Know George Lucas's Star Wars (1977) and you can guess the plot of Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (1958).

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

The exuberance of Kurosawa's imagery was matched by a vision almost comic in its bleakness.

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

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

But by the late 1960s Kurosawa's costly standards were unaffordable as color TV seduced the public.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

But Kurosawa's most lasting influence has been on succeeding generations of Asian filmmakers.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

Even Kurosawa's modern-day films were set in a landscape of mortal betrayal.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

It came in ahead of ahead of more widely known films like Japanese Akira Kurosawa's "Shichinin no samurai" ("Seven Samurai"), which took second place and "Wo hu cang long" ("Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon") by Taiwan's Ang Lee, which snared third.

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But Kurosawa's influence was deeper, broader.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

Other recipients of the award include film director Akira Kurosawa and Japan's women's national soccer team that won the World Cup in 2011.

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Contrary to the West's perception of Kurosawa as a prophet unappreciated in his own land, every one of a dozen films, from Rashomon to Red Beard 15 years later, was a smash hit.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira