Japanese Cinema

I feel that you can find a distillation of all film in the Japanese cinema of the 1950s. Akira Kurosawa understood how to cut film (i.e. storyboarding, montage). Ozu understood how to set the frame, exposure, and contrast, perfect compositions of ordinary motions in every frame. Mizoguchi understood how to move the camera (i.e. dolly, pan, crane; Mizoguchi said that he wanted his scenes to unfold (without cutting) as one might unfold an emaki scroll). Each one had skills in each department, but each had a definitive advantage in his area.