Compound Cinematics
Akira Kurosawa and I
by Shinobu Hashimoto
Translated by Lori Hitchcock Morimoto
Performing Arts - Film - Screenwriting
Paperback, 256 pages, 5.5 x 8.25 inches
978-1-939130-57-0
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U.S.$21.95 / CAN$24.95
eBook 978-1-939130-58-7
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Any list of Japan’s greatest screenplay writers would feature Shinobu Hashimoto at or near the top. This memoir, focusing on his collaborations with Akira Kurosawa, a gifted scenarist in his own right, offers an indispensable insider account for fans and students of the director’s oeuvre and invaluable insights into the unique process that is writing for the screen. The author’s first book ever to appear in English, Compound Cinematics also stands as a moving reckoning of sorts.
The vast majority of Kurosawa works were filmed from screenplays that the director co-wrote with a stable of stellar scenarists, many of whom he discovered himself with his sharp eye for all things cinematic. Among these was Shinobu Hashimoto, who caught the filmmaker’s attention with a script that eventually turned into
Rashomon. Thus joining “Team Kurosawa” the debutant immediately went on to play an integral part in developing and writing two of the grandmaster’s most impressive achievements,
Ikiru and
Seven Samurai.
Just as with the indelible presence of actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura on screen, Kurosawa’s masterpieces probably would not have been the same without the key roles off screen of Hashimoto, his buddy Ryuzo Kikushima (
Stray Dog,
Yojimbo,
High and Low), and the venerable Hideo Oguni, whom the hotheaded director brought in to serve as a command tower for the team’s singular creative process. The details of the intense, competitive method and its vagaries form the core of the book.
Born in 1918, Shinobu Hashimoto came down with consumption during his military training, and it was at the army sanatorium to which he was dispatched that he first became interested in writing movie scripts. While still working at a munitions firm’s accounting department, he underwent a tutelage with Mansaku Itami, the leading prewar screenplay writer. Shortly after the war, inspired by his mentor’s last words and passing, Hashimoto produced a treatment based on a short story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, which rising star Akira Kurosawa turned into
Rashomon. In addition to
Ikiru [To Live] and
Seven Samurai, Hashimoto’s most intimate collaborations with the writer-director, he was also part of the scripting team for
Throne of Blood and
The Hidden Fortress.
Vertical is happy to present a preview of the foreword,
"One Blow" by Masato Kato, Chairman,
Writers Association of Japan.
“Fans of Japanese cinema, as well as film historians should make it a point to read Compound Cinematics: Akira Kurosawa and I, due to its immense profundity on both Hashimoto's impact on cinema as a whole, as well as Kurosawa's output as a filmmaker. Shinobu Hashimoto is one of the greatest screenwriters of Japan and this book can help English language speakers discover just a bit more about him, through one of the finest film books to be released in a long time.... Highly Recommended!”
—FilmMonthly
“Part memoir, part screenwriting textbook, part treatise on the art of filmmaking, Compound Cinematics is a fascinating look inside the mind of one of the great screenwriters and his collaborations with one of the world’s greatest directors.... the book gives a wealth of information on how the director prepared for his films and wrote them. For Kurosawa scholars and even just fans of his movies, these details are absolutely wonderful.... for the sections with Kurosawa and the behind-the-scenes look at three of the world’s greatest films, this book is highly recommended.”
—Cinema Sentries
“Written by Akira Kurosawa’s longtime co-screenwriter, [Compound Cinematics] is the first book to concentrate on Kurosawa’s collaborative screenwriting practices. Originally published in 2006 in Japan, it has now been made available in English by Vertical Inc. and it has definitely been worth the wait.... those searching for information about the working methods of Kurosawa’s screenwriting team, their collaborative process of “compound cinematics,” are in for a treat.... Compound Cinematics: Akira Kurosawa and I is a fascinating book.... it is an excellently written and certainly though provoking account by a man who is partially responsible for least half a dozen of cinema’s greatest achievements.... warmly recommended to anyone, regardless of whether you are interested in Kurosawa, Japanese cinema, screenwriting, or just a good story. It is a joy to read and a pleasure to think about.”
—Akira Kurosawa Info
“Part memoir, part screenwriting textbook, part treatise on the art of filmmaking, Compound Cinematics is a fascinating look inside the mind of one of the great screenwriters and his collaborations with one of the world’s greatest directors.... the book gives a wealth of information on how the director prepared for his films and wrote them. For Kurosawa scholars and even just fans of his movies, these details are absolutely wonderful.... for the sections with Kurosawa and the behind-the-scenes look at three of the world’s greatest films, this book is highly recommended.”
—Cinema Sentries
“If you are interested in the creative process behind some of the greatest works of cinema, then I wholeheartedly recommend this book.... Hashimoto is one of the unsung masters. And Kurosawa is a master who cannot be sung enough. A book on their collaborations is a treasure for practitioners of screen storytelling and fans of movie history alike.”
—Making the Movie
