Acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa died 10 years ago today. IMDB tips the hat to him in its daily poll, whose results are kind of embarrassing, but a nice gesture, nonetheless.

I wonder how American parents would go about explaining Kurosawa’s work to kids who’ve never seen anything from the last century. “See, he made this movie called ‘Ran,’ which is Japanese for ‘There Will Be Blood. Buckets of it, pouring out of people’s heads. Chicks’ heads, too.’”

In a word, Kurosawa made westerns, and while that description hardly does him justice, it’s no coincidence that he admired John Ford. From Rashomon to Ran, his films are all worth seeing. Rest in peace.