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198-521: The film looks at the problem of social injustice and explores two of Kurosawa's favorite topics: humanism and existentialism . A few critics have noted the film to be reminiscent in some ways of Ikiru . It is Kurosawa's last black-and-white film. The film was a major box office success in Japan but is known for having caused a rift between Mifune and Kurosawa, with this being the final collaboration between them after working on 16 films together. The film

396-522: A Japanese context. Kurosawa instructed his leading actress, Isuzu Yamada , to regard the work as if it were a cinematic version of a Japanese rather than a European literary classic. Given Kurosawa's appreciation of traditional Japanese stage acting, the acting of the players, particularly Yamada, draws heavily on the stylized techniques of the Noh theater. It was filmed in 1956 and released in January 1957 to

594-427: A big hit, quickly making back the money invested in it and providing the studio with a product that they could, and did, market internationally—though with extensive edits. Over time—and with the theatrical and home video releases of the uncut version—its reputation has steadily grown. It is now regarded by some commentators as the greatest Japanese film ever made, and in 1999, a poll of Japanese film critics also voted it

792-451: A boom period of high-speed growth and rising standards of living. Out of step with the prevailing mood of the era, Kurosawa's films questioned the possibility of redemption through personal responsibility, particularly in Throne of Blood and The Lower Depths . He recognized this, and deliberately aimed for a more light-hearted and entertaining film for his next production while switching to

990-423: A brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (1943). After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast the then little-known actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of

1188-529: A call to take the follow-up exams, and director Kajirō Yamamoto , who was among the examiners, took a liking to Kurosawa and insisted that the studio hire him. The 25-year-old Kurosawa joined P.C.L. in February 1936. During his five years as an assistant director, Kurosawa worked under numerous directors, but by far the most important figure in his development was Yamamoto. Of his 24 films as A.D. , he worked on 17 under Yamamoto, many of them comedies featuring

1386-493: A close relative, and expects to progress through the privileged and insulated army structure of medical education. However, for Yasumoto's post-graduate medical training, he is assigned to a rural clinic under the guidance of Dr. Kyojō Niide, known as Akahige ("Red Beard"). Beneath a gruff exterior, Dr. Niide is a compassionate and wise clinic director. Yasumoto is initially livid at his posting, believing that he has little to gain from working under Dr. Niide. He assumes that Niide

1584-558: A contemporary play by Kazuo Kikuta and, together with Taniguchi, adapted it for the screen. The Quiet Duel starred Toshiro Mifune as an idealistic young doctor struggling with syphilis , a deliberate attempt by Kurosawa to break the actor away from being typecast as gangsters. Released in March 1949, it was a box office success, but is generally considered one of the director's lesser achievements. His second film of 1949, also produced by Film Art Association and released by Shintoho ,

1782-480: A costume designer. Shortly before his marriage, Kurosawa was pressured by the studio against his will to direct a sequel to his debut film. The often blatantly propagandistic Sanshiro Sugata Part II , which premiered in May 1945, is generally considered one of his weakest pictures. Kurosawa decided to write the script for a film that would be both censor-friendly and less expensive to produce. The Men Who Tread on

1980-486: A critical and commercial success. Nevertheless, the censorship office would later decide to cut out some 18 minutes of footage, much of which is now considered lost. He next turned to the subject of wartime female factory workers in The Most Beautiful , a propaganda film which he shot in a semi-documentary style in early 1944. To elicit realistic performances from his actresses, the director had them live in

2178-428: A disdain in him for romantic relationships. As Yasumoto struggles to come to terms with his situation, the film tells the story of a few of the clinic's patients. One of them is Rokusuke, a dying man whom Dr. Niide discerns is troubled by a secret misery that is only revealed when his desperately unhappy daughter shows up. Another is Sahachi, a well-loved man of the town known for his generosity to his neighbours, who has

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2376-637: A feature of society to be reduced or eliminated. One end of this ideological continuum can be called " individualist ", the other " collectivist ". In Western societies, there is a long history associated with the idea of individual ownership of property and economic liberalism , the ideological belief in organizing the economy on individualist lines such that the greatest possible number of economic decisions are made by individuals and not by collective institutions or organizations. Laissez-faire , free-market ideologies—including classical liberalism , neoliberalism and right-libertarianism —are formed around

2574-602: A gangster ( yakuza ) with tuberculosis , it was also the first time that Kurosawa directed Mifune, who went on to play major roles in all but one of the director's next 16 films (the exception being Ikiru ). While Mifune was not cast as the protagonist in Drunken Angel , his explosive performance as the gangster so dominates the drama that he shifted the focus from the title character, the alcoholic doctor played by Takashi Shimura , who had already appeared in several Kurosawa movies. However, Kurosawa did not want to smother

2772-480: A given society, the distribution of individual or household accumulation of wealth tells us more about variation in well-being than does income, alone. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), especially per capita GDP, is sometimes used to describe economic inequality at the international or global level. A better measure at that level, however, is the Gini coefficient , a measure of statistical dispersion used to represent

2970-449: A given society. Those two classes are defined as the owners of the means of production and those who sell their labour to the owners of the means of production. In capitalistic societies, the two classifications represent the opposing social interests of its members, capital gain for the capitalists and good wages for the labourers, creating social conflict . Max Weber uses social classes to examine wealth and status. For him, social class

3168-405: A good script for fellow director Hiromichi Horikawa, Kurosawa became so interested in it as he wrote, that he knew he would have to direct it himself. Kurosawa completed writing the script for the film in early July 1963, which he co-wrote with screenwriters Masato Ide , Hideo Oguni , and Ryūzō Kikushima . Kurosawa noted that the script was quite different from the book, specifically mentioning how

3366-629: A great aspect throughout society as it lacks the importance as "women's issues" since women are disproportionately affected throughout this issues. Women's health is at risk which causes a lot of issue in the long term run. In many countries, women and girls face problems such as lack of access to education, which limit their opportunities to succeed, and further limits their ability to seek many contributions to contribute to society in economical ways. Women are underrepresented and are seen are down valued within their significance in political activities and decision-making processes within different countries and

3564-503: A hierarchy and distinguished from other large categories in the hierarchy by such traits as occupation, education, income, and wealth. In modern Western societies , inequalities are often broadly classified into three major divisions of social class: upper class , middle class , and lower class . Each of these classes can be further subdivided into smaller classes (e.g. "upper middle"). Members of different classes have varied access to financial resources, which affects their placement in

3762-509: A lucrative sideline lasting well into the 1960s, long after he became famous. In the two years following the release of Horse in 1941, Kurosawa searched for a story he could use to launch his directing career. Towards the end of 1942, about a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , novelist Tsuneo Tomita published his Musashi Miyamoto -inspired judo novel, Sanshiro Sugata , the advertisements for which intrigued Kurosawa. He bought

3960-521: A million African Americans are incarcerated in the US, many of whom have been convicted of a non-violent drug possession charge. With the states of Colorado and Washington having legalized the possession of marijuana , lobbyists for drug liberalization are hopeful that drug issues will be interpreted and dealt with from a healthcare perspective instead of a matter of criminal law. In Canada, Aboriginal, First Nations, and Indigenous persons represent over

4158-416: A name for himself. Akira, who at this point planned to become a painter, moved in with him, and the two brothers became inseparable. With Heigo's guidance, Akira devoured not only films but also theater and circus performances, while exhibiting his paintings and working for the left-wing Proletarian Artists' League. However, he was never able to make a living with his art, and, as he began to perceive most of

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4356-472: A person earns or chooses; examples include level of education, marital status, leadership status and other measures of merit . In most societies, an individual's social status is a combination of ascribed and achieved factors. In some societies, however, only ascribed statuses are considered in seeking and determining one's social status and there exists little to no social mobility and, therefore, few paths to more social equality. This type of social inequality

4554-419: A phenomenon known as the glass ceiling , which refers to unseen – and often unacknowledged barriers that prevent minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. This effect can be seen in the corporate and bureaucratic environments of many countries, lowering the chances of women to excel. It prevents women from succeeding and making

4752-475: A play by Maxim Gorky , taking place in May and June 1957. In contrast to the Shakespearean sweep of Throne of Blood , The Lower Depths was shot on only two confined sets, in order to emphasize the restricted nature of the characters' lives. Though faithful to the play, this adaptation of Russian material to a completely Japanese setting—in this case, the late Edo period —unlike his earlier The Idiot ,

4950-516: A poor farming village in Sengoku period Japan that hires a group of samurai to defend it against an impending attack by bandits, was given a full epic treatment, with a huge cast (largely consisting of veterans of previous Kurosawa productions) and meticulously detailed action, stretching out to almost three-and-a-half hours of screen time. Three months were spent in pre-production and a month in rehearsals. Shooting took up 148 days spread over almost

