Watch Mifune: The Last Samurai For Free

Pretty Good

Let's be realistic.

How sad is this?

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The final statement from the letter of Akira Kurosawa to his friend Toshiro Mifune which was read on Toshiro's funeral made me cry. Any fan of Toshiro should watch this.PS: I watched nearly all of his movies and am obviously a huge fan of Toshiro. If I would rate it lower than 10 I would see it as insult to him.

Toshiro Mifune is one of my favorite Japanese actor. He and Akira Kurosawa changed Japanese cinema for all times and also influenced a lot a whole world cinema. When i saw that they are making a documentary about Mifune i was so happy, and finally i had a opportunity to watch it. It is okay documentary but something is missing, it feels somehow empty. I think they put a lot of talking about known movies like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Rashomon. It is a shame but they not talk about such great Mifune- Kurosawa collaborations like The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low. Mifune was so great in his roles in drama movies, even better than in samurai ones. Also his private life is not mentioned, okay we only got information he was an avid drinker and loved sport cars and driving, but other things not. Maybe the answer is privacy in Japanese culture, and Mifune himself was very closed person in private life. The guests who are talking about Mifune are generally okay, but were is Tatsuya Nakadai, he acted in so many movies together with Mifune like Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Samurai Rebellion, Sword Of Doom, High And Low, it would be interesting to hear his experiences acting alongside Mifune, also for foreign guests it is okay they have called Spielberg and Scorsese, but where is George Lucas, Lucas was so influenced by Mifune, even he wanted to gave a role of Obi wan Kenobi to Mifune, and Hidden Fortress influenced Star Wars a lot, so i think the director missed some better guests, but on other hand it is nice he called Shiro Mifune to talk about his father that is big plus tome. Generally i enjoyed watching it because i was always interested in Japanese cinema but as i said earlier it can be better. If you are fan of Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa and old Japanese cinema watch it for sure, you will not regret it.

It is a good documentary on an actor that made a big impact in Japan and was important to the export and prominence of Japanese film worldwide, but is slowly being forgotten. With that said, I can only feel that the film had limited budget, research capability and focused only on a small sliver of who and what Toshiro Mifune was. The focus is on Toho and his work in chanbara films with Kurosawa. That is indeed his most important and notable period, but there is not much depth added even in those segments. As interesting as the subject matter is I would still say it is a good documentary where none other exist, but more relevant to those who know little about the actor.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was wondering why it is they couldn't get a hold of Tatsuya Nakadai. I feel that the approach they took with this documentary was a bit limiting. Given that "Samurai" is in the title it should come as no surprise that they, for the most part, really only talk about Mifune's roles as samurai in film. In a way it's both a documentary on Mifune and the chanbara genre as a whole. This is sort of a double edged sword for me. While I think it's valuable to provide background on the genre that Mifune is most famous for and which he in turn made popular outside of Japan, in the end it feels like you're sort of getting an incomplete picture of both him and the genre. The history lesson on the chanbara genre basically concludes with the introduction of Mifune and the history lesson on Mifune is more or less confined to his work in the chanbara genre. All things considered, for as much as I like this documentary and am a fan of what it features, I sort of wish it were two separate documentaries. One which covers chanbara, or perhaps just jidaigeki as a whole, and one which covers Mifune a bit more comprehensively. That might be a bit more satisfying as a whole. I'm sure any fan of Mifune could understand what I'm getting at. For anyone who wants to see a documentary on Mifune, there's going to be frustration that roles like he had in 'The Bad Sleep Well', 'High and Low' and 'I Live in Fear' are basically ignored. Likewise, any fan of the chanbara genre is undoubtedly going to feel a but cheated that Tatsuya Nakadai is never referred to at all, and that the history feels incomplete. I appreciate what this documentary is trying to do, and if you're a fan of Mifune, I would certainly recommend it. It could have been better though.