Toshiro Mifune Movies
Born in China to Japanese parents, Toshiro Mifune hoped to become an assistant cameraman after serving in World War II, but was deflected from this goal when he won a talent contest sponsored by Toho Studios. With no prior acting experience, he launched his movie career in 1946 and, two years later, worked for the first time with director Akira Kurosawa in Drunken Angel. In later interviews, Kurosawa said that, although worried about the untrained Mifune's lack of artistic discipline, he "still...did not want to smother that vitality." The director eventually came to realize that Mifune's willingness to do and try anything before the camera was -- for him, at least -- preferable to the introspection and motivation-searching practiced by other Japanese actors.Mifune's raw, unbridled masculinity was ideal for such Kurosawa films as Rashomon (1950) and The Seven Samurai (1954). But as he matured artistically, the actor proved he was no one-trick pony, as demonstrated by his low-key, carefully crafted performance as a tormented business executive in High and Low (1963). The first internationally popular Japanese film star since Sessue Hayakawa, Mifune was held in as high esteem by the film industry as he was by the public, winning Venice Film Festival awards for his performances in Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1960) and Red Beard (1965). Mifune's ability to shift from macho to subtle sensitivity was very similar to the work of Clint Eastwood, who, ironically, played the Mifune-character role in A Fistful of Dollars, the 1964 remake of Yojimbo.
In addition to his work for Kurosawa, Mifune starred in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy, and was occasionally seen in English-language productions (often dubbed by his favorite voice-over artist, Paul Frees). The actor's non-Japanese efforts included John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix (1966) and Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979); he also played Admiral Yamamoto in Midway (1976) and was teamed with another major male action star, Charles Bronson, in Red Sun (1971). Beginning in 1963, Mifune produced theatrical and TV films through his own company, and, in 1964, made his first (and only) attempt at directing with The Legacy of the 500,000. Mifune died in 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Originally titled Yoidore tenshi, Drunken Angel was director Akira Kurosawa's first "auteur" project. "I finally discovered myself," he explained later. "It was my picture: I was doing it and no one else." Takashi Shimura plays an alcoholic doctor, running a fleabitten clinic in the slums of Tokyo. Shimura tries to pull himself together long enough to save the life of young hoodlum Toshiro Mifune. The doctor feels that, by saving Mifune, he is retrieving a portion of his own lost youth and idealism. Kurosawa later observed that he had trouble corraling Tohsiro Mifune's improvisational instincts, but that "I did not want to smother that vitality." The end result in Drunken Angel is a supremely satisfying blend of Mifune's rapid-fire excesses and Kurosawa's even-handed control. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Reisaburo Yamamoto, (more)
A dedicated army surgeon finds his once-bright future suddenly obscured when he contracts syphilis while performing a life-saving operation in this early collaboration between director Akira Kurosawa and Toshirô Mifune. Contaminated with a disease that was virtually incurable in 1940s Japan, Fujisaki returns home from the war to work presided over by his obstetrician father (Takashi Shimura). As Fujisaki furtively agonizes over the havoc that the disease will wreck on his upcoming marriage, his noble attempts to save the lives of his many patients masks a silent desperation that will likely remain with him to his final hour. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, (more)
Akira Kurosawa directs the black-and-white 1949 film noir Nora Inu (released in the U.S. in 1963 as Stray Dog). In his third film with Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune plays young police detective Murakami. One summer day on a crowded bus in Tokyo, his gun is stolen by a pickpocket. Rather than face the shame of reporting his gun missing, he chooses to go out and find it himself (there were not many weapons on the streets of Tokyo immediately following WWII). While trying to locate the gun, he discovers an entire criminal underworld. He is eventually helped on his journey by superior officer Sato (Takashi Shimura), who seems to suggest that the young detective is indulging in his own criminal desires. The search becomes even more desperate when Murakami finds out that his gun has been used in several crimes, including murder. He then develops an obsession with finding both the gun and the killer. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, (more)
- 1950
Released in Japan as Shubun, Scandal was the eleventh film directed by Akira Kurosawa (it was produced just prior to his more famous Rashomon). The director described it as a "protest" film about press journalism. The film sets forth the theory that the postwar Japanese press was too free in its insinuations, and that personal privacy had been sacrificed for the sake of sensationalism (The more things change...) Based on a story related to Kurosawa at a bar (!), the film traces the tragedy that results when a prominent lawyer is skewered by the press. Scandal ends with the hospital death of the lawyer's daughter--which didn't happen in the real-life anecdote. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yoshiko Yamaguchi, Takashi Shimura, (more)