5148-504: A primary mechanism of health inequalities". In the United States, over 48 million people are without medical care coverage. This means that almost one sixth of the population is without health insurance, mostly people belonging to the lower classes of society. While universal access to health care may not eliminate health inequalities, it has been shown that it greatly reduces them. In this context, privatization gives individuals

5346-571: A quarter of the federal prison population, even though they only represent 3% of the country's population. Age discrimination is defined as the unfair treatment of people with regard to promotions, recruitment, resources, or privileges because of their age. It is also known as ageism : the stereotyping of and discrimination against individuals or groups based upon their age. It is a set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values are used to justify age-based prejudice, discrimination, and subordination which results in ways that limits certain individuals from

5544-418: A real factory during the shoot, eat the factory food and call each other by their character names. He would use similar methods with his performers throughout his career. During production, the actress playing the leader of the factory workers, Yōko Yaguchi , was chosen by her colleagues to present their demands to the director. She and Kurosawa were constantly at odds, and it was through these arguments that

5742-480: A result of this process it can in turn lead to cycles of poverty and political marginalization. A prime example of this is redlining in Chicago , where redlines would be drawn on maps around black neighborhoods, specifically for the purpose of not allowing them out of run down public housing by not giving loans to black people . In 1863, two years prior to emancipation, black people in the U.S. owned 0.5 percent of

5940-553: A result, began to win festival prizes and commercial release in the West were Kenji Mizoguchi ( The Life of Oharu , Ugetsu , Sansho the Bailiff ) and, somewhat later, Yasujirō Ozu ( Tokyo Story , An Autumn Afternoon )—artists highly respected in Japan but, before this period, almost totally unknown in the West. Kurosawa's growing reputation among Western audiences in the 1950s would make Western audiences more sympathetic to

6138-415: A retreat from the artist's previous commitment to social and political change. The film marked something of an end of an era for its creator. The director himself recognized this at the time of its release, telling critic Donald Richie that a cycle of some kind had just come to an end and that his future films and production methods would be different. His prediction proved quite accurate. Beginning in

Red Beard - Misplaced Pages Continue

6336-482: A samurai clan is portrayed with strongly comic undertones. The film opened on January 1, 1962, quickly surpassing Yojimbo ' s box office success and garnering positive reviews. Kurosawa had meanwhile instructed Toho to purchase the film rights to King's Ransom , a novel about a kidnapping written by American author and screenwriter Evan Hunter , under his pseudonym of Ed McBain, as one of his 87th Precinct series of crime books. The director intended to create

6534-561: A score of 4.2/5 on Eiga.com , based on 41 reviews, with 56% of reviewers giving it a 5/5. The film opened to highly positive reviews in Japan, with many calling it one of Kurosawa's best films, and winning the Best Film award by the Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo . However, the film received a mixed response from Western audiences; while it was a box-office success in Japan, it performed poor commercially abroad. Roger Ebert gave

6732-413: A script by Kurosawa's nephew Mike Inoue, is a revenge drama about a young man who is able to infiltrate the hierarchy of a corrupt Japanese company with the intention of exposing the men responsible for his father's death. Its theme proved topical: while the film was in production, the massive Anpo protests were held against the new U.S.–Japan Security treaty , which was seen by many Japanese, particularly

6930-411: A sequel. Kurosawa turned to a script he had written before Yojimbo , reworking it to include the hero of his previous film. Sanjuro was the first of three Kurosawa films to be adapted from the work of the writer Shūgorō Yamamoto (the others would be Red Beard and Dodeskaden ). It is lighter in tone and closer to a conventional period film than Yojimbo , though its story of a power struggle within

7128-423: A set of hierarchical social categories that indicate an individual's or household's relative position in a stratified matrix of social relationships. Social class is delineated by a number of variables, some of which change across time and place. For Karl Marx , there exist two major social classes with significant inequality between the two. The two are delineated by their relationship to the means of production in

7326-487: A set of quality. One form of ageism is adultism , which is the discrimination against children and people under the legal adult age. An example of an act of adultism might be the policy of a certain establishment, restaurant, or place of business to not allow those under the legal adult age to enter their premises after a certain time or at all. While some people may benefit or enjoy these practices, some find them offensive and discriminatory. Discrimination against those under

7524-406: A slightly less negative domestic response than had been the case with the director's previous film. Abroad, Throne of Blood , regardless of the liberties it takes with its source material, quickly earned a place among the most celebrated Shakespeare adaptations. Another adaptation of a classic European theatrical work followed almost immediately, with production of The Lower Depths , based on

7722-403: A society are distributed unevenly, often as a result of inequitable allocation practices that create distinct unequal patterns based on socially defined categories of people. Differences in accessing social goods within society are influenced by factors like power, religion, kinship, prestige, race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, intelligence and class. Social inequality usually implies

7920-675: A subtitled print of the film in Los Angeles, RKO purchased distribution rights to Rashomon in the United States. The company was taking a considerable gamble. It had put out only one prior subtitled film in the American market, and the only previous Japanese talkie commercially released in New York had been Mikio Naruse's comedy, Wife! Be Like a Rose! , in 1937: a critical and box-office flop. However, Rashomon ' s commercial run, greatly helped by strong reviews from critics and even

8118-420: A system where dominance is present. In working stations, some are given more responsibilities and hence better compensation and more benefits than the rest even when equally qualified. Membership inequality is the number of members in a family, nation or faith. Life inequality is brought about by the disparity of opportunities which, if present, improve a person's life quality. Finally, income and wealth inequality

Red Beard - Misplaced Pages Continue

8316-405: A tragic connection to his wife, whose corpse is discovered after a landslide. After committing bigamy, she had him unknowingly kill her by asking that he "hold me closer" while hugging, as she surreptitiously held a knife to herself. Dr. Niide brings Yasumoto along to rescue a sick twelve-year-old girl, Otoyo, from a brothel (brutally fighting off a local gang of thugs in the process) and then assigns

8514-425: A widening gap between the poorest and the most wealthy members of society. Social inequality can be classified into egalitarian societies, ranked society, and stratified society. Egalitarian societies are those communities advocating for social equality through equal opportunities and rights, hence no discrimination. People with special skills were not viewed as superior compared to the rest. The leaders do not have

8712-407: A work condemning kidnapping, which he considered one of the very worst crimes. The suspense film, titled High and Low , was shot during the latter half of 1962 and released in March 1963. It broke Kurosawa's box office record (the third film in a row to do so), became the highest grossing Japanese film of the year, and won glowing reviews. However, his triumph was somewhat tarnished when, ironically,

8910-724: A year (after five months of pre-production), and wrapped in spring 1965, leaving the director, his crew and his actors exhausted. Red Beard premiered in April 1965, becoming the year's highest-grossing Japanese production and the third (and last) Kurosawa film to top the prestigious Kinema Jumpo yearly critics poll. It remains one of Kurosawa's best-known and most-loved works in his native country. Outside Japan, critics have been much more divided. Most commentators concede its technical merits and some praise it as among Kurosawa's best, while others insist that it lacks complexity and genuine narrative power, with still others claiming that it represents

9108-429: A year, interrupted by production and financing troubles and Kurosawa's health problems. The film finally opened in April 1954, half a year behind its original release date and about three times over budget, making it at the time the most expensive Japanese film ever made. (However, by Hollywood standards, it was a quite modestly budgeted production, even for that time.) The film received positive critical reaction and became

9306-419: Is a combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation. The importance of this has included the different ways that sources have produced multiple effects on the interpretation of women's social classes and its used throughout society. It is often used as synonymous with social class,

9504-461: Is a period film, set in a mid-nineteenth century clinic for the poor, in which Kurosawa's humanist themes receive perhaps their fullest statement. A conceited and materialistic, foreign-trained young doctor, Yasumoto, is forced to become an intern at the clinic under the stern tutelage of Doctor Niide, known as "Akahige" ("Red Beard"), played by Mifune. Although he resists Red Beard initially, Yasumoto comes to admire his wisdom and courage and to perceive

9702-583: Is born out of the deepening division in the roles assigned to men and women, particularly in the economic, political and educational spheres. Women are underrepresented in political activities and decision-making processes in most states in both the Global North and Global South. Gender discrimination, especially concerning the lower social status of women, has been a topic of serious discussion not only within academic and activist communities but also by governmental agencies and international bodies such as

9900-413: Is caught stealing food from the clinic, Otoyo shows him compassion and befriends him, passing on the compassion she received from Niide and Yasumoto. When the brothel's madam comes to the clinic to claim Otoyo and take her back to the brothel, the doctors and clinic staff refuse to let Otoyo go, and chase the madam away. When Chôbu and his destitute family try to escape their misery by taking poison together,

