الآخرين، فهو يجعلهم "يستخفون برسم صورة حقيقية له"، خصوصاً حين يكون هذا الذي يكتب مخرجاً سينمائياً في وزن وأهمية الياباني أكيرا كوروساوا الذي يقول هذا الكلام، وهو يختم سيرته التي يسميها "ما يشبه السيرة الذاتية" بقوله لمن يريد أن يعرف ماذا حل به بعد فيلمه الشهير "راشوموت"، ان عليه أن يحدّق في أبطال أفلامه اللاحقة، حيث "أنا موجود مع كل هؤلاء الأبطال بكاملي".
لا يبوح كثيراً المخر ...more

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Oct 05, 2013 Dang Ole' Dan Can Dangle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-and-memoir , film , non-fiction

An extremely enjoyable autobiography from the man himself, Akira Kurosawa. It almost felt like reading fiction with the fantastic prose and wonderful stories that Kurosawa provides. And Kurosawa in himself is such a likable and interesting character. It does deal with Kurosawa's filmmaking techniques, but more than anything it delves into Kurosawa as a person. Half of the book deals with Kurosawa before he even began making films. He wonderfully details his childhood from babyhood to near adult. An extremely enjoyable autobiography from the man himself, Akira Kurosawa. It almost felt like reading fiction with the fantastic prose and wonderful stories that Kurosawa provides. And Kurosawa in himself is such a likable and interesting character. It does deal with Kurosawa's filmmaking techniques, but more than anything it delves into Kurosawa as a person. Half of the book deals with Kurosawa before he even began making films. He wonderfully details his childhood from babyhood to near adult. Not only that but he captures the atmosphere of pre-war, war-time, and post-war Japan splendidly and will probably teach you a thing or two about Japanese culture while he's at it.

The second half of the book deals with his early films. To some misfortune he decided to only write up until his 1950 film Rashomon (which is arguably just where his career began to get especially interesting). But as Kurosawa himself says at the end of the book "I think that to learn what became of me after Rashomon the most reasonable procedure would be to look for me in the characters in the films I made after Rashomon ." So you see, Kurosawa, in this thing that resembles an autobiography, has sucked us into his mind-state and shown us where he comes from, and, with that, it is with less challenge that we can fill in the pieces of his later life through his films.

Though it is a very personal book (as an autobiography very well should be) and Kurosawa is extremely open and honest in it, it does, as I mentioned, deal with Kurosawa's more technical side as well. Plus there is a great appendix titled "Some Random Notes on Filmmaking" where Kurosawa shares some of his best tips and advice in the medium.

An absolute must for any one interested in Kurosawa. Reading this is the best way to not only better understand Kurosawa as a person and as a filmmaker, but, in turn, to also better understand his films. I can imagine this being highly enjoyable even to one who knows near nothing about the man and his work. ...more

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May 09, 2015 Alexander Páez rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2015 , english , nihon

Se ha dicho que esta autobiografía se puede considerar como una obra de estudio entre sus películas. Como el único film escrito por el autor y es que en ella no habla de sus películas, sino de su vida y de cómo enfocaba el cine. Muy recomendable si os gusta el director o leer biografías.

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Jun 14, 2015 Mohamed Yehia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

زالزل و كوارث و فاشية و حروب عالمية و الياباني مستمر في العمل و الابداع

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Mar 12, 2008 Tosh rated it 5 of 5 stars

There is nothing more enjoyable then going to a movie theater and seeing any film by Akira Kurosawa. This memoir by the master is also fantastic. His main advice for anyone to get into film is to read! Read detective stories as well as world literature. Good advice! The one picture i get in my mind is him talking about the war years - or was it the Earthquake? Anyway he mentions seeing dead bloated bodies in a river by Tokyo. The image is stark (of course) but it had traces of the master's visua ...more

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Dec 10, 2014 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the most intimate account of the man, THE ENIGMA (Ohh.. I wish he was still alive. It's like going to the beach, but inexplicable to the human being about it's appeal, unless of course your are a retrospective man. The same goes for Mr Kurosawa, missed most when not there, incomprehensible in the moment). The same goes for me, understood his movies in rumination and adored his reasoning behind the most intimate details about his life, his MOVIES, through this wonderful retelling. When a p ...more

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Sep 16, 2007 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: cinema , memoir

Its funny what you remember about books. When I started thinking about writing this review the first thing I remember from this book (I read it about two and a half years ago now) was that Kurosawa sure did drink a lot.

Besides that, I remember this one as being surprisingly honest about Kurosawa’s flaws and his struggles throughout his career and with a number of insights about his earlier films. Worth a read if you’re into the man.

