Writing

Hideo Oguni

Born July 9, 1904 · Hachinohe, Aomori, Japan

Died February 5, 1996 · aged 91

Hideo Oguni (小国英雄 Oguni Hideo, 9 July 1904 – 5 February 1996) was a Japanese writer who wrote over 100 screenplays. He is best known for co-writing screenplays for a number of films directed by Akira Kurosawa, including Ikiru, The Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and The Hidden Fortress. His first film with Kurosawa was Ikiru, and according to film professor Catherine Russell, it was Oguni who devi…

Known For

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai · 1954

MovieActionDrama

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Ran

MovieActionDrama

Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.

Highest 2 Lowest

Highest 2 Lowest · 2025

Highest 2 Lowest

MovieThrillerCrime

When a titan music mogul, widely known as having the "best ears in the business", is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.

High and Low

High and Low · 1963

MovieDramaCrime

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood · 1957

Throne of Blood

MovieDramaHistory

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Tora! Tora! Tora! · 1970

Tora! Tora! Tora!

MovieWarHistory

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.

Sanjuro

Sanjuro · 1962

MovieDramaAction

In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.

Filmography

Sort

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai · 1954

MovieActionDrama

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Screenplay

Ran

MovieActionDrama

Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.

Screenplay

Highest 2 Lowest

Highest 2 Lowest · 2025

Highest 2 Lowest

MovieThrillerCrime

When a titan music mogul, widely known as having the "best ears in the business", is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.

Original Film Writer

High and Low

High and Low · 1963

MovieDramaCrime

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

Screenplay

Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Screenplay

Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood · 1957

Throne of Blood

MovieDramaHistory

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Screenplay

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Tora! Tora! Tora! · 1970

Tora! Tora! Tora!

MovieWarHistory

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.

Screenplay

Sanjuro

Sanjuro · 1962

MovieDramaAction

In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.

Screenplay

Red Beard

Red Beard · 1965

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.

Screenplay

The Hidden Fortress

The Hidden Fortress · 1958

The Hidden Fortress

MovieDramaAction

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.

Screenplay

Living

London, 1953. Mr. Williams, a veteran civil servant, is an important cog within the city's bureaucracy as it struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of World War II. Buried under paperwork at the office and lonely at home, his life has long felt empty and meaningless. Then a devastating medical diagnosis forces him to take stock, and to try and grasp some fulfilment before it passes permanently beyond reach.

Original Film Writer

Runaway Train

Runaway Train · 1985

MovieActionThriller

A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape from a brutal prison in the middle of winter only to find themselves on an out-of-control train with a female railway worker while being pursued by the vengeful head of security.

Story

Battle Beyond the Stars

Battle Beyond the Stars · 1980

Battle Beyond the Stars

MovieScience FictionAction

A young farmer assembles a band of diverse mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet from an evil tyrant.

Original Story

The Man Disappears Yesterday

The Man Disappears Yesterday · 1964

The Man Disappears Yesterday

Tired of everyday life, the 8th Shogun Yoshimune flees Edo Castle and asks Ooka Echizen to become his personal assistant. In a rice shop, Yoshimune meets a simple ronin Ohashi Kenshiro, and receives permission to stay at his house, but a mysterious corpse awaits him in the house... And then the second, third and fourth murders occur...

Writer

The Lower Depths

The Lower Depths · 1957

The Lower Depths

Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.

Screenplay

Dodes'ka-den

Dodes'ka-den · 1970

On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.

Screenplay

The Bad Sleep Well

The Bad Sleep Well · 1960

The Bad Sleep Well

MovieCrimeDrama

In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.

Writer

I Live in Fear

I Live in Fear · 1955

An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.

Writer

Kin Toyama-san's Detective Story: Man in the Shadows

Kin Toyama-san's Detective Story: Man in the Shadows · 1956

Kin Toyama-san's Detective Story: Man in the Shadows

MovieCrimeAction

Screenplay

The Warrior and the Sorceress

The Warrior and the Sorceress · 1984

The Warrior and the Sorceress

MovieAdventureFantasy

The mighty warrior, Kain, crosses the barren wastelands of the planet Ura, where two arch enemies, Zeg and the evil degenerate Balcaz, fight incessantly for control of the village's only well. Kain sees his opportunity and announces that his sword is for hire... but his eyes stay clearly on the beautiful captive sorceress Naja, and his newly awakened purpose.

Original Film Writer

Utsukushiki taka

Utsukushiki taka · 1954

Utsukushiki taka

Screenplay

The Mysterious House

The Mysterious House · 1954

The Mysterious House

MovieDramaMystery

Screenplay

Knightly Advice

Knightly Advice · 1962

Knightly Advice

MovieDramaHistory

Screenplay

Iemitsu and Hikoza

Iemitsu and Hikoza · 1941

Iemitsu and Hikoza

MovieDramaHistory

A sentimental tale of the filial love between shogun Iemitsu (matinee idol Hasegawa) and his loyal old retainer Hikoza (comedian Roppa, playing somewhat against type).

Writer