10098-629: Is clear, particularly in the United States, as shown by the work of Thomas Piketty and others. Commentators such as Martin Wolf emphasize the importance of economics. They warn that such trends increase resentment and make people susceptible to populist rhetoric. Evidence for this is mixed. At the macro level, political scientists report that xenophobia , anti-immigrant feeling, and resentment towards out-groups tend to be higher during difficult economic times. Economic crises have been associated with gains by far-right political parties. However, there

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10296-634: Is dangerous, heterosexual, violent and authoritative. These structures of masculinity ultimately contribute to the vast amounts of gendered violence, marginalization and suppression that women, queer, transgender, gender variant and gender non-conforming persons face. Some scholars suggest that women's underrepresentation in political systems speaks the idea that "formal citizenship does not always imply full social membership". Men, male bodies and expressions of masculinity are linked to ideas about work and citizenship. Others point out that patriarchal states tend top scale and claw back their social policies relative to

10494-417: Is dependent upon one's economic capital ; Health care is not a right, it is a commodity that can be purchased through private insurance companies (or that is sometimes provided through an employer). The way health care is organized in the U.S. contributes to health inequalities based on gender , socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity. As Wright and Perry assert, "social status differences in health care are

10692-518: Is generally referred to as caste inequality . One's social location in a society's overall structure of social stratification affects and is affected by almost every aspect of social life and one's life chances . The single best predictor of an individual's future social status is the social status into which they were born. Theoretical approaches to explaining social inequality concentrate on questions about how such social differentiations arise, what types of resources are being allocated, what are

10890-551: Is little evidence at the micro- or individual level to link individual economic grievances and populist support. Populist politicians tend to put pressure on central bank independence . Though the above discussion is limited to specific Western ideologies, similar thinking can be found, historically, in differing societies throughout the world. While, in general, eastern societies tend toward collectivism, elements of individualism and free market organization can be found in certain regions and historical eras. Classic Chinese society in

11088-560: Is often derided as a soap opera. But the story of a grizzled nineteenth-century doctor nicknamed Red Beard (Mifune) and his green physician ( Yuzo Kayama ) who learns human medical values from him — is actually a masterpiece." Social inequality 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville  ·  Marx ·  Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto ·  Tönnies · Veblen ·  Simmel · Durkheim ·  Addams ·  Mead · Weber ·  Du Bois ·  Mannheim · Elias Social inequality occurs when resources within

11286-440: Is only interested in seeing Yasumoto's medical notes from Nagasaki, and he rebels against the clinic director. He refuses to see patients or to wear his uniform, disdains the food and spartan environment, and enters a forbidden garden where he meets "The Mantis," a mysterious patient that only Dr. Niide can treat. Meanwhile, we learn that Yasumoto's former fiancée, Chigusa, was unfaithful to him, ending their engagement, and generating

11484-442: Is political stability, which improves the long-term outlook, enhances labour and capital productivity and so stimulates economic growth . With higher economic growth, net gains are positive across all levels and political reforms are easier to sustain. This may explain why, over time, in more egalitarian societies fiscal performance is better, stimulating greater accumulation of capital and higher growth. Socioeconomic status (SES)

11682-411: Is sick and wants him to visit. Through his mother, Yasumoto learns that Chigusa now has a child with her new lover. Masae later makes a kimono for Otoyo and Yasumoto's mother suggests he marry Masae. Yasumoto begins to understand the magnitude of cruelty and suffering around him, as well as his power to ease that suffering, and learns to regret his vanity and selfishness. Later, when a local boy, Chôbu,

11880-437: Is strongly associated with prestige and privileges. It may explain social reproduction, the tendency of social classes to remain stable across generations maintaining most of their inequalities as well. Such inequalities include differences in income, wealth, access to education, pension levels, social status, socioeconomic safety-net. In general, social class can be defined as a large category of similarly ranked people located in

12078-536: Is the disparity due to what an individual can earn on a daily basis contributing to their total revenue either monthly or yearly. Status in society is of two types which are ascribed characteristics and achieved characteristics . Ascribed characteristics are those present at birth or assigned by others and over which an individual has little or no control. Examples include sex, skin colour, eye shape, place of birth, sexuality, gender identity, parentage and social status of parents. Achieved characteristics are those which

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12276-464: Is the hierarchical arrangement of society about social class, wealth, political influence. A society can be politically stratified based on authority and power, economically stratified based on income level and wealth, occupational stratification about one's occupation. Some roles for examples doctors, engineers, lawyers are highly ranked, and thus they give orders while the rest receive the orders. There are three systems of social stratification which are

12474-424: Is the increase in the number of people over 65 receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits in the U.S. The sources of diversity that are produces has effected not only the system in multiple ways but has given the authority to contribute within multiple nations. When we compare income distribution among youth across the globe, we find that about half (48.5 percent) of the world's young people are confined to

12672-403: Is the most influential person followed by his family and relative, and those further related to him are less ranked. Stratified society is societies which horizontally ranked into the upper class, middle class, and lower class. The classification is regarding wealth, power, and prestige. The upper class are mostly the leaders and are the most influential in the society. It's possible for a person in

12870-637: Is the safety of a farm in Brazil. Production went much more smoothly than the director's previous film, but a few days before shooting ended, Kurosawa's composer, collaborator, and close friend Fumio Hayasaka died (of tuberculosis) at the age of 41. The film's score was finished by Hayasaka's student, Masaru Sato , who would go on to score all of Kurosawa's next eight films. I Live in Fear opened in November 1955 to mixed reviews and muted audience reaction, becoming

13068-554: Is the upward or downward movement along social strata which occurs due to change of jobs or marriage. Horizontal movement along levels that are equally ranked. Intra-generational mobility is a social status change in a generation (single lifetime). For example, a person moves from a junior staff in an organization to the senior management . The absolute management movement is where a person gains better social status than their parents, and this can be due to improved security, economic development, and better education system. Relative mobility

13266-436: Is where some individual are expected to have higher social ranks than their parents. Today, there is belief held by some that social inequality often creates political conflict and growing consensus that political structures determine the solution for such conflicts. Under this line of thinking, adequately designed social and political institutions are seen as ensuring the smooth functioning of economic markets such that there

13464-401: Is widely considered to be one of the director's least successful works and the original full-length version no longer exists. Contemporary reviews of the much shortened edited version were very negative, but the film was a moderate success at the box office, largely because of the popularity of one of its stars, Setsuko Hara. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Kurosawa, Rashomon had been entered in

13662-480: Is widely thought that food deserts are significant contributors to the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States and many other countries. This may have significant impacts on the local level as well as in broader contexts, such as in Greece, where the childhood obesity rate has skyrocketed in recent years heavily as a result of the rampant poverty and the resultant lack of access to fresh foods. The economies of

13860-586: The Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement . Posthumously, he was named " Asian of the Century " in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN , cited there as being among the five people who most prominently contributed to the improvement of Asia in the 20th century. His career has been honored by many retrospectives, critical studies and biographies in both print and video, and by releases in many consumer media. Kurosawa

14058-525: The Han and Tang dynasties , for example, while highly organized into tight hierarchies of horizontal inequality with a distinct power elite also had many elements of free trade among its various regions and subcultures. Social mobility is the movement along social strata or hierarchies by individuals, ethnic group , or nations. There is a change in literacy, income distribution , education and health status. The movement can be vertical or horizontal. Vertical

14256-516: The Millennium Development Goals . Health inequalities can vary greatly depending on the country one is looking at. Health equity is needed in order to live a healthier and more sufficient life within society. Inequalities in health lead to substantial effects that are burdensome on the entire society. Inequalities in health are often associated with socioeconomic status and access to health care. Health inequities can occur when

14454-536: The Tripartite System of education being practised in the United Kingdom at the time he wrote the essay considered merit to be "intelligence-plus-effort, its possessors ... identified at an early age and selected for appropriate intensive education" and that the "obsession with quantification, test-scoring, and qualifications" it supported would create an educated middle-class elite at the expense of

14652-546: The United Nations . These discussions seek to identify and remedy widespread, institutionalized barriers to access for women in their societies. By making use of gender analysis , researchers try to understand the social expectations, responsibilities, resources and priorities of women and men within a specific context, examining the social, economic and environmental factors which influence their roles and decision-making capacity. By enforcing artificial separations between

14850-597: The Venice Film Festival , due to the efforts of Giuliana Stramigioli , a Japan-based representative of an Italian film company, who had seen and admired the movie and convinced Daiei to submit it. On September 10, 1951, Rashomon was awarded the festival's highest prize, the Golden Lion , shocking not only Daiei but the international film world, which at the time was largely unaware of Japan's decades-old cinematic tradition. After Daiei briefly exhibited

