Kurosawa's epic masterpiece The Seven Samurai (1954) became the 1960 Western The Magnificent Seven.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

With The Seven Samurai and other feudal epics, Kurosawa was accused of peddling the samurai tradition as exotica for Westerners.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

In The Seven Samurai, the final battle scene used eight cameras and was shot at the expense of the director's toes, frostbitten from days stood in freezing mud.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

Three of his films were remade in the West, including Seven Samurai, his 1954 epic of freelance warriors who help a village of farmers beat their plowshares into swords (as The Magnificent Seven).

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia