FEATURE: Kurosawa's first film to make comeback on DVD.

Japan Consumer Electronics Scan, September, 2002

TOKYO, Aug. 30 Kyodo

An almost uncut version of the late director Akira Kurosawa's first movie will make a comeback on DVD in October thanks to a Russian motion picture depository that kept a portion of the scenes removed from the original work.

Kurosawa catapulted to international fame when the movie ''Rashomon'' he directed won the grand prix at the 1951 Venice film festival.

Born in Tokyo in 1910, he debuted as a director with his 1943 film ''Sugata Sanshiro,'' a story about a Japanese judoka who struggles to deal with the callous nature associated with judo.

Sanshiro, the name of the leading character, became popular among children who sang the movie title song, which included the words, ''Don't go near him, don't touch him,...