15048-580: The Western , while at the same time offering an unprecedentedly (for the Japanese screen) graphic portrayal of violence. Some commentators have seen the Sanjuro character in this film as a fantasy figure who magically reverses the historical triumph of the corrupt merchant class over the samurai class. Featuring Tatsuya Nakadai in his first major role in a Kurosawa movie, and with innovative photography by Kazuo Miyagawa (who shot Rashomon ) and Takao Saito ,

15246-515: The social stratification system. Class, race, and gender are forms of stratification that bring inequality and determines the difference in allocation of societal rewards. Occupation is the primary determinant of a person class since it affects their lifestyle, opportunities, culture, and kind of people one associates with. Class based families include the lower class who are the poor in the society. They have limited opportunities. Working class are those people in blue-collar jobs and usually, affects

15444-551: The valuation of merit. Gender as a social inequality is whereby women and men are treated differently due to masculinity and femininity by dividing labor, assigning roles, and responsibilities and allocating social rewards. Sex- and gender-based prejudice and discrimination , called sexism , are major contributing factors to social inequality. Most societies, even agricultural ones , have some sexual division of labour and gender-based division of labour tends to increase during industrialization. The emphasis on gender inequality

15642-406: The 'power' to purchase their own health care (through private health insurance companies), but this leads to social inequality by only allowing people who have economic resources to access health care. Citizens are seen as consumers who have a 'choice' to buy the best health care they can afford; in alignment with neoliberal ideology, this puts the burden on the individual rather than the government or

15840-487: The 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded (and often adapted) films, including Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), High and Low (1963) and Red Beard (1965). After the 1960s he became much less prolific; even so, his later work—including two of his final films, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to receive great acclaim. In 1990, he accepted

16038-500: The GDP gap, while still wide, appeared to be closing and, in some more rapidly developing countries , life expectancies began to rise. However, there are numerous limitations of GDP as an economic indicator of social "well-being." If we look at the Gini coefficient for world income, over time, after World War II the global Gini coefficient sat at just under .45. From around 1959 to 1966,

16236-617: The Gini coefficient must be contextualized for meaningful comparisons to be made. There are a number of socially defined characteristics of individuals that contribute to social status and, therefore, equality or inequality within a society. When researchers use quantitative variables such as income or wealth to measure inequality, on an examination of the data, patterns are found that indicate these other social variables contribute to income or wealth as intervening variables . Significant inequalities in income and wealth are found when specific socially defined categories of people are compared. Among

16434-552: The Pacific were causing radioactive rainstorms in Japan and one particular incident in March had exposed a Japanese fishing boat to nuclear fallout , with disastrous results. It is in this anxious atmosphere that Kurosawa's next film, I Live in Fear , was conceived. The story concerned an elderly factory owner (Toshiro Mifune) so terrified of the prospect of a nuclear attack that he becomes determined to move his entire extended family (both legal and extra-marital) to what he imagines

16632-532: The Three-Headed Monster , instead. The film was eventually given a roadshow theatrical release in Japan by Toho on April 3, 1965, and was released throughout Japan on April 24, 1965. The film earned ¥400 million , with ¥361.59 million in distributor rental earnings, making it was one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of 1965. Toho International released the film to theaters in the United States with English subtitles in January 1966, and it

16830-562: The Tiger's Tail , based on the Kabuki play Kanjinchō and starring the comedian Enoken, with whom Kurosawa had often worked during his assistant director days, was completed in September 1945. By this time, Japan had surrendered and the occupation of Japan had begun. The new American censors interpreted the values allegedly promoted in the picture as overly "feudal" and banned the work. It

17028-411: The U.S. have been decreasing among people aged 65 and older since the early 1970s whereas the number of children under 18 in poverty has steadily risen. Sometimes, the elderly have had the opportunity to build their wealth throughout their lives, while younger people have the disadvantage of recently entering into or having not yet entered into the economic sphere. The larger contributor to this, however,

17226-495: The United States, Angela Davis argues that mass incarceration has been a modern tool of the state to impose inequality, repression, and discrimination upon African Americans and Hispanics. ( See Race in the United States criminal justice system ). The War on Drugs has been a campaign with disparate effects, ensuring the constant incarceration of poor, vulnerable, and marginalized populations in North America. Over

17424-474: The United States, legislation in certain " battleground states " that claimed to target voter fraud had the effect of disenfranchising tens of thousands of primarily African-American voters. These types of institutional barriers to full and equal social participation have far-reaching effects within marginalized communities, including reduced economic opportunity and output, reduced educational outcomes and opportunities and reduced levels of overall health. In

17622-400: The West, for example—but huge gaps remain globally. Overall equality across humanity, considered as individuals, has improved very little. Within the decade between 2003 and 2013, income inequality grew even in traditionally egalitarian countries like Germany, Sweden and Denmark. With a few exceptions—France, Japan, Spain—the top 10 percent of earners in most advanced economies raced ahead, while

17820-629: The age of 40 however is not illegal under the current U.S. Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). As implied in the definitions above, treating people differently based upon their age is not necessarily discrimination. Virtually every society has age-stratification , meaning that the age structure in a society changes as people begin to live longer and the population becomes older . In most cultures, there are different social role expectations for people of different ages to perform. Throughout different societies and cultures we view and present

18018-463: The basis of merit. The term "meritocracy" was coined by Michael Young in his 1958 dystopian essay " The Rise of the Meritocracy " to demonstrate the social dysfunctions that he anticipated arising in societies where the elites believe that they are successful entirely on the basis of merit, so the adoption of this term into English without negative connotations is ironic; Young was concerned that

18216-458: The best Japanese film ever made. In the most recent (2022) version of the widely respected British Film Institute (BFI) Sight & Sound "Greatest Films of All Time" poll, Seven Samurai placed 20th among all films from all countries in the critics' and tied at 14th in the directors' polls, receiving a place in the Top Ten lists of 48 critics and 22 directors. In 1954, nuclear tests in

18414-567: The book on its publication day, devoured it in one sitting, and immediately asked Toho to secure the film rights. Kurosawa's initial instinct proved correct as, within a few days, three other major Japanese studios also offered to buy the rights. Toho prevailed, and Kurosawa began pre-production on his debut work as director. Shooting of Sanshiro Sugata began on location in Yokohama in December 1942. Production proceeded smoothly, but getting

18612-614: The bottom 10 percent fell further behind. By 2013, a tiny elite of multibillionaires, 85 to be exact, had amassed wealth equivalent to all the wealth owned by the poorest half (3.5 billion) of the world's total population of 7 billion. Country of citizenship (an ascribed status characteristic) explains 60% of variability in global income; citizenship and parental income class (both ascribed status characteristics) combined explain more than 80% of income variability. Akira Kurosawa Akira Kurosawa ( 黒澤 明 or 黒沢 明 , Kurosawa Akira , March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998)

18810-537: The bottom two income brackets as of 2007. This means that, out of the three billion persons under the age of 24 in the world as of 2007, approximately 1.5 billion were living in situations in which they and their families had access to just nine percent of global income. Moving up the income distribution ladder, children and youth do not fare much better: more than two-thirds of the world's youth have access to less than 20 percent of global wealth, with 86 percent of all young people living on about one-third of world income. For

19008-516: The bureaucratic world of its hero and the U.S. cultural colonization of Japan. (American pop songs figure prominently in the film.) Because of this strategy, the filmmakers are usually credited with saving the picture from the kind of sentimentality common to dramas about characters with terminal illnesses. Ikiru opened in October 1952 to rave reviews—it won Kurosawa his second Kinema Junpo "Best Film" award—and enormous box office success. It remains

19206-489: The caste system, estates system, and class system. Castes system usually ascribed to children during birth whereby one receives the same stratification as of that of their parents. The stratification may be superior or inferior and thus influences the occupation and the social roles assigned to a person. Estate system is a state or society where people in this state were required to work on their land to receive some services like military protection. Communities ranked according to

19404-494: The chapter of Something Like an Autobiography that describes it—written nearly half a century after the event—is titled, "A Story I Don't Want to Tell". Only four months later, Kurosawa's eldest brother also died, leaving Akira, at age 23, the only one of the Kurosawa brothers still living, together with his three surviving sisters. In 1935, the new film studio Photo Chemical Laboratories, known as P.C.L. (which later became

19602-748: The clinic doctors work to save them. Yasumoto is offered the position of personal physician to the Shogunate he had so coveted. He agrees to marry Masae, but at the wedding announces that he will not accept the new position, but will stay at the clinic, turning down a comfortable and prestigious place in society to continue serving the poor alongside Dr. Niide. Surprised by his decision and advising him against it, Dr. Niide eventually gives in. Cast taken from The Criterion Collection . After finishing High and Low (1963), director Akira Kurosawa accidentally picked up Shūgorō Yamamoto 's 1959 novel Akahige Shinryōtan . Although he initially believed it would make

