Miyamoto Musashi

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.

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).

This title is really only the first part of a three-part story of the early life of Musashi, the legendary Samurai. The three parts were released separately and Criterion DVD has released them on three separate discs, each disc about an hour and a half to two hours long. You can try to watch the first disc alone, it stand by itself, but it ends just as Mushashi starts out on his quest, and you'll miss Koji Tsuruta's serene and slightly creepy role as Kojiru, Musashi's arch-enemy, which for me was the best part of parts 2 and 3.

The DVDs feature not very well restored prints, maybe it was the best they could do, and there is no supplemental material.

The movie itself is a fun and lively retelling of the legend. Mifune is more wooden than usual, but this is a time when Japanese action films were taking their cues from westerns, and his Musashi grows from a wild spirit to the requisite strong, silent type. For a modern, charismatic, manga-style Musashi, try to get your hands on 2003's "Musashi" NHK miniseries.

"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.

One can watch this film and learn a lot. The philosophy woven throughout, mainly by the Priest Takuan (Kuroemon Onoe), about what it means to be a man and honor your family (community) is the hidden jewel of this film.

Takezo (Toshirô Mifune) represents all the rebellious youth that only think of themselves. He cares nothing for the damage he does. To the entire village, he is a dangerous animal. But, the Priest finds that he is worthy of rehabilitation and proceeds to make him into a Samurai warrior in service to the castle.

This is a slow and thoughtful film, full of swordplay for those looking for that, but it is so much more for those who take the time to discover it.

Kaoru Yachigusa plays Otsu, who is abandoned by her fiancé (Rentaro Mikuni) and falls in love with Takezo. Unfortunately, his training, after she waits for him for three years, has only begun as he begins a journey across Japan to get in touch with the people.

I can't wait to see the next installment of this trilogy, which is cinematically brilliant, as one would expect from a Criterion disk, and features outstanding acting from all concerned.