Toshiro Mifune
Broken foot + endless hours of staying at home = classic Japanese movie-watching.
Husband and I didn’t start watching samurai/Kurosawa movies until we were married {and I’m half Japanese! why did it take us so long?}, and now we cannot get enough of them. Although not hipster aficionados {yet}, we have seen at least 15 Kurosawa movies, and at least 10 of them feature Toshiro Mifune — by far the coolest tough-guy actor in all Japanese filmdom. He’s like the Steve McQueen of the East; he’s just that awesome. {Some faves: Yojimbo — A Fist Full of Dollars was based of this; Rashomon; Seven Samurai…}
{Mifune in Drunken Angel}
{Very dapper Mifune! Love this look, especially his grimace}
{Images via toshiromifune.org}
KFM Says:
I like the below picture of Mifune! Never seen it before. He was an incredible actor, my favorite. Him and Kurosawa just did amazing things together. Mifune as a drunk, a wild man, a doctor, an _old_ man, he could play anything with passion, and it gives me goosebumps every time I watch him as Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai. It was a shame when they stopped working together after Akahige.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:39 amVintage Mint Says:
Yes, very unfortunate; Kurasawa + Mifune were great together. At first, I thought Mifune was insanely over-the-top, but soon loved every scene/film he was in!
December 8th, 2009 at 1:06 amwilliam ryan kus Says:
Wow, what a cool picture! A lot of character. I feel the same way about Mifune and Kurosawa. It was like Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan, or Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. The strange thing is, I have only seen most of his Samurai movies, but almost none of his movies set in more contemporary times. Except for maybe Stray Dog. Mifune also had a body of work outside of Kurosawa.
I had to go look this up to make sure it wasn’t Kurosawa… the Samurai Triology about the historical figure Musashi.
p34ce
June 26th, 2011 at 9:24 amVintage Mint Says:
Yes, Mifune is THE MAN. Me too, I’ve only seen Stray Dog and Drunken Angel, the rest are all samurai. I’ll have to continue watching more of his films, especially those outside of Kurosawa.
October 3rd, 2011 at 2:56 pm