Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa

Teruyo Nogami,

Juliet Winters Carpenter (Translator),

Donald Richie (Foreword by)

3.94 · Rating details · 81 ratings · 9 reviews

Teruyo Nogami was a relative newcomer to film production when hired as a continuity/script assistant on Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. A witness to its filming—and its near destruction in a fire—over the next fifty years she worked on all the master’s films—Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, and Dreams. No one was more closely involved in Kurosawa’s productions, and in this memo Teruyo Nogami was a relative newcomer to film production when hired as a continuity/script assistant on Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. A witness to its filming—and its near destruction in a fire—over the next fifty years she worked on all the master’s films—Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, and Dreams. No one was more closely involved in Kurosawa’s productions, and in this memoir, charmingly illustrated with her own sketches, Nogami writes candidly about the director’s energy, creativity, and his famous rages, telling the inside story on how so many classics of world cinema were made.

"Teruyo Nogami was Akira Kurosawa's script supervisor throughout his career, more importantly she was his loyal assistant and supporter during both the good and bad moments of his life. She is an extraordinary woman and these memories are a path to understanding the temperament and genius of one of the few...geniuses of cinematic history. It's not uncommon for a film director to have made one or two great films, but Kurosawa was able to create many masterpieces in many styles, set in both modern and classic times. So the opportunity to know this artist through the lucid eyes of a long-time collaborator is a privilege and an opportunity. Nogami-san's salty personality is perfect to show his many sides, not always flattering, which is essential in grasping him. This book is a treasury of stories and a key to the great body of cinematic work of Akira Kurosawa." -- Francis Ford Coppola

"If you're interested in movies, then you're interested in the work of Akira Kurosawa. Teruyo Nogami was by Kurosawa's side for almost 50 years, as he quietly (and sometimes, not so quietly) revolutionized the very grammar of cinema. This is a wonderfully intimate and beautifully written portrait of one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived, which makes it essential reading." -- Martin Scorsese

"Sure to become a classic memoir, essential for our understanding of one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century." -- The Japan Times ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, First Edition (U.S.), 296 pages

Published September 1st 2006 by Stone Bridge Press

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Waiting on the Weather, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Waiting on the Weather

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-51

Average rating 3.94 ·

Rating details

· 81 ratings · 9 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa

Sep 06, 2014 Patrick McCoy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan, non-fiction, film

I was recently screening Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon for my Japanese Cinema class, so I decided to read Teruyo Nogami's memoir Waiting On The Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa (2006). I knew that Nogami had worked on many Kurosawa films from Rashomon up until his last film, Madadayo. However, I was unaware of her connection with Mansaku Itami (father of one my favorite contemporary filmmakers Juzo Itami). Itami was Kogami's first mentor and she helped raise Juzo. In fact I was interested I was recently screening Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon for my Japanese Cinema class, so I decided to read Teruyo Nogami's memoir Waiting On The Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa (2006). I knew that Nogami had worked on many Kurosawa films from Rashomon up until his last film, Madadayo. However, I was unaware of her connection with Mansaku Itami (father of one my favorite contemporary filmmakers Juzo Itami). Itami was Kogami's first mentor and she helped raise Juzo. In fact I was interested to learn that noted chambara and jidaigeki director Daisuke Ito was his best friend and both were from Matsuyama-a formidable cultural friendship much like that of his son Juzo and his best friend the Nobel Prize winning author Kenzubaro Oe. The first chapter focuses on this connection, "Mansaku Itami, My First Mentor." There is a lot of interesting information about how films were made in the postwar era in the second chapter, "Life in Miniature: At the Daiei Kyoto Studios." The third chapter proved to be a timely read for me since it concerns Rashomon, "Smiled on by Lady Luck: Rashomon." There's another interesting connection between Itami and Kogami that arises when Kogami tells how Itami also served as a mentor for Rashomon screenplay writer Shinobu Hashimoto, whom she would work with on that film. There are several facts that I was either unaware of or forgot: there were two fires that took place while they were editing the film, the film was entered in the Venice film festival without Kurosawa's knowledge-thus it's reception saved his reputation and revived his career since the film was so poorly received in Japan at first. "Toho Paradise" follows and Nogami tells how she moved to Toho after Rashomon and immediately worked with another great postwar director, Kon Ichikawa (probably best known for The Burmese Harp). In this chapter she discusses some of the jobs of the director's assistants and how they worked-using mostly examples from Kurosawa films. In "The Past Won't Return: remembering Dersu Uzala" she reminisces about the difficult 1972 shoot with cooperation of the Russian government that was a hardship in conditions of the location as well as working through a difficult shoot where Kurosawa was drinking heavily and border-lining on being outright abusive to his staff. In retrospect she feels that she could have been more understanding of him. Kogami discusses Kurosawa's issues with getting animals to perform for film in Chapter Six: "Kurosawa and Animals." The animals are a tiger for Dersu Uzala, horses in Kagemusha, and crows in Dreams. The next chapter, Seven: "Kurosawa and Music," examines Kurosawa's relationship with composers: Fumio Hayasaka, Masaru Sato, and Toru Takemitsu. In Chapter Eight: "Sentimental Recollections," Nogami remembers cinema's great that have passed away, for example: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, and Juzo Itami. In an interesting side note, she reveals that Mikio Naruse's Hideko the Bus Conductress was banned during the war for fear of showing the Malays decrepit-looking bus, which would have stained Japanese honor. It is followed by Chapter Nine, "Observing the Kurosawa Group," looks at several peopel associated with Kurosawa and the two most interesting sections for me were: "What Really Happened with Shintaro Katsu on Kagemusha" and "Kurosawa and Mifune after Red Beard." The last chapter was devoted to discussions of Kurosawa's meetings, appreciations, and relationships with world directors: John Ford, Laurence Olivier, Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Goddard and John Milius, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorcese, William Friedkin, Sidney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, John Cassavetes and Jim Jarmusch. This book is certainly of interest to Kurosawa fans, but perhaps indispensable to fans of the golden years of Japanese cinema. There is some repetition in the book since it was culled from a number of sources, but very entertaining and enlightening. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 14, 2015 Gabriela rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, leiamulheres

