Samurai Assassin, Mifune Toshiro

Samurai Assassin

Japanese, English Subtitles

1965, 122 Minutes

5 Stars

Rainy Day rates this 5 stars because the acting was superb, and the photography pretty darned good. The story is based on history, about the end of the Samurai times. Adm. Perry and his Black Ships were already nosing around Japanese harbors. Mifune Toshiro stars as the ronin Niiro Tsuruchiyo, who is not really a ronin because he is not really a Samurai. He becomes involved in a coup attempt in order to become a Samurai. He is an angry, broken, and almost animalistic man who never knew who his father was, and neither his mother nor his stepfather will tell him. He seeks to become a Samurai by killing a daimyo, thereby setting off a chain of events ending the Samurai period. Rainy Day has no idea how historically accurate the movie is, but thinks it's worth the watch.

For a trailer of Samurai Assassin, click here.

Mifune Toshiro in Another Great Movie

Samurai Rebellion

2 hours 1 minute

Japanese, English subtitles

5 stars

As you know, Rainy Day has a deep and abiding lust for Toshiro Mifune. She was not disappointed in this film. This is the story of an aging samurai vassal and how he defies, with quiet calm, his lord, in order to save his honor, his son and his wife, and his family. Basically, the lord forces the son into marrying a concubine who displeased him, after she produced a son, and then, when that child becomes the heir apparent, the lord demands his concubine back. Unfortunately she and her new husband love each other. Mifune's character had been henpecked for twenty years, and he quietly defies his wife and her family, his lord and his minions, and fights for what he believes is right. A study on Japan and the feudal system, and doing what is right.

Rainy Day would like to know if you've seen this movie, and what you thought about it.

For a trailer, click on the title, above

labels: Drama, Japanese movie, Mifune Toshiro,

Last Movie of Kurosawa and Mifune

Red Beard

Japanese, good subtitles, Netflix

3 hr 5 min (including intermission)

5 (out of 5) Stars

The last movie Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune made together. It is a ‘coming of age’ movie with Yuzo Kayama playing an arrogant young doctor who finds himself working at a government run clinic that treats destitute patients. Kayama is angry at the ‘step down’ – sure he was destined to become physician to the Shogun, not work in a clinic of this sort, he is angry. Mifune is the curmudgeonly older doctor who patiently guides the young upstart to his full potential. Netflix classifies the movie as Cerebral. I call it a darned good film, one of Kurosawa’s and Mifune’s best.

Have you seen Red Beard? What did you think about it? Rainy Day would like to know what you thought of the movie.