- 1951
A former soldier is branded an idiot because of his epileptic seizures caused by wartime experiences. He shows unbridled compassion for people after he moves in with friends of his family as he tries to help a young man ruined by the war and a woman hounded by a wealthy but cruel suitor. All the characters are victims of the war and its devastating emotional aftershocks. Taken from Feodor Dostoyevsky's classic novel, the screenplay was written by the film's director, Akira Kurosawa. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Masayuki Mori, Toshiro Mifune, (more)
This landmark film is a brilliant exploration of truth and human weakness. It opens with a priest, a woodcutter, and a peasant taking refuge from a downpour beneath a ruined gate in 12th-century Japan. The priest and the woodcutter, each looking stricken, discuss the trial of a notorious bandit for rape and murder. As the retelling of the trial unfolds, the participants in the crime -- the bandit (Toshiro Mifune), the rape victim (Machiko Kyo), and the murdered man (Masayuki Mori) -- tell their plausible though completely incompatible versions of the story. In the bandit's version, he and the man wage a spirited duel after the rape, resulting in the man's death. In the woman's testimony, she is spurned by her husband after being raped. Hysterical with grief, she kills him. In the man's version, speaking through the lips of a medium, the bandit beseeches the woman after the rape to go away with him. She insists that the bandit kill her husband first, which angers the bandit. He spurns her and leaves. The man kills himself. Seized with guilt, the woodcutter admits to the shocked priest and the commoner that he too witnessed the crime. His version is equally feasible, although his veracity is questioned when it is revealed that he stole a dagger from the crime scene. Just as all seems bleak and hopeless, a baby appears behind the gate. The commoner seizes the moment and steals the child's clothes, while the woodcutter redeems himself and humanity in the eyes of the troubled priest, by adopting the infant. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, (more)
- 1952
Life of Oharu features Kinuyo Tanaka in the title role. Oharu is a middle-aged prostitute in 17th century Japan. As she prays before a statue of Buddha, Oharu reviews her past. Her road to degradation began when, as a teenager, she disgraced her family by falling in love with a samurai (Toshiro Mifune). Oharu became the mistress of a prince, who cast her off after she bore his son. She was then sold into prostitution by her father, and thus began a catch-as-catch-can existence alternating between brief happiness with those she genuinely loved and servitude to those she despised. A potential happy ending, reuniting her with her royal son, is dashed by the much-maligned Oharu herself, who opts for the life of a beggar. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, a lifelong advocate of equitable treatment for Japanese women, Life of Oharu was adapted from a novel by Saikaku Ibara. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune, (more)
Akira Kurosawa's epic tale concerns honor and duty during a time when the old traditional order is breaking down. The film opens with master samurai Kambei (Takashi Shimura) posing as a monk to save a kidnapped farmer's child. Impressed by his selflessness and bravery, a group of farmers begs him to defend their terrorized village from bandits. Kambei agrees, although there is no material gain or honor to be had in the endeavor. Soon he attracts a pair of followers: a young samurai named Katsushiro (Isao Kimura), who quickly becomes Kambei's disciple, and boisterous Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), who poses as a samurai but is later revealed to be the son of a farmer. Kambei assembles four other samurais, including Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi), a master swordsman, to round out the group. Together they consolidate the village's defenses and shape the villagers into a militia, while the bandits loom menacingly nearby. Soon raids and counter-raids build to a final bloody heart-wrenching battle. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, (more)
- 1954
Samurai Trilogy is a 303-minute videotape comprised of the three Samurai films masterminded by Japanese director Hiroshi Inagaki in the mid-1950s. Toshiro Mifune stars in all three films as 17th century Samurai warrior Miyamato Musashi. The films trace the samurai's matriculation from lowly farm boy to noble, Zorro-like defender of right. The three films represented are Musashi Myamoto, Duel at Ichijoji Temple and Duel at Ganryu Island. A shorter (112 minute) compendium of the trilogy, Samurai Saga, is also available on cassette. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
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Samurai 2: Duel at Ichijoji Temple follows the adventures of the 17th-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune), as he wanders through feudal Japan learning the ways of a samurai warrior. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Musashi Miyamoto was the first entry in Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Ingaki's Samurai trilogy. Toshiro Mifune is Takezo, a good-for-nothing from the farming village of Miyamoto, who dreams of becoming a samurai in 17th century Japan. Over the course of the first part, Takezo evolves from being a man filled with rage and violence who is looked upon by others as a wild animal to being Musashi Miyamoto, a man yearning for a deeper understanding of himself and what it takes to be a true warrior. When first released in the US, Samurai 1 was "clarified" by the narration of William Holden, an actor with a long-standing fascination and affection for all things Japanese. Based on a mammoth novel by Eiji Yoshikawa, Musashi Miyamoto was followed by Duel at Ichijoji Temple and Duel at Ganyru Island . All three films were eventually combined into an epic single entity, Samurai Trilogy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, (more)