Admito que li sem nunca ter visto um filme de Kurosawa na íntegra. E foi bem legal a experiência, porque todos os filmes que vi depois foram acompanhados de memórias da Teruyo e me deram um panorama do mercado cinematográfico japonês.

Recomendo para fãs de cinema e para fãs de Kurosawa... também para quem tem curiosidade de saber como eram as filmagens nas décadas passadas, antes da fase digital que vivemos hoje.

Livro delicado com memórias muito preciosas e envolventes. :)

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 27, 2012 Luiz Santiago rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cinema, biografia

Gostei bastante, principalmente ao saber que na verdade, o livro é o ajuntamento de muitos artigos publicados em diferentes veículos, o que cerrou o meu "senão" em relação às repetições. As informações aqui são valiosíssimas, um livro obrigatório para todos os fãs de Kurosawa e do cinema japonês. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2019 Ad rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction-biography, nonfiction-film, tags-japan

Nogami Teruyo was the script supervisor and loyal assistant of Kurosawa Akira (1910-1998). This extraordinary women was at his side from the filming of Rashomon on to the very last. She wrote some of her personal memories down after Kurosawa's death for the Japanese magazine Cinema Club - she could not have done this while Kurosawa was still alive, as he would have told her, she says, "You've got it all wrong!"

That was in the mid-nineties, and the Japanese pieces were published in book form in 2 Nogami Teruyo was the script supervisor and loyal assistant of Kurosawa Akira (1910-1998). This extraordinary women was at his side from the filming of Rashomon on to the very last. She wrote some of her personal memories down after Kurosawa's death for the Japanese magazine Cinema Club - she could not have done this while Kurosawa was still alive, as he would have told her, she says, "You've got it all wrong!"

That was in the mid-nineties, and the Japanese pieces were published in book form in 2000. Thanks to an initiative of Donald Richie (who also wrote an introduction) this English translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter was published two years ago by Stone Bridge Press. As is usual for Stone Bridge, it is a beautiful book, with illustrations by the author.

To be sure, this is not a biography or a full analysis of Kurosawa's films. It is an intimate human record in which we get glimpses of the genius director and the way he worked. After a first chapter on Itami Mansaku, a director Nogami Teruyo never met but corresponded with as a schoolgirl and who inspired love for film in her (later Ms Nogami would take care of one the sons, Itami Juzo, when he was a young boy) and a chapter on the Daiei Kyoto studios where she started working just after the war, the story about Kurosawa kicks in with Rashomon (1951).