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May 16, 2014 Anthony Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'd give this 5 stars if it were not for Kurosawa's reluctance to go beyond 'Rashomon' in this autobiography.

I admired two things about this book: what Kurosawa, in following one of the major precepts of his films, attempts as an honest portrayal of himself, especially his temper, and the limpid quality of his prose. In the case of the latter, it's possible that the clarity lies in the translation, but I suspect Audie Bock is simply rendering in English the clarity of what she found in the Japan ...more

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Apr 11, 2014 Staci rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: to-buy

This is a good "autobiography" of the great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. It's not the traditional autobiography in a couple of ways. First, it's not just a listing of his life and events but rather he sort of picks different events that had an impact on him, particularly those that would later influence him as a filmmaker. He was artistically trained so some of the events may not seem that important if one is not used to looking at the world through an artistic or poetic lens. Secondly, th ...more

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Dec 14, 2014 أحمد نفادي rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: سيرة-ذاتية , معرض-2014 , مكتبتي

في السير الذاتية خصوصا للمخرجين يجعلك تدخل إلى عالمه بكل تفاصيله ورموزه ، يجعلك تسير بين أفلامه وممثلينه وذكرياته فتشعر أنك في فيلم كبير عن أفلامه هكذا فعل فيلليني وهكذا يفعل كوروساوا ها هنا

ليس من السهل تقييم سيرة ذاتية فكل حياة رائعة مهما كانت لكن تلك السيرة ممتعة تستحق القراءة

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Feb 04, 2015 David Hollingsworth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good read for any Kurosawa fan. The autobiography details his life up to Rashomon, the reasoning being that anything he has to say about himself after he made it big will pale in comparison to what he already said in his movies.

The book reads smoothly, and is very straight to the point in tone. Kurosawa presents an interesting (and very readable) portrait of his life through the book. By the end, I felt like I had a solid grip of who he was as a person. The notes on film making at the end were a ...more

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Jan 16, 2015 Jorge Rodriguez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: Anyone who loves cinema, Kurosawa films, and World War II non-fiction.

It’s so fascinating to read about the life of this cinema pioneer. But, however fascinating it is to read his thoughts, it’s also very honorable, and even humbling, being so intimate with Kurosawa as he describes so many aspects of his life and, of course, his filmmaking odyssey. Anyone who’s heard about Kurosawa probably also knows he’s a cinema genius, and if you’ve never heard of him, let me be one of a thousand other voices to tell you that he is indeed a genius when it comes to making movie It’s so fascinating to read about the life of this cinema pioneer. But, however fascinating it is to read his thoughts, it’s also very honorable, and even humbling, being so intimate with Kurosawa as he describes so many aspects of his life and, of course, his filmmaking odyssey. Anyone who’s heard about Kurosawa probably also knows he’s a cinema genius, and if you’ve never heard of him, let me be one of a thousand other voices to tell you that he is indeed a genius when it comes to making movies. Sad thing is, many people-especially my age (early 20’s)-have absolutely no awareness of Kurosawa, let alone his fantastic films. I’m a huge Yojimbo (1961) fan, but I also love Seven Samurai (1954). I have yet to see Rashomon (1950) or the many other films he has directed and passed on for the rest of us to relish. And, until I read this book, all I knew about Kurosawa was those two films.
In his autobiography, Kurosawa mentions the difficulty of people being able to clearly talk about themselves as they really are, and admits that he himself suffered greatly from that difficulty as well. But then he mentions that although this is true, there are alternative ways of expressing yourself as clearly as you are. One such method is through the act of pretending, and this was Kurosawa’s way of expressing himself as he really was; through his movies. “…it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself” (Kurosawa).
Indeed, most of Kurosawa is not written in this book; his autobiography. Most of his essence can be seen in the many films he directed. Those films show Kurosawa in his rawest, most truthful form. However, as I myself had only begun to learn about this cinema titan and the genius works he directed, I sought to know more about the guy, what he was like, where he came from, and what he thought about the life he lead. Thankfully, Kurosawa set out to write his autobiography and with the help of an American translator named Audie Bock, by the time I was born Something Like an Autobiography was then a book that was just waiting for me to grow up, pick up and educate myself a little better on the life and exploits of this great Japanese filmmaker. I’m so thankful to Kurosawa, the translator and everybody else involved in making this book a reality because I’m the kind of geek who likes to read as much between the line stuff as I possibly can. When I really love something, I want to know everything I can about it, and I love Kurosawa movies so much that I had to read this book, and I’m very glad that I did.
I can’t think of any reason for anyone not to read this book. I guess if they happen to stumble upon it at a bookstore or a library, it’ll be a great read if they’re at all interested in cinema. But if the interest is not there, then reading this-or any other book on cinema for that matter-will seem like a waste of time, even though it absolutely won’t be! I’m not trying to be a Kurosawa salesman here, although I’m sure I read like the biggest Kurosawa cheerleader. This book is incredible because it’s not just about making movies. This is a book about a man’s identity, which happens to coincide with the amorphous identity of a nation; Japan. You get an inside view of Kurosawa’s perspective on what it was like, and that is a glimpse I never got during my high school history class when we covered Japan during World War II. I remember how my History teacher talked to us about the determination of the Japanese citizens, where every Japanese citizen was prepared to arm themselves and fight the invading American troops to the death, if it ever came to that. There would be no surrendering for the Japanese, and this made American troops very nervous.
Kurosawa mentions the Honorable Death, where every Japanese citizen would have to commit suicide if the Emperor requested it. I had some knowledge of the Honorable Death before I read this book, but my knowledge of it stemmed from the perspective of an American History textbook. When Kurosawa mentioned the Honorable Death, I was astonished by his attitude towards it, as well as his descriptions of how people around him reacted to this seemingly looming ultimatum. In fact, when Kurosawa asked a girl to marry him-a woman who was a coworker at the studio he worked in-he mentioned the Honorable Death when he proposed. I guess he used it to persuade her into accepting the proposal, which seemed logical because during such looney times, what reason would she have had to turn him down? “My proposal went something like this: “It looks as if we are going to lose the war, and if it comes to the point of the Honorable Death of the Hundred Million, we all have to die anyway. It’s probably not a bad idea to find out what married life is before that happens” (Kurosawa).
Reading about that kind of stuff, aside from the filmmaking stuff, was a real treat and Kurosawa’s prose is smooth as butter. ...more

