Miyamoto Musashi

Toshiro Mifune stars as a foolish young man who longs to run off to war to make his fortune and prove he is a man. When a battle looms, he runs off to volunteer and his friend, showing some initial reluctance, follows. Instead of glory, they barely escape with their lives. Their paths leads them to two women--an incredibly evil sociopathic mother and her daughter who is not yet as jaded and selfish as the mother. Mifune resists temptation and runs from them, while his friend succumbs to their pleas to stay--and in essence throws away his life and honor. Where Mifune's path takes him I'll leave for you to discover when you watch the film.

Despite having Mifune in the lead, this is NOT an Akira Kurasawa film and some may be disappointed that it is a little more stodgy than one of his films. Instead, I just see it as different but certainly worthwhile. The movie does have tremendous scope and is a very effective opening film to the Samurai Trilogy.

It is important to note that these movies were made nearly 50 years ago and existing copies on DVD are in poor condition--with fading and sepia tones instead of the vibrant original. This became VERY apparent when I saw the beginning of the 3rd film. The color was nearly perfect for the initial scene and that is great, as it's a beautiful and extremely artistic shot. At times throughout the movie, some of the scenes are once again vivid while others are faded and lose their impact. You can't blame the film for that, but you wish Criterion would try to digitally enhance the prints they've got to improve the colors and get rid of some scratchy cels.

This movie doesn't take much brainpower, but is a fine tale about two friends who leave their village in a quest for glory. Its set in feudal age Japan and the scenery is beautiful! Mountains, green pastures, lakes, forests with bamboo undergrowth and the cities and villages in typical style serves as the backdrop.

Takezo (Mifune) is the strong and wild character all the woman likes, but he cant handle the attention very well so he keeps running. All the characters as well as the story is not hard to get, so this is one to bring in the kids on.

Will defo check the rest of the series out, maybe the books as well.

"Miyamoto Musashi" (1955): by Hiroshi Inagaki, starring Torshiro Mifune. This is an EPIC story of one man who sets out to travel far and wide throughout the land and himself in search of his identity and purpose. It has something of the feel of Herman Hesse's book "Siddhartha", but with Samurai battle scenes… (no, it is NOT a silly martial arts film). Having won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film of 1955, this is 97 minutes of serious life dramas, with the priorities being Japanese, of course. One must think that with less than a decade having passed since Japan's defeat in WWII, this film's considerations (set in the 16th century) - about identity, goals, love, war, status, and true purpose - were nearly unavoidable. Beautiful photography, good color (considering the era), music that occasionally over-swelled the scene, believable sets, and again, a serious story line, make this one worth seeing. This will sound odd, but I found lots of parallels to the early Marlon Brando film, "The Wild One'". Feel free to disagree.

The first of a trilogy that really should be viewed as a whole. This elegant film tells of the very humble beginnings of Miyamoto Mushashi, who has become a paragon of Bushido and Giri. A Samurai's Samurai.

However, you have no inkling of this at the beginning of the movie. What we see is dirt and squalor and a desperate chance to get out from beneath the mud. It all goes wrong and things look desperate.

As the movie progresses in the slow, methodical, often obtuse, Japanese fashion we become engrossed in the plot and the lives of our protagonists. Toshiro Mifune shows a vast range of emotion, power and character growth in these this movie. To get the full flavour of the story you must also watch the next two movies in this trilogy (2) "Duel at Ichijoji Temple"(1955) (USA)and (3) "Duel on Ganryu Island" (1956)(USA.

The Samurai Trilogy is a very good work, very well worth watching. No, they aren't as great as Kurosawa's samurai masterpieces, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, or Sanjuro, but they are no much less worthy. My only major complaint is that they were filmed in color, which is a lot less good looking and elegant than the black and white of the Kurosawa films. In some scenes, especially those at night, it is very difficult to determine which character is which.

The Samurai Trilogy excels in several aspects. First and foremost, Toshiro Mifune may be the single best actor who ever lived. Sure, he was typecast, but he was great in his roles. There is a huge difference in his acting jobs in these films and Rashomon or The Seven Samurai or Yojimbo and Sanjuro. His character here is very complex. The second reason to watch is for the great secondary characters. They are all quite complex. There will be characters you'll love and long for, and other characters whom you will hope will be killed by Toshiro. These secondary characters are extraordinarily complex at times. Third, watch it for the novelistic unfoldings of the story. Well, it should be novelistic, since all three films were based on a single novel. Don't worry about the three movies repeating in any way. Also, it is a good idea to watch all three in a row (I watched the first two tonight, and plan to watch the third one tomorrow night; hey, it's late!). The story is constantly developing, and you don't want to forget anything. I give each segment of the samurai trilogy a solid 8/10 (unless the third installment is particularly great or awful; i will most likely post a comment for that film by itself).