- 1955
When an elderly, wealthy man decides that nuclear holocaust is eminent in his country, he decides to move his family to Brazil at all costs--a place which, for some mysterious reason, he believes to be safe. His family refuses to move because they fear that the move will jeopardize their financial well-being. Nakajima burns down his foundry to force them to go to Brazil but, instead, they go to the courts and have him declared mentally incompetent. After several more increasingly irrational acts, he is finally placed in a mental asylum, where he sits staring at the sun, believing that he is on another planet and the sun is the raging inferno created by the Earth when it went up in the nuclear holocaust--vindicating his actions. A strong indictment against the inherent evils of nuclear warfare, it is also the story of a man's love and dedication to his family in the face of his own fears and endangerment. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Eiko Miyoshi, (more)
- 1956
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Samurai 3: Duel At Ganryu Island is the final movie in director Hiroshi Inagacki's trilogy following a samurai played by Toshiro Mifune. In this film, Mifune is challenged to a duel by his arch-rival (Koji Tsuruta). Before he fights the duel, Mifune is tested by a number of bandits and has to cope with the affections of two different women. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, (more)
Macbeth is reimagined as a samurai in feudal Japan in director Akira Kurosawa's classic adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy. Familiar with Orson Welles's more faithful adaptation, Kurosawa chose to place a more personal stamp on his version by translating the events and characters to historical Japan. The equivalent of the tragic Scottish lord is Taketoki Washizu (Toshiro Mifune), a valiant warrior whose life is transformed by an encounter with a ghostly female spirit. The spirit offers several predictions, finally stating that Washizu will rise to power over the current warlord. When these predictions begin coming true, he and his ambitious wife decide to ensure his ascendancy to power by murdering the current ruler. As with Macbeth, Washizu achieves his goal, but his guilt and the suspicions of others soon bring about his downfall. The shift to Japanese settings is seamless, creating a historically accurate and resonant work with a culturally distinct visual style. The supporting performances also recall Japanese tradition, particularly Isuzu Yamada's creepily unemotional take on Lady Macbeth, while Mifune proves consistently gripping in the sheer intensity of his performance. The intelligence of Kurosawa's alterations retains the drama's tragic impact, especially during the conclusion, in which Washizu makes a memorable final stand against an advancing army. Impressive in every regard, Throne of Blood seems secure in the pantheon of superior film adaptations of William Shakespeare. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, (more)
Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa transferred the setting of Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths from Imperial Russia to his own country's Edo Period--which, like Gorky's 19th-century setting, was an era of great cultural advances, offset by the miseries of those who weren't in the aristocracy. Kurosawa's film concentrates on Toshiro Mifune, playing a crooked gambler who falls in love with the sister (Kyoko Kagawa) of his cruel landlady (Isuzu Yamada). Herself carrying a torch for Mifune, the landlady exacts a roundabout revenge by killing her own husband and pinning the blame on the gambler. As the landlady descends into madness, those whom she has treated wretchedly laugh at her plight. Originally titled Donzoko, The Lower Depths was renamed Les Bas-Fonds for its French release--the same title bestowed upon Jean Renoir's 1937 adaptation of the Gorky play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, (more)
- 1958
Isusu Yamada plays a pretty Japanese tea seller who befriends widowed laborer Toshiro Mifune. Before either party knows what has happened, the two have fallen in love. Celebrating their impending marriage, the couple spend a wonderful evening in downtown Tokyo, accompanied by the tea seller's young son (Harunori Kametani). Perhaps it is best that none of the participants in this nocturnal excursion are aware that tragedy looms just around the corner. Running a brief 59 minutes, Down Town is not so much a feature film as a profoundly moving tone poem. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isuzu Yamada, Toshiro Mifune, (more)
- 1958
