All right everybody the category is film directors.
Are there any "K's" in the puzzle?
[ding]
[ding]
Well that's way too easy it's Akira Kurosawa.
Hi I'm Pat Sajak!
And if you're wondering what a TV game show host has to do with one of the finest directors in the history of the cinema, the answer is simple.
Not very much!
I did audition for the role of the fifth Samurai but Mr. Kurosawa thought I was way too young for the part.
In reality, I'm participating in this evening's Gala simply because I'm but one of millions and millions of people around the world who have been entertained, and moved, and influenced by this great filmmaker and his work.
I was a kid when I first saw "Seven Samurai".
My grandmother took me.
She loved the movies!
I could barely read the subtitles so I don't think I understood it very well at the time.
But I did know even then that I was being transported into a strange and different world and culture.
The images of that film have remained with me throughout the years.
In fact, they've gotten stronger and more haunting with each viewing.
The last time I saw it was just a few weeks ago on Turner Classic Movies.
It ran on the same evening as Rashomon; another amazing Kurosawa film.
It's not hard to understand why his work has influenced generation after generation of movie makers.
For someone who makes a living selling vowels, it's an honor for me to be a part of this special night.
Anaheim University's Akira Kurosawa's School of Film promises to help assure that his impact on movies will continue as long as movies are made.
He had a very special gift, and we're all very lucky that he shared that gift with the world.
Have a great night everyone!
And thanks for supporting this event.
I'd like to see how sorry I am that I can't be there today for the celebration of Akira Kurosawa's birthday.
I wish the best to his family and also to all the students at the Kurosawa Film School in Anaheim.
You are following the footsteps of one of the great filmmakers of the 20th century.
I learned a great deal from him and it was in film school that I was first introduced to Kurosawa.
And he's had a tremendous influence on my life, and on my work, and on my sensitivity toward visual storytelling.
Good evening and I'm sorry I can't be there with you tonight to celebrate the 99th birthday of my friend Akira Kurosawa.
I am very grateful for the time I was able to work with Kurosawa, and I'm happy being a part of celebrating him tonight.
Let me congratulate Anaheim University for launching the Akira Kurosawa School of Film.
So that more students around the world can be inspired as I was by this great director.
The time I spent with Kurosawa has been reflected in my own work as all the time I spent with Kurosawa's films, have done so much to inspire me to be a better filmmaker.
He was a true visionary.
Not just for Japanese cinàsts, but for film lovers and students all over the entire world.
He had an amazing, amazing body of work that continues today to inspire all of us.
So thank you!
Have a very happy birthday!
Hope to see you on his 100th!
Hello I'm Martin Scorsese and let me take this opportunity to congratulate Anaheim University, and the Kurosawa family, on the launch of the Anaheim University Akira Kurosawa School of Film.
And I'm sorry that I'm unable to be with you there tonight.
But I also like to take this opportunity to wish Akira Kurosawa a happy 99th birthday.
Let me say it simply; I mean Kurosawa was my master and so many others.
The master of so many other filmmakers over the years.
And from the 1950's, when we were seeing his pictures for the first time in America through the end of his career as an artist the 90's,
I set among generations of filmmakers, and film lovers, and watched those astonishing visions he was able to conjure up in his imagination and completely rendered them on the screen.
Kurosawa's films had an awe-inspiring power; physical and graphic.
His indelible compositions in movie after movie seemed to have been burned into the screen.
As I sat there in the 50's, and 60's, and watch "Rashomon", or "Seven Samurai", "High and low",
"The Bad Sleep", well "Yojimbo", "Throne of Blood", and so many others,
I felt the energy and excitement of those images, those movements, and those scenes transferred to me, and to all the rest of us who sat there in the theater enthralled.
In later years, I came to know Akira Kurosawa.
He asked me to act in one of his last films and of course, I accepted.
It was a remarkable experience to watch the true master at work.
For so many of us, he defined a sense of possibility in movies.
He still does through the pictures he made.
Happy birthday Sensei.
