In recent years, two Japanese movies have consistently appeared in "best of" polls in both Japan and the West as the two greatest Japanese films ever made:
Voyage à Tokyo (1953) by 'Yasujiro Ozu' and
Les 7 Samouraïs (1954) by
Akira Kurosawa. For example, in a 2009 poll by the venerable Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo, the Ozu film was voted best Japanese movie of all time, with the Kurosawa film second. But as the two filmmakers worked for different studios, with completely different crews, only Tôno Eijirô worked on both films. In
Voyage à Tokyo (1953), he plays the elderly protagonist's bitter drinking buddy, Numata, and in
Les 7 Samouraïs (1954) he plays the small role of the desperate kidnapper who is confronted by the future leader of the samurai, Kambei.