19800-467: The closeness of the two men on the set, "Mr. Kurosawa's heart was in Mr. Mifune's body." Donald Richie has described the rapport between them as a unique "symbiosis". When Kurosawa's exclusive contract with Toho came to an end in 1966, the 56-year-old director was seriously contemplating change. Observing the troubled state of the domestic film industry, and having already received dozens of offers from abroad,

19998-492: The columnist Ed Sullivan , earned $ 35,000 in its first three weeks at a single New York theatre, an almost unheard-of sum at the time. This success in turn led to a vogue in America and the West for Japanese movies throughout the 1950s, replacing the enthusiasm for Italian neorealist cinema. By the end of 1952 Rashomon was released in Japan, the United States, and most of Europe. Among the Japanese film-makers whose work, as

20196-461: The community. In countries that have a universal health care system, health inequalities have been reduced. In Canada, for example, equity in the availability of health services has been improved dramatically through Medicare . People don't have to worry about how they will pay health care, or rely on emergency rooms for care, since health care is provided for the entire population. However, inequality issues still remain. For example, not everyone has

20394-407: The completed film past the censors was an entirely different matter. The censorship office considered the work to be objectionably "British-American" by the standards of wartime Japan, and it was only through the intervention of director Yasujirō Ozu , who championed the film, that Sanshiro Sugata was finally accepted for release on March 25, 1943. (Kurosawa had just turned 33.) The movie became both

20592-497: The completion of Drunken Angel , Toho became embroiled in a months-long labor strike , in which the Toho union occupied the grounds of the studio. When Toho management ceased paying workers' salaries, Kurosawa formed a touring acting troupe to raise funds, directing Anton Chekhov 's The Proposal , and an adaptation of Drunken Angel starring Mifune and Shimura. Disillusioned by the division and violence between employees at Toho,

20790-460: The conventional Kurosawan hero to combat a social evil that cannot be resolved through the actions of individuals, however courageous or cunning. Yojimbo ( The Bodyguard ), Kurosawa Production's second film, centers on a masterless samurai, Sanjuro, who strolls into a 19th-century town ruled by two opposing violent factions and provokes them into destroying each other. The director used this work to play with many genre conventions, particularly

20988-432: The costs of entry to the market. Widespread inequalities often lead to conflict and dissatisfaction with the current social order. Such ideologies include Fabianism and socialism . Inequality, in these ideologies, must be reduced, eliminated, or kept under tight control through collective regulation. Furthermore, in some views inequality is natural but shouldn't affect certain fundamental human needs , human rights and

21186-639: The daily life of the chieftain is very much like the daily life of any other tribal member. Anthropologists identify such highly egalitarian cultures as " kinship -oriented", which appear to value social harmony more than wealth or status. These cultures are contrasted with materially oriented cultures in which status and wealth are prized and competition and conflict are common. Kinship-oriented cultures may actively work to prevent social hierarchies from developing because they believe that could lead to conflict and instability. As social complexity increases, so can social inequality, as it tends to increase along with

21384-543: The desirability or inevitability of inequality in human societies have given rise to a spate of ideologies to address such questions. By looking at the inequality of the given situations that are present, we identify the source of how inequality can rise up and substantiate a rise in how we view life. We can define this significant aspect as it classifies these ideologies on the basis of whether they justify or legitimize inequality, casting it as desirable or inevitable, or whether they cast equality as desirable and inequality as

21582-436: The differences made in comparison to what men earn. This is true globally as it is seen in the agricultural and rural sectors that are shown in non developed as well as developing countries. This has also been seen in multiple countries and has been caused by the lack of participation that women are struggling to implement. Structural impediments to women's ability to pursue and advance in their chosen professions often result in

21780-484: The director was seldom hesitant to confront unpleasant truths in his work. Heigo was academically gifted, but soon after failing to secure a place in Tokyo's foremost high school , he began to detach himself from the rest of the family, preferring to concentrate on his interest in foreign literature. In the late 1920s, Heigo became a benshi (silent film narrator) for Tokyo theaters showing foreign films and quickly made

21978-424: The director's increasingly long production schedules required Mifune to turn down too many other TV and movie offers. The set was intended to be as realistic and historically accurate as possible. Film historian Donald Richie wrote that the main set was an entire town with back alleys and side streets, some of which were never even filmed. The materials used were actually about as old as they were supposed to be, with

22176-638: The disadvantage of women. This process ensures that women encounter resistance into meaningful positions of power in institutions, administrations, and political systems and communities. Racial or ethnic inequality is the result of hierarchical social distinctions between racial and ethnic categories within a society and often established based on characteristics such as skin color and other physical characteristics or an individual's place of origin . Racial inequality occurs due to racism and systemic racism . Racial inequality can also result in diminished opportunities for members of marginalized groups, as

22374-475: The distribution of rights and privileges , social power , access to public goods such as education or the judicial system , adequate housing , transportation , credit and financial services such as banking and other social goods and services . Social inequality is shaped by a range of structural factors, such as geographical location or citizenship status, and is often underpinned by cultural discourses and identities defining, for example, whether

22572-553: The distribution of a specific quantity, such as income or wealth, at a global level, among a nation's residents, or even within a metropolitan area. Other widely used measures of economic inequality are the percentage of people living with under US$ 1.25 or $ 2 a day and the share of national income held by the wealthiest 10% of the population, sometimes called "the Palma" measure. Many societies worldwide claim to be meritocracies —that is, their societies exclusively distribute resources on

22770-401: The distribution of health determinants between different population groups. Health inequalities are in many cases related to access to health care. In industrialized nations , health inequalities are most prevalent in countries that have not implemented a universal health care system, such as the United States. Because of the US health care system is heavily privatized, access to health care

22968-554: The distribution of public health services is unequal. For example, in Indonesia in 1990, only 12% of government spending for health was for services consumed by the poorest 20% of households, while the wealthiest 20% consumed 29% of the government subsidy in the health sector. Access to health care is heavily influenced by socioeconomic status as well, as wealthier population groups have a higher probability of obtaining care when they need it. A study by Makinen et al. (2000) found that in

23166-461: The economic level of a nation. The Middle classes are those who rely mostly on wives' employment and depends on credits from the bank and medical coverage. The upper middle class are professionals who are strong because of economic resources and supportive institutions. Additionally, the upper class usually are the wealthy families who have economic power due to accumulative wealth from families but not and not hard earned income. Social stratification

23364-456: The education of the working class, inevitably resulting in injustice and eventually revolution. Although merit matters to some degree in many societies, research shows that the distribution of resources in societies often follows hierarchical social categorizations of persons to a degree too significant to warrant calling these societies "meritocratic", since even exceptional intelligence, talent, or other forms of merit may not be compensatory for

23562-474: The effect of economic crises , or inequality. Another objection for economic reasons is due to the globalization that is taking place in the world today. In addition to criticism of the widening inequality caused by the elite, the widening inequality among the general public caused by the influx of immigrants and other factors due to globalization is also a target of populist criticism. The evidence of increasing economic disparity and volatility of family incomes

23760-467: The establishments throughout most of the world. As of 2007, around 20 percent of women were below the $ 1.25/day international poverty line and 40 percent below the $ 2/day mark. More than one-quarter of females under the age of 25 were below the $ 1.25/day international poverty line and about half on less than $ 2/day. Women's participation in work has been increasing globally, but women are still facing great issues with regards to their wage discrepancies and

23958-425: The film four stars in a review dated December 26, 1969, writing " Akira Kurosawa 's Red Beard is assembled with the complexity and depth of a good 19th century novel, and it's a pleasure, in a time of stylishly fragmented films, to watch a director taking the time to fully develop his characters." Michael Sragow of The New Yorker wrote "This 1965 film, the last of Akira Kurosawa's collaboration with Toshiro Mifune ,

24156-399: The film industry (which includes his five years as assistant director), he had directed twenty-three films, while during the remaining twenty-eight years, for many complex reasons, he would complete only seven more. Also, for reasons never adequately explained, Red Beard would be his final film starring Toshiro Mifune. Yū Fujiki , an actor who worked on The Lower Depths , observed, regarding

24354-442: The film is considered one of Kurosawa's most lightweight efforts, though it remains popular, not least because it is one of several major influences on George Lucas 's 1977 space opera , Star Wars . Starting with Rashomon , Kurosawa's productions had become increasingly large in scope and so had the director's budgets. Toho, concerned about this development, suggested that he might help finance his own works, therefore making

24552-555: The film on DVD in the United States on July 16, 2002. Toho released the film on DVD in Japan on November 21, 2002 and reissued it on February 18, 2015. In 2003, BFI released 'Red Beard' on a Region 2 DVD, with English subtitles. Their copy comes in a box with extensive sleeve notes. In 2014, Madman Entertainment distributed the film on DVD in Region 4. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 75% of 16 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The film has