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Jun 17, 2015 Patrick McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-autobiography , film , japan

A few years back I got into an Akira Kurosawa phase where I was watching a lot of his films and it culminated with writing an academic paper on his film Stay Dog. I bought a bunch of books about Kurosawa for research on the paper; one of them was Kurosawa’s autobiography, Something Like an Autobiography. I finally got around to reading all of it. I think it reflects how his diverse artistic background made him the director that he is. He had a big interest in literature in part inspired by his o ...more

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Jun 08, 2012 M. Milner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction-you-ought-to-read , world-lit , biographies , movie-reads

A short, entertaining and informative book by the iconic director, Something Like an Autobiography is a good read for anyone interested in Kurosawa's films - provided they're interested in the early years of his works. Only covering the years leading up to Rashomon, Kurosawa's book is short but has tonnes of information on his early life - including his troubled older brother, the great earthquake of 1923 and his long friendship with Uekusa Keinosuke - before moving into his career in cinema.

It ...more

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May 22, 2013 Sebastian Glints rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quizás es un poco raro haber empezado a leer una autobiografía sobre alguien que no tenía idea de quién era. Y no sólo eso, sino que de un director de cine cuyas películas jamás vi. Sin embargo, un amigo mío me prestó este libro en un momento de mi vida en el que yo consideré estudiar dirección de cine, y me dijo que a él (que tiene esa misma profesión) lo había impulsado e inspirado a hacerlo.
No tuvo ese mismo efecto en mí (quizás porque perdí el interés en la carrera), pero de todas maneras di ...more

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Jan 24, 2008 Spiros rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: Human beings

Shelves: chasingmytail , cinerelated , bins , staffpicks , heroes

Having recently purchased, and repeatedly watched, DRUNKEN ANGEL, and having just purchased the 5 disc Criterion "Postwar Kurosawa" box, I decided to catch up on the Master's comments on these films. Of course, the fact that the commentary on these films comes towards the end of the book in no way prevented me from starting with Audie Bock's introduction and reading all the way through to Kurosawa's "Some Random Notes on Filmmaking" at the end, savoring every page. As always I was struck by Kuro ...more

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Aug 17, 2014 ania rated it 3 of 5 stars

"For this reason, since the time I was a young man I have always kept a notebook handy when I read a book. I write down my reactions and what particularly moves me. I have stacks and stacks of these college notebooks, and when I go off to write a script, these are what I read. Somewhere they always provide me with a point of breakthrough. Even for single lines of dialogue I have taken hints from these notebooks. So what I want to say is, don't read books while lying down in bed."

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Aug 31, 2015 Teri Beckelheimer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2015 , hbc-japan

I was introduced to Japanese film and drama in college by a wonderful, eccentric professor. He was passionate about the work of Akira Kurosawa and it certainly resonated with his students. Through this class I became fascinated with Kurosawa's movies. How could I not read his autobiography? Kurosawa is humorous, spirited, and sensitive. These are characteristic that obviously helped make him the wonderful filmmaker that he was. A very enjoyable look at his life and inspiration to re-watch his mo ...more

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Mar 26, 2015 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites , non-fiction

As a lover of films and someone whose studied Akira Kurosawa and film as a degree at college, I absolutely loved this book! It was so insightful. It went into his life and the way he got into film, learnt film, what processes he went through etc, etc. Again I loved reading this book!
Very easy to get through as well!
The only downfall I will say is the translation and the use of words the translator selected. Many a time I was sat there reading a word two or three times and thinking 'is this even ...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Christopherseelie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Written with a casual voice that makes you feel like Mr. Kurosawa is passing the afternoon with you and a pitcher of beer, "Something like an Autobiography" covers everything up till the international interest in Kurosawa's work following his win at the Venice Film Festival for "Rashomon". The story has many digressions but this works for the book's theme: the gradual accumulation of experience necessary for an artist to come into his own. Mr. Kurosawa has much to say about people in general, th ...more

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Jan 03, 2015 Lynda rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best autobiographies I have ever read aside from 'Lucky Man' by Michael J. Fox. Fans of Akira Kurosawa and his films would do themselves a great service by reading the richly detailed autobiography of Kurosawa. Although it was written in 1982, the book only covers the time period until "Rashomon" was made in 1951 (Kurosawa does explain why). This should not deter readers from picking up the book and getting to know one of the best directors in the world up close.

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Jun 03, 2014 Nikolai rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: Авто-Биографии-и-мемоари

Като във всички (авто)биографии на кинаджии и в тази се коментират основно филмите на автора и трудностите при заснемането им. На мен ми беше по-интересна първата част - детството, семейството, живота в Япония. Приятна книга.

Доста по различна е от биографиите на Хичкок и Чаплин например. Лаконична е, няма прекалено задълбаване в каквито и да е било чувства и лични драми. (Точно когато си мислех, че няма да каже нищо за семейството си имаше два абзаца от типа "Имаше една много опърничава актриса. ...more

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Aug 23, 2014 Avis Black rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 4-stars , memoirs-and-autobiographies

I found this enjoyable reading, though it only goes up to about 1948. He spent much of his youth annoying his teachers and obsessed with martial arts. He saw the destruction of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, and includes some potent rants against the censorship that the Japanese military inflicted on filmmakers.

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Jul 05, 2010 Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a magnificent memoir. Not only is it the story of Kurosawa's early life up to and including the creation of Rashomon but a wonderful description of an artist developing into a genius.

The generous acknowledgement of mentors, the praise of gifted colleagues coupled with fascinating insight into Japanese life and history from 1910 through 1950.

Since this book ends with the creation of Rashomon , his breakthrough work on the international stage, we do not hear about the genesis of works like ...more

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Jun 12, 2015 Ahmad Noaman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ما أعجبني بشدة في الأشبه بمذكرات لكيروساوا هو احساسي بالصدق الخالص فيما تناول عرضه عبر هذه الصفحات. شخصياً عند محاولاتي في تذكر ما فات من حياتي وحتي اللحظة فالحالة تكون شبه مطابقة لحالة أكيرا كوروساوا, بمعني صور من هنا وهناك أشخاص وأجواء غير واضحة المعالم, ومضات .. ولكن تأتي مواقف معينة علي مدار السنوات منذ الطفولة المبكرة وتكون واضحة تماماً بكل تفاصيلها بألوان الموقف ومشاعره وتفاعلي الخاص مع الموقف, ما قيل وما فُعِل, ما ارتديته, كيف كنت جالساً أو واقفاً .وبعض الأحيان أشخاص لم أقابلهم في حياتي ا ...more

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About Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明 or 黒沢明, Kurosawa Akira, March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years.

Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明 or 黒沢明, Kurosawa Akira, March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years.

Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director in 1943, during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (a.k.a. Judo Saga). After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown actor Toshirō Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director’s reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another 15 films.

Rashomon, which premiered in Tokyo in August 1950, and which also starred Mifune, became, on September 10, 1951, the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was subsequently released in Europe and North America. The commercial and critical success of this film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese film artists. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kurosawa directed approximately a film a year, including a number of highly regarded films such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961). After the mid-1960s, he became much less prolific, but his later work—including his final two epics, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to win awards, including the Palme d'Or for Kagemusha, though more often abroad than in Japan.

In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement Posthumously, he was named "Asian of the Century" in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, cited as "one of the [five] people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years" ...more

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“Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.” — 11 likes

“Page 61: No matter where I go in the world, although I can't speak any foreign language, I don't feel out of place. I think of earth as my home. If everyone thought this way, people might notice just how foolish international friction is and the would be put an end to it.” — 11 likes

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