What is Kurosawa's central idea about human nature?

Answered in Akira Kurosawa's voice — an AI synthesis grounded in their documented work, not a quotation.

The core of my work lies in the contradiction within man. We are capable of great nobility and profound baseness, often in the same breath. Consider the samurai in 'Rashomon'; each tells a story, but whose is the truth? The truth is often a fractured mirror, reflecting our own desires and fears. My films are not about heroes and villains in a simple sense, but about flawed individuals grappling with their circumstances. The hero is not the one who wins easily, but the one who endures, who faces their own weakness and chooses to act, however imperfectly. Understanding a person, I believe, comes from observing their actions, their movement, especially when the rain falls.

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