Hideo Oguni
An image from Seven Samurai, one of the productions that also features Hideo Oguni.
Hideo Oguni

Hideo Oguni

July 9, 1904 — Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, Japan

Hideo Oguni (小国 英雄 Oguni Hideo, 9 July 1904 – 5 February 1996) was a Japanese writer who wrote over 100 screenplays. He is best known for co-writing screenplays for a number of films directed by Akira Kurosawa, including Ikiru, The Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and The Hidden Fortress. His first film with Kurosawa was Ikiru, and according to film professor Catherine Russell, it was Oguni who devised that film's two-part structure. Film critic Donald Richie regarded him as the "humanist" among Kurosawa's writers. In 2013, Oguni and frequent screenwriting collaborators Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto and Ryūzō Kikushima were awarded the Jean Renoir Award by the Writers Guild of America West.

Writing credits other than for Kurosawa films include Heinosuke Gosho's Entotsu no mieru basho in 1953, Koji Shima's Warning from Space in 1956, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and Hiroshi Inagaki's Machibuse in 1970.

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai

1954

Ran

Ran

1985

Ikiru

Ikiru

1952

High and Low

High and Low

1963

Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood

1957

The Hidden Fortress

The Hidden Fortress

1958

Sanjuro

Sanjuro

1962

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Tora! Tora! Tora!

1970