Akira Kurosawa first rose to prominence as a director during the 1940s, with perhaps his first great (or at least close to great) film being 1949’s Stray Dog. He really came into his own during the 1950s, though, shortly thereafter going on to have a less prolific but still high-quality 1960s. Even into the 1980s, he was still capable of making great films, as shown quite plainly by Ran (1985).