Yonki-no-kai Productions

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Yonki-no-kai Productions (四騎の会 The Four Horsemen Productions) was a Japanese entertainment company formed by leading Japanese directors Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi, Keisuke Kinoshita, and Kon Ichikawa in 1969.[1]

In the five years since Kurosawa's last film in 1965, he had a public falling out with Toshiro Mifune. He was appointed co-director of the Japanese-American production Tora! Tora! Tora!, working on script development and pre-production for two years, only to be replaced by Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku two weeks after shooting had commenced. The Japanese film industry was also going through a turbulent time, with TV viewership rising and the increasing popularity of Hollywood films among the younger audience. There was a 40% decrease in theatres that played only Japanese movies during the same period. Many production houses had either shut down or were forced to produce Roman Porno films for revenue.[2] In these circumstances, Kurosawa formed the Yonki-no-kai production company with three other leading directors of the era to finance his next project with a stated aim of producing "films that would rejuvenate the flagging industry".[3][4][5]

The directors had planned to direct a film each in turn, initially deciding on a period drama Dora-heita as their first film, but it was deemed too expensive. They later settled on the idea of making Dodes'ka-den, based on the 1962 novel A City Without Seasons by Shūgorō Yamamoto. It was also Kurosawa's first color film and was shot in nine weeks for a budget of $300,000. It was released in October 1970 to a commercial failure in Japan but received praise abroad, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 44th Academy Awards.[6]

The company was dissolved soon afterward.[3][7] The failure of Dodes'ka-den meant that funds were not available for filming Dora-heita.[8][9] Many years later, after the deaths of the other three partners, Ichikawa was able to produce the film adapted from the 1969 screenplay.[9][10]

References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ The Criterion Collection 2025.
  2. ^ Galbraith 2002, p. 448-65,473-5.
  3. ^ a b Prince 2009.
  4. ^ Conrad 2022, p. 175-176.
  5. ^ Galbraith 2002, p. 474.
  6. ^ Galbraith 2002, p. 482–486.
  7. ^ Prince 2020, p. 251.
  8. ^ IV 2008, p. 415.
  9. ^ a b Schilling 1999, p. 17.
  10. ^ Ontario 2001, p. 92,423.

Bibliography

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  • "Dodes'ka-den". The Criterion Collection. 30 September 2025. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  • Galbraith, Stuart (2002). The Emperor and the Wolf:The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. USA: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-19982-8.
  • Prince, Stephen (11 March 2009). "Dodes'ka-den: True Colors". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  • Conrad, David A. (2022-04-26). Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan. USA: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-4637-4.
  • Prince, Stephen (2020-06-16). "The Years of Transition". The Warrior's Camera - The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa - Revised and Expanded Edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-691-21418-4.
  • IV, Stuart Galbraith (2008-05-16). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 979-8-216-29239-5.
  • Schilling, Mark (1999-11-01). Contemporary Japanese Film. New York: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-0-8348-0415-9.
  • Ontario, Cinematheque (2001). Quandt, James (ed.). Kon Ichikawa. Vol. 4 of Cinémathèque Ontario monographs: Cinémathèque Ontario. Toronto: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-9682969-3-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)