24750-465: The film premiered in April 1961 and was a critically and commercially successful venture, earning more than any previous Kurosawa film. The movie and its blackly comic tone were also widely imitated abroad. Sergio Leone 's A Fistful of Dollars was a virtual (unauthorized) scene-by-scene remake with Toho filing a lawsuit on Kurosawa's behalf and prevailing. Following the success of Yojimbo , Kurosawa found himself under pressure from Toho to create

24948-466: The film was blamed for a wave of kidnappings which occurred in Japan about this time (he himself received kidnapping threats directed at his young daughter, Kazuko). High and Low is considered by many commentators to be among the director's strongest works. Kurosawa quickly moved on to his next project, Red Beard . Based on a short story collection by Shūgorō Yamamoto and incorporating elements from Dostoevsky's novel The Insulted and Injured , it

25146-468: The film's title into a postwar catchphrase . His next film, One Wonderful Sunday , premiered in July 1947 to mixed reviews. It is a relatively uncomplicated and sentimental love story dealing with an impoverished postwar couple trying to enjoy, within the devastation of postwar Tokyo, their one weekly day off. The movie bears the influence of Frank Capra , D. W. Griffith and F. W. Murnau , each of whom

25344-494: The finished product as dramatically unfocused and unsatisfactory, and almost all critics agree. However, it would be Kurosawa's second film of 1950 that would ultimately win him, and Japanese cinema, a whole new international audience. After finishing Scandal , Kurosawa was approached by Daiei studios to make another film for them. Kurosawa picked a script by an aspiring young screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto , who would eventually work on nine of his films. Their first joint effort

25542-541: The first Kurosawa film to lose money during its original theatrical run. Today, it is considered by many to be among the finest films dealing with the psychological effects of the global nuclear stalemate. Kurosawa's next project, Throne of Blood , an adaptation of William Shakespeare 's Macbeth —set, like Seven Samurai , in the Sengoku Era—represented an ambitious transposition of the English work into

25740-454: The future director of Godzilla . The film is considered a precursor to the contemporary police procedural and buddy cop film genres. Scandal , released by Shochiku in April 1950, was inspired by the director's personal experiences with, and anger towards, Japanese yellow journalism . The work is an ambitious mixture of courtroom drama and social problem film about free speech and personal responsibility, but even Kurosawa regarded

25938-416: The girl to Yasumoto as his first patient. Through these experiences, Yasumoto begins to humble himself and open his eyes to the world around him. When Yasumoto himself falls ill, Dr. Niide asks Otoyo to nurse him back to health, knowing that caring for Yasumoto will also be part of her own continued healing. Chigusa's younger sister, Masae, visits the clinic to check in on Yasumoto, telling him that his mother

26136-411: The global Gini increased sharply, to a peak of around .48 in 1966. After falling and leveling off a couple of times during a period from around 1967 to 1984, the Gini began to climb again in the mid-eighties until reaching a high or around .54 in 2000 then jumped again to around .70 in 2002. Since the late 1980s, the gap between some regions has markedly narrowed— between Asia and the advanced economies of

26334-453: The global parts of society. Women and persons whose gender identity does not conform to patriarchal beliefs about sex (only male and female) continue to face violence on global domestic, interpersonal, institutional and administrative scales. While first-wave Liberal Feminist initiatives raised awareness about the lack of fundamental rights and freedoms that women have access to, second-wave feminism (see also Radical Feminism ) highlighted

26532-412: The heroic central character is a woman, Yukie ( Setsuko Hara ), who, born into upper-middle-class privilege, comes to question her values in a time of political crisis. The original script had to be extensively rewritten and, because of its controversial theme and gender of its protagonist, the completed work divided critics. Nevertheless, it managed to win the approval of audiences, who turned variations on

26730-412: The idea of working outside Japan appealed to him as never before. For his first foreign project, Kurosawa chose a story based on a Life magazine article. The Embassy Pictures action thriller, to be filmed in English and called simply Runaway Train , would have been his first in color. But the language barrier proved a major problem, and the English version of the screenplay was not even finished by

26928-494: The idea that social inequality is a "natural" feature of societies, is therefore inevitable and in some philosophies even desirable. Inequality provides for differing goods and services to be offered on the open market , spurs ambition, and provides incentive for industriousness and innovation . At the other end of the continuum, collectivists place little to no trust in "free market" economic systems, noting widespread lack of access among specific groups or classes of individuals to

27126-457: The initial chances given to individuals (e.g. by education ) and is out of proportions due to various problematic systemic structures. The economic grievance thesis argues that economic factors, such as deindustrialisation , economic liberalisation , and deregulation , are causing the formation of a 'left-behind' precariat with low job security , high inequality , and wage stagnation , who then support populism. Some theories only focus on

27324-403: The just over 400 million youth who are fortunate enough to rank among families or situations at the top of the income distribution, however, opportunities improve greatly with more than 60 percent of global income as this limits their reaches and their significances. Although this does not exhaust the scope of age discrimination, in modern societies it is often discussed primarily with regards to

27522-677: The lack of equality of outcome , but may alternatively be conceptualized as a lack of equality in access to opportunity. Social inequality is linked to economic inequality , usually described as the basis of the unequal distribution of income or wealth . Although the disciplines of economics and sociology generally use different theoretical approaches to examine and explain economic inequality, both fields are actively involved in researching this inequality. However, social and natural resources other than purely economic resources are also unevenly distributed in most societies and may contribute to social status . Norms of allocation can also affect

27720-639: The last of Kurosawa's films as an assistant director for Yamamoto, Horse (1941), Kurosawa took over most of the production, as his mentor was occupied with the shooting of another film. Yamamoto advised Kurosawa that a good director needed to master screenwriting. Kurosawa soon realized that the potential earnings from his scripts were much higher than what he was paid as an assistant director. He later wrote or co-wrote all his films, and frequently penned screenplays for other directors such as Satsuo Yamamoto 's film, A Triumph of Wings ( Tsubasa no gaika , 1942). This outside scriptwriting would serve Kurosawa as

27918-403: The late 1950s, television began increasingly to dominate the leisure time of the formerly large and loyal Japanese cinema audience. And as film company revenues dropped, so did their appetite for risk—particularly the risk represented by Kurosawa's costly production methods. Red Beard also marked the midway point, chronologically, in the artist's career. During his previous twenty-nine years in

28116-419: The major studio Toho ), advertised for assistant directors. Although he had demonstrated no previous interest in film as a profession, Kurosawa submitted the required essay, which asked applicants to discuss the fundamental deficiencies of Japanese films and find ways to overcome them. His half-mocking view was that if the deficiencies were fundamental, there was no way to correct them. Kurosawa's essay earned him

28314-453: The majority of developing countries they looked at, there was an upward trend by quintile in health care use for those reporting illness. Wealthier groups are also more likely to be seen by doctors and to receive medicine. There has been considerable research in recent years regarding a phenomenon known as food deserts , in which low access to fresh, healthy food in a neighborhood leads to poor consumer choices and options regarding diet. It

28512-424: The maximum use of their potential, which is at a cost for women as well as the society's development. Ensuring that women's rights are protected and endorsed can promote a sense of belonging that motivates women to contribute to their society. Once able to work, women should be titled and should contribute to the same job positionings that are opposed to men. And as a sense as they can also come within jobs that have

28710-420: The most acclaimed of all the artist's films set in the modern era. In December 1952, Kurosawa took his Ikiru screenwriters, Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni, for a forty-five-day secluded residence at an inn to create the screenplay for his next movie, Seven Samurai . The ensemble work was Kurosawa's first proper samurai film , the genre for which he would become most famous. The simple story, about

28908-528: The most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another fifteen films. Rashomon (1950), which premiered in Tokyo, became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival . The commercial and critical success of that film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese filmmakers. Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout

29106-471: The most pervasive of these variables are sex / gender , race , and ethnicity as they contribute to great factors in society as they form and limit many parts of the economy. This is not to say, in societies wherein merit is considered to be the primary factor determining one's place or rank in the social order, that merit has no effect on variations in income or wealth. It is to say that these other socially defined characteristics can, and often do, intervene in

29304-460: The movie stars Takashi Shimura as a cancer-ridden Tokyo bureaucrat, Watanabe, on a final quest for meaning before his death. For the screenplay, Kurosawa brought in Hashimoto as well as writer Hideo Oguni , who would go on to co-write twelve Kurosawa films. Despite the work's grim subject matter, the screenwriters took a satirical approach, which some have compared to the work of Brecht , to both

