Mifune: The Last Samurai

Studio: Strand Releasing
Directed by Steven Okazaki

Dec 08, 2016 By J.A. Kordosh Web Exclusive

Toshiro Mifune should be a household name. The rarest of talents who rose from extremely harsh conditions to achieve fame and success, his story deserves to be known. Thankfully, director Steven Okazaki has crafted a celebratory, balanced look at the legendary actor. It may not be as bold as its subject but Mifune: The Last Samurai is the well-intentioned introduction to the scowling samurai master audiences never knew they needed.

The film wisely provides a framework on the origins of samurai films (known as “chanbara” for the sound swords make when they clash) to give context on how Mifune’s unique talent reinvigorated them. He brought a primal energy to his roles, studying the movements of lions for his iconic turns in Seven Samurai and Rashomon. Yet, he was also meticulously studious, never bringing a script to set and knowing not just his own lines but all everyone’s. Likewise, the film traces Mifune’s life as a an empathic soldier in World War II and how the post-war devastation of Japan brought him by providence to movie stardom. This backdrop of perseverance and duty gives the audience an understanding of how Mifune achieved all he did on screen.

The one drawback of Mifune is the narration. Keanu Reeves brings little to the concise, insightful words of Okazaki and co-writer Steven Galbraith IV. Interviewees Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese are far more engaging and their mere presence speaks to the magnitude of Mifune’s impact. The directors also shed light on the relationship Mifune had with director Akira Kurosawa. The two created some of the greatest films in history and their exacting, intense natures seemed to only propel the other to greater heights. In one of the more telling anecdotes in the film, Mifune would scream, “Damn you!” as he drove by the famed director’s house. Kurosawa, for his part, used real arrows for the finale of the Macbeth adaptation Throne of Blood. With that awareness, the scene transforms into an experience even more harrowing, fraught with real danger.

Okazaki set out to remind the world of Mifune’s creative brilliance and to that end he has done a fine service to the world of film. This is not an exhaustive investigation into Mifune’s life and mind. Perhaps with the privacy of Japanese culture that film could never be made. However, anyone who goes to see Mifune: The Last Samurai will not only be entertained and intrigued but they will have a treasure of cinematic gold awaiting them afterwards.

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