"One blow"
Tokyo march
The birth of Rashomon. My comrade at the Disabled veterans' rehabilitation facility ; My lifelong mentor, Mansaku Itami
The man called Akira Kurosawa. Rashomon ; Ikiru ; Seven samurai I ; Seven samurai II
The lights and shadows of collaborative screenplays. The "writer leading off" approach ; The straight-to-final draft
Hashimoto Pro and Mr. Kurosawa. Two assistant directors ; Kagemusha ; Ran
What followed for Mr. Kurosawa
Epilogue. Ryuzo Kikushima ; Hideo Oguni ; Akira Kurosawa

Any list of Japan's greatest screenplay writers would feature Shinobu Hashimoto near or at the top. This memoir, focusing on his collaborations with Akira Kurosawa, a gifted scenarist in his own right, offers an indispensable insider account and invaluable insights into the unique process that is writing for the screen. Now in paperback, Compound cinematics also stands as a moving reckoning of sorts. The vast majority of Kurosawa's oeuvre was filmed from screenplays that the director co-wrote with a stable of stellar scenarists. Among these was the author, who caught the filmmaker's attention with a script that eventually turned into Rashomon, and who went on to play an integral part in developing and writing two of the grandmaster's crowning jewels--Ikiru and Seven samurai--and other cineaste favorites