29502-408: The national wealth, while in 2019 it is just over 1.5 percent. Racial and ethnic categories become a minority category in a society. Minority members in such a society are often subjected to discriminatory actions resulting from majority policies, including assimilation , exclusion, oppression , expulsion , and extermination . For example, during the run-up to the 2012 federal elections in

29700-458: The new widescreen format that had been gaining popularity in Japan. The resulting film, The Hidden Fortress , is an action-adventure comedy-drama about a medieval princess, her loyal general, and two peasants who all need to travel through enemy lines in order to reach their home region. Released in December 1958, The Hidden Fortress became an enormous box-office success in Japan and was warmly received by critics both in Japan and abroad. Today,

29898-507: The nobility of their lords. The class system is about income inequality and socio-political status. People can move the classes when they increase their level of income or if they have authority. People are expected to maximize their innate abilities and possessions. Social stratification characteristics include its universal, social, ancient, it's in diverse forms and also consequential. The quantitative variables most often used as an indicator of social inequality are income and wealth . In

30096-600: The other hand, young people are often disadvantaged from accessing prestigious or relatively rewarding jobs, because of their recent entry to the work force or because they are still completing their education. Typically, once they enter the labour force or take a part-time job while in school, they start at entry-level positions with low-level wages. Furthermore, because of their lack of prior work experience, they can also often be forced to take marginal jobs, where they can be taken advantage of by their employers. Health inequalities can be defined as differences in health status or in

30294-407: The patients at the clinic, whom he at first despised, as worthy of compassion and dignity. Yūzō Kayama , who plays Yasumoto, was an extremely popular film and music star at the time, particularly for his "Young Guy" ( Wakadaishō ) series of musical comedies, so signing him to appear in the film virtually guaranteed Kurosawa strong box-office. The shoot, the filmmaker's longest ever, lasted well over

30492-519: The poor are 'deserving' or 'undeserving'. Understanding the process of social inequality highlights the importance of how society values its people and identifies significant aspects of how biases manifest within society. In simple societies, those that have few social roles and statuses occupied by its members, social inequality may be very low. In tribal societies, for example, a tribal head or chieftain may hold some privileges, use some tools, or wear marks of office to which others do not have access, but

30690-416: The popular actor Ken'ichi Enomoto , known as "Enoken". Yamamoto nurtured Kurosawa's talent, promoting him directly from third assistant director to chief assistant director after a year. Kurosawa's responsibilities increased, and he worked at tasks ranging from stage construction and film development to location scouting, script polishing, rehearsals, lighting, dubbing, editing, and second-unit directing. In

30888-428: The power they only have influence. The norms and the beliefs the egalitarian society holds are for sharing equally and equal participation. Simply there are no classes. Ranked society mostly is agricultural communities who hierarchically grouped from the chief who is viewed to have a status in the society. In this society, people are clustered regarding status and prestige and not by access to power and resources. The chief

31086-452: The primeval forest of Nara , wrapped on August 17. Just one week was spent in hurried post-production, hampered by a studio fire, and the finished film premiered at Tokyo's Imperial Theatre on August 25, expanding nationwide the following day. The movie was met by lukewarm reviews, with many critics puzzled by its unique theme and treatment, but it was nevertheless a moderate financial success for Daiei. Kurosawa's next film, for Shochiku,

31284-418: The proletarian movement as "putting unfulfilled political ideals directly onto the canvas", he lost his enthusiasm for painting. With the increasing production of talking pictures in the early 1930s, film narrators like Heigo began to lose work, and Akira moved back in with his parents. In July 1933, Heigo died by suicide. Kurosawa has commented on the lasting sense of loss he felt at his brother's death and

31482-465: The reception of later generations of Japanese film-makers ranging from Kon Ichikawa , Masaki Kobayashi , Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura to Juzo Itami , Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Miike . His career boosted by his sudden international fame, Kurosawa, now reunited with his original film studio, Toho (which would go on to produce his next 11 films), set to work on his next project, Ikiru . Based on Leo Tolstoy 's The Death of Ivan Ilyich ,

31680-524: The roles of human cooperation and conflict in allocating resources, and how do these differing types and forms of inequality affect the overall functioning of a society? The variables considered are greatly important in how the explanation of inequality is in manner and in which those variables combine to produce the inequities and their social consequences in a given society can change across time and place. In addition to interest in comparing and contrasting social inequality at local and national levels, in

31878-407: The same level of access to services. Inequalities in health are not, however, only related to access to health care. Even if everyone had the same level of access, inequalities may still remain. This is because health status is a product of more than just how much medical care people have available to them. While Medicare has equalized access to health care by removing the need for direct payments at

32076-427: The same work environment as men do. Until such safeguards are in place, women and girls will and have always continued to experience not only barriers to work and opportunities to earn, but will continue to be the primary victims of discrimination, oppression, and gender-based violence . As demonstrated within multiple nations and productions of the world we can identify the significance that this may lead into bringing

32274-575: The set during the two years it took to make Red Beard . According to Stephen Prince 's audio commentary on the Criterion Collection 's 2002 DVD, the film was shot at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and was Kurosawa's first film to use a magnetic 4-track stereo soundtrack. Toho was originally slated to release Red Beard during the New Year's holiday season, but it was delayed, forcing producer Tomoyuki Tanaka to produce Ghidorah,

32472-501: The social and economic roles of men and women, many lives of women and girls have been negatively impacted and this has a significant aspect on them, this also may lead into the ways that it can also have an effect of limiting social and economic development. The cultural ideals about women's work can also affect men whose outward gender expression is considered "feminine" within a given society. Transgender and gender-variant persons may express their gender through their appearance,

32670-599: The social disadvantages people face. In many cases, social inequality is linked to racial and ethnic inequality , gender inequality , and other forms of social status, and these forms can be related to corruption. The most common metric for comparing social inequality in different nations is the Gini coefficient, which measures the concentration of wealth and income in a nation from 0 (evenly distributed wealth and income) to 1 (one person has all wealth and income). Two nations may have identical Gini coefficients but dramatically different economic (output) and/or quality of life, so

32868-571: The society to move from one stratum to the other. The social status is also hereditable from one generation to the next. There are five systems or types of social inequality: wealth inequality , treatment and responsibility inequality, political inequality, life inequality, and membership inequality. Political inequality is the difference brought about by the ability to access governmental resources which therefore have no civic equality. In treatment and responsibility differences, most people can benefit more and access privileges than others. This occurs in

33066-500: The statements they make, or official documents they present. In this context, gender normativity, which is understood as the social expectations placed on us when we present particular bodies, produces widespread cultural/institutional devaluations of trans identities, homosexuality and femininity. Trans persons, in particular, have been defined as socially unproductive and disruptive. A variety of global issues like HIV/AIDS , illiteracy, and poverty have been occurring and are becoming

33264-484: The structural forces that underlie gender-based violence. Masculinities are generally constructed so as to subordinate femininities and other expressions of gender that are not heterosexual, assertive and dominant. the way that the production of masculinity is sourced out throughout society and has developed great incline within the institutions that are constructed of it. of Gender sociologist and author, Raewyn Connell , discusses in her 2009 book, Gender, how masculinity

33462-503: The studio's potential losses smaller, while in turn allowing himself more artistic freedom as co-producer. Kurosawa agreed, and the Kurosawa Production Company was established in April 1959, with Toho as the majority shareholder. Despite risking his own money, Kurosawa chose a story that was more directly critical of the Japanese business and political elites than any previous work. The Bad Sleep Well , based on

33660-488: The style of a favorite writer of his, Georges Simenon , it was the director's first collaboration with screenwriter Ryuzo Kikushima , who would later help to script eight other Kurosawa films. A famous, virtually wordless sequence, lasting over eight minutes, shows the detective, disguised as an impoverished veteran, wandering the streets in search of the gun thief; it employed actual documentary footage of war-ravaged Tokyo neighborhoods shot by Kurosawa's friend, Ishirō Honda ,

33858-403: The subsequent Kantō Massacre of 1923, Heigo took the thirteen-year-old Akira to view the devastation. When Akira wanted to look away from the corpses of humans and animals scattered everywhere, Heigo forbade him to do so, encouraging Akira instead to face his fears by confronting them directly. Some commentators have suggested that this incident would influence Kurosawa's later artistic career, as

34056-423: The theater that hosted Red Beard ' s premiere. Richie wrote that one could argue that Kurosawa "completely wasted his million yen set," as the main street is seen for only one minute (although its destruction was incorporated into the earthquake scene). Likewise, the scenes with the bridges and those in the elaborately constructed paddy are also rather brief. However, tourist bus companies did run tours through

34254-478: The tiled roofs taken from buildings more than a century old and all of the lumber taken from the oldest available farmhouses. Costumes and props were "aged" for months before being used; the bedding (made in Tokugawa-period patterns) was actually slept in for up to half a year before shooting. The wood used for the main gate was over a hundred years old, and after filming, it was re-erected at the entrance to

