SOURCE: "The Films of Kurosawa," in Sight and Sound, Vol. 24, No. 2, October-December, 1954, pp. 74-78, 112.

[In the following review, Leyda traces the development of Kurosawa's art, from his earliest films to the ones made after the successful Western debut of Rashomon.]

The surprise of the entire film world at the appearance of Rashomon at the 1951 Venice Festival will surely be a dramatic paragraph in all future international film histories. That film made such a powerful impression outside commercial film channels that we have all been compelled to make room, though a small one, for Rashomon, for its director, Kurosawa, and for Japanese pictures in general. This victory makes one hope that no new film by Kurosawa will ever again be neglected, or restricted to an audience of his countrymen.

If Kurosawa's stature as an artist is to be measured, it will be necessary to reach behind Rashomon to the...