Arena Season 1, Episode 548

Kurosawa: Part Two · BBC Four · Saturday, June 22

Concluding the profile of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. International acclaim followed masterpieces like the influential 'Seven Samurai', but success at home was elusive. Unable to find funding for his epic films in Japan, Kurosawa attempted suicide in 1971. To make his late films 'Kagemusha', 'Ran' and 'Dreams' he accepted help from foreign admirers like George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg.