Mifune - The Last Samurai

[Drunk Monk]

Our hero Toshiro!

This is a nice doc about Mifune, along with a lot of Kurosawa. I didn't know much about Mifune's childhood, nor that he made so many films. Scorsese & Spielberg chime in, and it's narrated by Keanu. The talking heads include Mifune's son, Kurosawa's son, some leading ladies, a guy who was killed on screen by Mifune like 100x, a guy who was killed by Mifune on screen and also played Godzilla. It was good to put the films in order of production - that gave more context.

It was quite moving and now I want to watch some Mifune movies, but Hulu+ no longer carries the criterion collection. 

DOOM recommended.

[cranefly]

I watched Sword of Doom (1966) the other night.  Tatsuya Nakadai is the star and is quite good.  But Mifune plays a small but very significant role.  He is so incredibly charismatic, forever the elephant in the room, with the sword, even when he isn't in the room.

[Drunk Monk]

You watched Sword of Doom and you didn't review it on DOOM?

Not even the poster?

I feel so slighted.

I luv that film.

[Greg]

So, the day the DVD comes in the mail, which I've been waiting for, is the same day Netflix releases it for streaming. Thanks, Obama.

It was fine. Very standard. I really enjoyed the clips of the silent Chanbara films. I'm also glad someone gave me the origin of the word 'Chanbara'. It was great seeing clips from the old films and yes it makes me want to go see them again, particularly Seven Samurai.

Not a lot of drama to the Mifune story or at least they didn't reveal it. He drank a lot. He crashed his cars. He had an affair. In between he acted and everybody thought he was great. Got it.

Seeing the clips was the best part.