It’s tough to find movies that my husband and I both love. There are maybe a couple dozen films that we can sit and watch over and over. Chief among these is anything at all with the god-like Toshiro Mifune. I’ll watch him in anything, incuding that awful Charles Bronson western, “Red Sun”.
Since there were no movies out this weekend I wanted to see (“Sexy Beast” has not yet made it to the sticks), I decided it was time to slake my lust with the Samurai Trilogy. Part one wasn’t available, so I took home part two, in which TM (as the legendary swordsman Musashi) slices 'n dices about 800 lesser men, and fights off the love-lorn babes of medieval Kyoto. I think Musashi is supposed to be learning some character-building stuff along the way, but the subtitles were very short on subtext, and besides, the movie features a scene in which TM, wearing some sort of little thong, pours a bucket of water over his well-muscled bod, so who needs dialogue? Just hand me the remote and let’s see that again in slo-o-w motion.
Anyway, I think Toshiro Mifune was just about the perfect action hero. He knew how to walk the walk, he had that killer voice, and he honest-to-god knew his way around a sword, he could act any of his co-stars off the screen. I can’t even watch another action movie for days after a TM film, particularly one directed by Kurosawa. I think “Yojimbo” is my favorite TM film over all, but I just love watching him stride around as Musashi.
So, what do you think of Toshiro Mifune? And which of his movies is your favorite?
He is damn cool. Cooler than Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis combined in the remakes of Yojimbo. And Clint Eastwood is pretty cool (Bruce Willis is sometimes cool). Yojimbo is my favorite too, but than again I’ve only seen three movies he was in.
Yojimbo is awesome. He does a great role in Seven Samarai. Another good samurai flick is the Hidden Fortress. High and Low (or is it Heaven and Hell) is really interesting because he’s a successful Yokohama businessman in the early 60’s in Tokyo.
He made a gazillion movies and almost every one of his roles was a killer.
You can read the Mushashi epic in English. It’s pretty good and beats the hell outta crap like Shogun (don’t forget who was in that mini series, good ol’ TM)
I feel your pain. I like Toshiro so much that I to sat through Red Sun. Toshiro Mifune and Urusla Andress topless…not a bad deal. It is a shame that most actors from the east come to America and are unable to make any really good movies.
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My wife bought me all three of the DVDs this past Valentines Day. I would have liked it more had Criterion included some sort of commentary. But you take what you can get.
I’ve liked everything I’ve ever seen him in. My favorite movie with him in it has to be Seven Samurai. I’d pick up the Criterion DVD if I were you because it has an excellent commentary that gives you all sorts of great information. My favorite movie that starred Mifune on his own would probably be Yojimbo. I also enjoyed the sequel Sanjuro but Yojimbo was much much better.
Funny thing is I saw Last Man Standing many years ago starring Bruce Willis. Of course everyone knows it was based on Yojmbo but for some reason I thought it was a really horrible movie. There’s even at least one line that was in both movies. How someone can take what’s basically the same script and shoot the same movie and end up making a piece of crap will confound me for years to come.
Definitely one of the greatest action heroes of all time. Right now, I’m very partial to Sanjuro, the sorta-sequel to Yojimbo (same guy, same tricks, but iit’s really a comedy).
I used to think that Mifune kept playing the same role over and over, but I was very wrong. The subtle differences in his delivery, as well as the traits that he carries from role to role are part of what I like about him so well.
(It’s worth noting that beyond being a great actor, Mifune is also blessed with having a great director at his back. Imagine if Kirk Douglas made sixteen films with Stanley Kubrick instead of just two.)
By the way, I’m having trouble identifying the titles in Mifune’s “Blind Samurai” series of films. Can anyone clue me in?
He was in an intriguing film with Lee Marvin, called Hell in the Pacific. The two men were stranded on the same island during WW2. John Boorman directed.
I’ve read that George Lucas liked The Hidden Fortress so much that he created a pair of android characters in a space movie he did once.
Yeah, Toshiro was the man. Not only were his roles all subtly different, but within a role, he could hit a lot of different notes. One of my favorite moments of his comes in The Hidden Fortress. After we’ve only come to know his character through his treatment of Matakishi and Tahei, we see him conversing with Princess Yuki. In that scene, he reveals that the decoy that was sent in the Princess’ place and beheaded was his own sister. What a scene!
Plus, he managed to act relatively dignified in 1941.
