A number of Akira Kurosawa's films have been remade.

Note: This list includes full remakes only; it does not include films whose narratives have been loosely inspired by the basic plot of one or more of the director's films – as A Bug's Life (1998) references both Seven Samurai (1954) and its Hollywood remake The Magnificent Seven (1960) – nor movies that adopt, adapt, or parody individual plot elements or characters from a Kurosawa film without adapting the entire film, as Star Wars (1977) did with The Hidden Fortress (1958).

The 1999 movie Inferno (Desert Heat) with Jean Claude Van Damme is also a remake of Yojimbo. It was directed by John G. Avildsen who asked his name to be changed from the credits to Danny Mulroon because of creative differences.

The information below is derived from the Akira Kurosawa's IMDb page and the director's filmography by Galbraith (2002).[1]: 651–751 

Table

Year Original title of remake English title Remake of Director Country of origin Kurosawa credited?
1955 Sugata Sanshiro Sanshiro Sugata Sanshiro Sugata Shigeo Tanaka Japan Yes
1960 The Magnificent Seven — Seven Samurai John Sturges USA No[a]
Rashomon (Television)[b] — Rashomon Sidney Lumet USA Yes
1964 Per un pugno di dollari A Fistful of Dollars Yojimbo (unauthorized)[c] Sergio Leone Italy-Spain-West Germany No
The Outrage — Rashomon Martin Ritt USA Yes
1965 Sugata Sanshiro Sanshiro Sugata Sanshiro Sugata and
Sanshiro Sugata II 		Seiichiro Uchikawa Japan Yes[d]
1966 Django — Yojimbo Sergio Corbucci Italy-Spain No
1968 Xue cheng The Last Day of Hsianyang,
a.k.a. The Last Days of Hsin Yang,
a.k.a. They Died For Their Princess 		The Hidden Fortress Fu Di Lin Taiwan – Hong Kong Yes
1973 Nora Inu Stray Dog Stray Dog Azuma Morisaki Japan Yes
1976 Il conto è chiuso The Last Round Yojimbo Stelvio Massi Italy No
1980 Battle Beyond the Stars — Seven Samurai (unauthorized) Jimmy T. Murakami
Roger Corman (uncredited) 		USA No
1984 The Warrior and the Sorceress — Yojimbo John C. Broderick USA No
1989 Zhong yi qun ying Seven Warriors Seven Samurai Terry Tong Hong Kong Yes, at least on the DVD cover.
1996 Omega Doom — Yojimbo Albert Pyun USA No
1996 Last Man Standing — Yojimbo Walter Hill USA Yes
1998 China Gate — Seven Samurai Rajkumar Santoshi India Yes
2001 Kaze no Yojimbo (anime television series) — Yojimbo Hayato Date Japan Yes
2004 Seven Samurai 20XX (video game) — Seven Samurai Atsushi Ii Japan Yes
Samurai 7 (anime television series) — Seven Samurai Toshifumi Takizawa (and others) Japan—USA Yes
2007 Tsubaki Sanjurō Sanjurō Tsubaki Sanjuro Yoshimitsu Morita Japan Yes
Tengoku to Jigoku Heaven and Hell High and Low Yasuo Tsuruhashi Japan (TV) No
2008 Kakushi Toride no San-Akunin: The Last Princess Hidden Fortress: The Last Princess The Hidden Fortress Shinji Higuchi Japan Yes
1983 I sette magnifici gladiatori The Seven Magnificent Gladiators Seven Samurai Bruno Mattei Italy No
2010 Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 2 Episode 17: Bounty Hunters — Seven Samurai Steward Lee USA The episode is dedicated to him
2011 U-Mong Pa Meung At the Gate of the Ghost Rashomon M.L. Phundevanop Devakula Thailand Yes
2012 Gwanghae, Wangyidoen namja Masquerade Kagemusha Chang-min Choo South Korea No
2016 The Magnificent Seven — Seven Samurai Antoine Fuqua USA Yes
2019 The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 4: Chapter 4: Sanctuary — Seven Samurai Bryce Dallas Howard USA No
2020 Living — Ikiru Oliver Hermanos UK Yes

Footnotes

  1. ^ Although the film credits Seven Samurai as its basis, neither Kurosawa himself nor Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni receive such recognition.
  2. ^ This television version of the Fay and Michael Kanin stage adaptation of the Kurosawa film appeared on the syndicated program The Play of the Week on 12 December 1960.
  3. ^ Sergio Leone took the plot and characters for his classic Western directly from Kurosawa's Yojimbo without authorization. According to one source, during the filming, Leone was "slaving over a moviola machine and copying Yojimbo, changing only the setting and details of the dialogue." Kurosawa himself wrote a letter to Leone, saying "[A Fistful of Dollars] is a very fine film, but it is my film" and demanding payment. The case was eventually settled out of court, with Kurosawa receiving 15 percent of the Italian film's worldwide box office. See Galbraith (2002).[1]: 311–312 </ref>
  4. ^ Kurosawa produced, adapted (from his own scripts) and, according to one source, edited this remake. Future remakes of the Sanshiro Sugata story were based directly upon Tsuneo Tomita's novel, rather than Kurosawa's 1943 film.

References

  1. ^ a b Galbraith, Stuart IV (2002). The Emperor and the Wolf: The lives and films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. New York & London: Faber and Faber, Inc. ISBN 0-571-19982-8.

External links

Films directed by Akira Kurosawa
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