Mifune: The Last Samurai

Toshiro Mifune was a great actor. He is mostly known for portraying samurai in the films of the renown Akira Kurosawa. As two creative people, sometimes their relationship was contentious, but one wonders whether either of them would have attained their reputations for greatness without the other.

When I was a young man, the Detroit Institute of Arts once held a Kurosawa film festival. On each Sunday evening for several months, one of his many films was shown in order. I got to see them all and a lot of Toshiro Mifune.

The Magnificent Seven was based on the Kurosawa film, the Seven Samuari. Kurosawa's Throne of Blood was based on MacBeth. The Hidden Fortress was one of the influences for Star Wars. Rashomon, a story told from the point of view of three different witnesses, has been recycled many times. The Samurai Trilogy strongly influenced the spaghetti westerns of Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name. Mifune was in the middle of it all.

Below is the trailer for a documentary on Toshiro Mifune, entitled Mifune: The Last Samurai.