We see the then 40-year old director energetically working with his team. At that time, he was already the perfectionist he would always be. The most interesting episode is how they used to carry around mirrors to reflect the sun while filming in the woods - indeed, the contrasts between black and white in Rashomon are perfect. Fascinating is also the episode about the sudden fire in the Daiei studios where quick action miraculously saved the negatives of Rashomon.

What we get from this book is how different film making was before the invention of CGI. That was "waiting on the weather" - not only waiting hours and hours for sunshine, but also waiting for a particular cloud to move into just the right spot above the roof of a building. When filming the village in The Seven Samurai in the setting sun with the seven samurai in profile in the foreground, the cameraman waited just a few seconds too long, so they had to do it all over again the next day. The ants marching in formation over the ground in Rhapsody in August were real ants and a lot of "ant study" went into that scene. The same is true for the crows that fly up at the end of the Van Gogh episode in Dreams. The film team had to catch actual crows, put them in small cages and open the cages at just the right moment. No wonder Kurosawa took months, and even years, making his films, while Miike Takashi finishes off one flick a week...

Kurosawa ruled his team like an "emperor," and could have fits of terrible anger. He and the people around him had an especially hard time when filming Dersu Urzala under the most primitive circumstances in Siberia. In the course of the filming, Kurosawa went from one bottle of vodka a day, to two bottles. Kurosawa worked well with people who had lesser egos, such as Mifune Toshiro, who despite his macho roles was a rather shy man - a pity Kurosawa dropped him after filming Red Beard, just because he had enough of his style of acting.

Katsu Shintaro originally was to be the lead actor in Kagemusha, but the swaggering, rough-and ready actor immediately clashed with the precise and perfectionist Kurosawa - their relation just lasted one day, the second morning Katsu left in a huff and was replaced with Nakadai Tatsuya. This episode reads like slapstick, but the quarrels with Takemitsu Toru were more serious. Takemitsu, who wrote the music for Ran, was Japan's most important composer of the twentieth century and of course had a great sense of artistic integrity. He did not allow Kurosawa (who, as "emperor" wanted to have his say in every small detail!) to meddle with the music he made. Takemitsu got his way but with much difficulty and never worked with Kurosawa again. On the contrary, he made a pointed remark about the group around Kurosawa who just acted as yes-men and never dared to differ in opinion (in this, he also included Nogami Teruyo): "It's all the fault of the people around Kurosawa!"

But Nogami certainly is no flatterer, she openly shows us the great director in his many moods, also the nasty ones. Her book is a treasure of stories and in the end we only would like to have had more.
...more

flag Like · see review

May 04, 2021 Calton Bolick rated it really liked it

This is less a full-fledged memoir than it is a loosely tied-together collection of different memories -- which makes sense, because the book is based on a series of different articles written for Japanese movie magazines. This means that the order is only roughly chronological, at best, and there is some repetition of material (for example, the shooting of one particular scene from "Rashomon" is described twice, in two different chapters).

Nevertheless, but there are interesting anecdotes and de ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 17, 2016 Kristen rated it really liked it

I've heard of this famous director, but not yet seen any of his work. Nogami served as a script girl on a dozen or so of his pictures. The book would probably mean more if all the names she dropped--movies and actors--were familiar ones. As it was, they were just a collection of syllables, unless they appeared in enough of her anecdotes for me to form a picture of the person.

However, I mined a treasure or two from Nogami's memoir.

First, there was Kazuo Hasegawa, an actor who oozed sex appeal. O ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 05, 2007 Chris rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Kurosawa freaks

After slogging through the Emperor and the Wolf, I decided to try again to satisfy my fever for getting inside Kurosawa's head. This book is written by his longtime script supervisor, starting back with Rashomon in 1950. Nogami jumps around in time a fair bit, but overall it is an enjoyable light read. There isn't much detail to her observations, but now well into her 80's it does provide depth of perspective.

Most interestingly were to chapters devoted to the (unknown to me) father-son director ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 12, 2008 Jim rated it really liked it

Excellent personal view of famed director Akira Kurosawa from his long-time script supervisor. Anecdotes, personal insights into Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, and other notables of Japanese film. A little repetitive in places (it's taken from several different magazine articles), but especially toward the end, it's quite remarkable. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 28, 2008 Carrie rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

This was an interesting read. Composed of essays that were originally published individually, it occasionally covered the same ground in multiple places, but the stories were very interesting. This purports to be about Kurossawa, and it does spend a great deal of time on him, but it is also a larger picture of film-making and "movie magic" behind the scenes. ...more

flag Like · see review