Being humble doesn't impair one's ability to decide which people to work with and who to not work with.

Kurosawa openly admits he's deeply influenced by the world and is insignificant in the face of it. He's a huge fan of western literature, specifically Shakespear, and even adapted Macbeth in a Japanese light. That's an example of Kurosawa standing on the shoulder of a giant. He's also a lover of western cinema, and you can see those inspirations in his movies. Infact, he was attacked by japanese critics for being too western.

At one point openly said he regretted never making a Godzilla film. That kinda flies in the face of this beacon of supreme originality who would never look up to anyone or anything that you paint Kurosawa as.

I highly recommend you branch out and watch outside your comfort zone.

I'm half asian and I watch asian cinema all the time. I'm just not going to shit all over american cinema and their greatest directors because of that.