Composition Class (1938) by Kajiro Yamamoto can be easily sighted as the film which paved way for Akira Kurosawa in Cinematic History.
The legendary film director lists this film at no. 17 of his Top 100 favourite films, simply because it was due to Yamamoto's strict technique of teaching Kurosawa every small detail of filmmaking from Editing, writing script to deciding costume and make props, by making him do every single work, most of which not to Kurosawa's pleasure ; that made him a Competent director able to make any film on his own. Therefore Kurosawa addressed Yamamoto as Yama-San with respect for the great Director.
The Film follows the life of a 13 year old girl(Young Hideko Takamine), her family's daily struggles to manage meal for five people in tough times, and her desire to write articles about everyday life ; one of which gets her both appreciation and punishment.
Her teacher notices her talent of pointing out even the slightest details in her writings and encourages her and her family not to stop her from writing about things with full honesty.
Tough the film is simple and might garner interest among viewers now, but its subject matter is still true almost after 90 years of its release for various classes and parts of the world and not only Japan, the struggle against poverty is everlasting and breaking for many.
The legendary film director lists this film at no. 17 of his Top 100 favourite films, simply because it was due to Yamamoto's strict technique of teaching Kurosawa every small detail of filmmaking from Editing, writing script to deciding costume and make props, by making him do every single work, most of which not to Kurosawa's pleasure ; that made him a Competent director able to make any film on his own. Therefore Kurosawa addressed Yamamoto as Yama-San with respect for the great Director.
The Film follows the life of a 13 year old girl(Young Hideko Takamine), her family's daily struggles to manage meal for five people in tough times, and her desire to write articles about everyday life ; one of which gets her both appreciation and punishment.
Her teacher notices her talent of pointing out even the slightest details in her writings and encourages her and her family not to stop her from writing about things with full honesty.
Tough the film is simple and might garner interest among viewers now, but its subject matter is still true almost after 90 years of its release for various classes and parts of the world and not only Japan, the struggle against poverty is everlasting and breaking for many.