SOURCE: "The Double and the Theme of Selflessness in Kagemusha," in Literature and Film Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1989, pp. 202-06.

[In the following essay, Malpezzi and Clements examine the different value placed on selflessness in the East, as explored in Kurosawa's film Kagemusha.]

In Something Like an Autobiography, which covers his childhood, youth, and early professional career, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa writes:

I like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself, in any case, it is in watching someone unformed enter the path to perfection that my fascination knows no bounds. For this reason, beginners often appear as main characters in my films…. Now, when I say I like unformed people; I don't mean I'm interested in someone who even if polished will not become a jewel.

Though he is thinking particularly of characters in his first film, Sanshiro...