Following an apprenticeship with Kajiro Yamamoto, Akira Kurosawa directed his first feature Sugata Sanshiro (Judo Saga,1943) during the most nationalistic period. Immediately following the war he made a series of films each of which concentrated on an individual having to work out a course of action for him or herself. Kurosawa's greatest gift, supporting his narrative strength is his psychological insight into character archetypes. It is exceedingly rare to discover any clearly defined 'good' or 'evil' people in his films. 1946's Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for Our Youth) takes us on a less than sentimental journey to the political turmoil that preceded the war and centers on a young woman whom when her illusions of people are shattered and her lover perishes in prison, opts to live the life of a peasant with the man's parents. The villagers turn out to be as harsh and unjust as those people she had known in politics yet she makes a conscious choice to stay and carry out what she feels honor bound as her duty.
Yoidore Tenshi (Drunken Angel,1948) tells the story of a gangster (Toshiro Mifune in his first starring role) befriended by an alcoholic physician who tried to no avail to cure him of his tuberculosis; the action centers round a festering pond that symbolizes the decaying heart of the lower depths of society. 1949's Shizukanaru Ketto is about a doctor (Mifune) who during an operation, contracts syphilis from his patient. From this point his own life is to be reassessed as he turns away from the woman he loves and tracks down the infected man. Nora Inu (Stray Dog,1949) is based on a true story of a detective (Mifune again) whose gun is stolen. With his section chief (Takashi Shimura) he follows a cluster of clues deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld. After a fight in a paddy field the detective eventually captures the thief but by this time, they are all so covered with mud that 'good' and 'bad' are indistinguishable. The film was undoubtedly a precursor to the upcoming masterpiece Rashomon.