34452-399: The time of his birth and one deceased, leaving Kurosawa to grow up with three sisters and a brother. In addition to promoting physical exercise, Isamu Kurosawa was open to Western traditions and considered theatre and motion pictures to have educational merit. He encouraged his children to watch films; young Akira viewed his first movies at the age of six. An important formative influence

34650-490: The time of services, which improved the health of low status people, inequities in health are still prevalent in Canada. This may be due to the state of the current social system, which bear other types of inequalities such as economic, racial and gender inequality. A lack of health equity is also evident in the developing world, where the importance of equitable access to healthcare has been cited as crucial to achieving many of

34848-419: The two paradoxically became close. They married on May 21, 1945, with Yaguchi two months pregnant (she never resumed her acting career), and the couple would remain together until her death in 1985. They had two children, both surviving Kurosawa as of 2018 : a son, Hisao, born December 20, 1945, who served as producer on some of his father's last projects, and Kazuko , a daughter, born April 29, 1954, who became

35046-564: The underhanded tactics of Toho leadership, and the breaking of the occupation by police and military standoff , Kurosawa left Toho, later recalling "I had come to understand that the studio I had thought was my home actually belonged to strangers". Kurosawa, with producer Sōjirō Motoki and fellow directors and friends Kajiro Yamamoto, Mikio Naruse and Senkichi Taniguchi, formed a new independent production unit called Film Art Association (Eiga Geijutsu Kyōkai). For this organization's debut work, and first film for Daiei studios , Kurosawa turned to

35244-423: The wake of today's globalizing processes, the most interesting question becomes: what does inequality look like on a worldwide scale and what does such global inequality bode for the future? In effect, globalization reduces the distances of time and space, producing a global interaction of cultures and societies and social roles that can increase global inequities. Philosophical questions about social ethics and

35442-527: The war, Kurosawa, influenced by the democratic ideals of the Occupation, sought to make films that would establish a new respect towards the individual and the self . The first such film, No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), inspired by both the 1933 Takigawa incident and the Hotsumi Ozaki wartime spy case, criticized Japan's prewar regime for its political oppression. Atypically for the director,

35640-555: The ways social connections and the norms become different. In which every society manages people's ageing by allocating certain roles for different age groups. Age discrimination primarily occurs when age is used as an unfair criterion for allocating more or less resources. Scholars of age inequality have suggested that certain social organizations favor particular age inequalities. For instance, because of their emphasis on training and maintaining productive citizens, modern capitalist societies may dedicate disproportionate resources to training

35838-524: The work environment. Indeed, non-participation in the labour force and the unequal access to rewarding jobs means that the elderly and the young are often subject to unfair disadvantages because of their age. On the one hand, the elderly are less likely to be involved in the workforce: At the same time, old age may or may not put one at a disadvantage in accessing positions of prestige. Old age may benefit one in such positions, but it may also disadvantage one because of negative ageist stereotyping of old people. On

36036-473: The world have developed unevenly, historically, such that entire geographical regions were left mired in poverty and disease while others began to reduce poverty and disease on a wholesale basis. This was represented by a type of North–South divide that existed after World War II between First world , more developed , industrialized , wealthy countries and Third world countries, primarily as measured by GDP. From around 1980, however, through at least 2011,

36234-420: The young actor's immense vitality, and Mifune's rebellious character electrified audiences in much the way that Marlon Brando 's defiant stance would startle American film audiences a few years later. The film premiered in Tokyo in April 1948 to rave reviews and was chosen by the prestigious Kinema Junpo critics poll as the best film of its year, the first of three Kurosawa movies to be so honored. After

36432-432: The young and maintaining the middle-aged worker to the detriment of the elderly and the retired (especially those already disadvantaged by income/wealth inequality). In modern, technologically advanced societies, there is a tendency for both the young and the old to be relatively disadvantaged. However, more recently, in the United States the tendency is for the young to be most disadvantaged. For example, poverty levels in

36630-550: The young girl main character was not in Yamamoto's novel. With this character, Kurosawa tried to show what Fyodor Dostoevsky showed using the character Nellie in Humiliated and Insulted . Principal photography began on December 21, 1963, and wrapped up two years later. Kurosawa got sick twice during filming, while actors Toshiro Mifune and Yūzō Kayama fell ill once each. Mifune would never again work with Kurosawa because

36828-423: The young man greatly impressed Kurosawa, but managed to alienate most of the other judges. Drunken Angel is often considered the director's first major work. Although the script, like all of Kurosawa's occupation-era works, had to go through rewrites due to American censorship, Kurosawa felt that this was the first film in which he was able to express himself freely. A gritty story of a doctor who tries to save

37026-480: The young, as threatening the country's democracy by giving too much power to corporations and politicians. The film opened in September 1960 to positive critical reaction and modest box office success. The 25-minute opening sequence depicting a corporate wedding reception is widely regarded as one of Kurosawa's most skillfully executed set pieces, but the remainder of the film is often perceived as disappointing by comparison. The movie has also been criticized for employing

37224-413: Was Stray Dog . It is a detective movie (perhaps the first important Japanese film in that genre) that explores the mood of Japan during its painful postwar recovery through the story of a young detective, played by Mifune, and his fixation on the recovery of his handgun, which was stolen by a penniless war veteran who proceeds to use it to rob and murder. Adapted from an unpublished novel by Kurosawa in

37422-452: Was The Idiot , an adaptation of the novel by the director's favorite writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky . The story is relocated from Russia to Hokkaido , but otherwise adheres closely to the original, a fact seen by many critics as detrimental to the work. A studio-mandated edit shortened it from Kurosawa's original cut of 265 minutes to just 166 minutes, making the resulting narrative exceedingly difficult to follow. The severely edited film version

37620-419: Was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 30 films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema . Kurosawa displayed a bold, dynamic style , strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it; he was involved with all aspects of film production . Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following

37818-400: Was among Kurosawa's favorite directors. Another film released in 1947 with Kurosawa's involvement was the action-adventure thriller, Snow Trail , directed by Senkichi Taniguchi from Kurosawa's screenplay. It marked the debut of the intense young actor Toshiro Mifune . It was Kurosawa who, with his mentor Yamamoto, had intervened to persuade Toho to sign Mifune, during an audition in which

38016-469: Was based on Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 's experimental short story " In a Grove ", which recounts the murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife from various different and conflicting points of view. Kurosawa saw potential in the script, and with Hashimoto's help, polished and expanded it and then pitched it to Daiei, who were happy to accept the project due to its low budget. The shooting of Rashomon began on July 7, 1950, and, after extensive location work in

38214-561: Was born on March 23, 1910, in Ōimachi in the Ōmori district of Tokyo. His father Isamu (1864–1948), a member of a samurai family from Akita Prefecture , worked as the director of the Army's Physical Education Institute's lower secondary school , while his mother Shima (1870–1952) came from a merchant's family living in Osaka . Akira was the eighth and youngest child of the moderately wealthy family, with two of his siblings already grown up at

38412-483: Was his elementary school teacher Mr. Tachikawa, whose progressive educational practices ignited in his young pupil first a love of drawing and then an interest in education in general. During this time, Akira also studied calligraphy and Kendo swordsmanship. Another major childhood influence was Heigo Kurosawa (1906–1933), Akira's older brother by four years. In the aftermath of the Great Kantō earthquake and

38610-409: Was not released until 1952, the year another Kurosawa film, Ikiru , was also released. Ironically, while in production, the film had already been savaged by Japanese wartime censors as too Western and "democratic" (they particularly disliked the comic porter played by Enoken), so the movie most probably would not have seen the light of day even if the war had continued beyond its completion. After

38808-456: Was regarded as artistically successful. The film premiered in September 1957, receiving a mixed response similar to that of Throne of Blood . However, some critics rank it among the director's most underrated works. Kurosawa's three next movies after Seven Samurai had not managed to capture Japanese audiences in the way that that film had. The mood of the director's work had been growing increasingly pessimistic and dark even as Japan entered

39006-479: Was reissued by Frank Lee International in December 1968. In 1978, the film received a theatrical release in France, and sold 200,402 tickets during its theatrical run. The film was screened at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival in 2015. In 1992, the film was released in the United States on LaserDisc by The Criterion Collection , and on VHS by Media Home Entertainment . The Criterion Collection released

39204-535: Was screened in competition at the 26th Venice International Film Festival . Toshiro Mifune won a Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his performance in the film. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film . The young and arrogant doctor Noboru Yasumoto, trained in a Dutch medical school in Nagasaki , aspires to the status of personal physician of the Shogunate , a position currently held by

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