Russian President Boris Yeltsin sent a letter to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi expressing regret over the death of film director Akira Kurosawa, Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday.
In a letter dated Sept. 12, Yeltsin said that Kurosawa was a conspicuous film director and an international cultural figure, the officials said.
Kurosawa paid attention to Russian classic literature which helped him produce famous films in Russia based upon Russian novels and plays, Yeltsin said in the letter, according to the ministry officials.