Kurosawa's inabilty to get funding in his later years ultimately led to a suicide attempt and that act caught the attention of the rest of the world outside Japan. The outpouring of concern was immense and resulted in the many offers of assistance from other filmakers and industry people.
His inability to get funding was partly due to his filming style. He took way more time to film than was estimated and he spent way more than budgeted. For example, for his film "Throne of Blood", he had an entire medieval samural castle built. The studio balked at the expense but gave in with the expectation the castle could be used in other productions. Imagine the studio's shock when Kurosawa destroyed the castle filming the final battle scenes. It may be OK for John Wayne to build a duplicate Alamo in the desert and destroy it (U.S. studios weren't as concerned about the expense), but when Kurosawa did essentially the same thing, he was labelled as a wasteful spendthrift.
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