Tough and ready Mitsu, the rickshaw man, goes in for anything rough and tumble. His life changes, however, when he crosses paths with Toshio, a young boy who has injured himself. As thanks for helping the boy to the doctor, Toshio's parents, the Yoshiokas, invite Mitsu to dinner and he gladly accepts their offer. They become close and when Mr. Yoshioka dies from an illness, the family asks Mitsu to serve as the young boy's tutor. Mitsu does an exemplary job readying Toshio for school, instilling in him the honesty and honor which are so much a part of his own character. After Toshio leaves for school, Mitsu evidences an interest in Mrs. Yoshioka, but their difference in station keeps him from expressing his desire. Mitsu's repressed attraction for the lovely widow grows, driving him to his death at the film's climactic end. The Rickshaw Man is a sentimental favorite of Japanese cinema. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Hideko Takamine, (more)
Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (original Japanese title: Kakushi Toride No San Akunin) stars Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara as a pair of misfit soldiers. Running from the enemy after a disastrous defeat, the two soldiers fall in with general Toshiro Mifune, who is in search of a huge cache of gold. Mifune is also desirous of freeing princess-in-exile Misa Uehara from the clutches of the evil victorious army. Several large and small battles ensue before Mifune can realize his goal. If the plot of Hidden Fortress sounds vaguely familiar to you, try this exercise: substitute two robots for Chiaki and Fujiwara, Mark Hamill for Mifune, and Carrie Fisher for Uehara. George Lucas himself admitted that Hidden Fortress was a principal inspiration for his Star Wars saga; stretching the point farther, both Hidden Fortress and Star Wars had their roots in John Ford's The Searchers. Originally released in a 137-minute form, The Hidden Fortress was sliced to ribbons by its American distributors, and years later received extensive restoration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune, Misa Uehara, (more)
- 1959
This well-wrought, visually stunning tale from Japanese mythology is directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and relates the adventures of a legendary Prince Yamato Takeru (Toshiro Mifune). The reason for those adventures is linked to the creation and/or discovery of the "three treasures" basic to the Shinto religion and the mythic origins of Japan (Yamato) and her emperors. These "three treasures" are a comma-shaped jewel, a mirror, and a sword. As the Prince goes about slaying dragons and surviving all manner of natural disasters -- earthquakes, volcanos, floods -- the heroic stories of how Japan and its imperial family came into being are told in epic style. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yoko Tsukasa, Kyoko Kagawa, (more)
- 1959
Released in Japan as Sengoku Gunto-Den, Saga of the Vagabonds stars Toshiro Mifune as a feudal bandit. Koji Tsuruta, entrusted with the money that will be used to fund the local warlords' battle against Mifune, is waylaid and robbed. Accused of stealing the money, the disgruntled Tsuruta casts his lot with Mifune. He assembles the bandits to storm his family castle and wreak vengeance on the younger brother who betrayed him. Based on a story by Juro Miyoshi, Saga of the Vagabonds was co-scripted by Akira Kurosawa. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
In this lively Japanese samurai epic, a brave 16th-century fighter challenges an evil warrior clan after he falls in love with a beautiful princess. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1960
In the Japanese detective saga/action film Ankokugai no Taiketsu (AKA Last Gunfight), the legendary Toshiro Mifune portrays Fujioka, a detective facing corruption charges. As the story opens, he receives a demotion and gets reassigned to a crime-ridden district overrun by two notoriously violent and ruthless Yakuza clans: the Oka and the Kazuka. The Oka attempt to buy Fujioka off and recruit him as an ally against the Kazuka, but the detective befriends Murayama, a former Kazuka member hell-bent on revenge against the Oka for rubbing out his wife. Fujioka thus prepares to take on the Oka as adversaries. The tone of the film is (given its subject matter) somewhat atypical: light, playful and fun. Koji Tsuruta, Yoko Tsukasa, Jun Tazaki and Makoto Sato co-star. Though this film went long unreleased theatrically in the United States, students of Japanese cinema will be fascinated to know that it did air quietly on New York's Channel 7, late one night in March 1967. Ankokugai no Taiketsu also screened at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival, 37 years after its Japanese premiere. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
In this engaging drama, acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa deftly splices together the nuances of hypocrisy, old feudal misconceptions lingering in modern corruption, and Shakespeare's Hamlet. The rotten corporate world is taken on by Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune), who is looking for revenge in the death of his father. Koichi is a private secretary to a government official, and in the opening scene, at Koichi's wedding to the official's disabled daughter, a special cake is brought in which jolts those present -- it reminds them of the suicide that paved the way for their current positions of power. Then the police arrive and arrest one of the wedding guests. Unknown to the others, Koichi is the hidden force behind all the strange happenings that begin to sting their consciences and ruin their lives. Ghostly figures and would-be killers in the dark streets contrast with shining corporate offices as the plot maneuvers to its tragic conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toshiro Mifune
