Miyamoto Musashi (1954/I)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Hiroshi Inagaki

Writers:

Hideji Hôjô (play)
Hiroshi Inagaki (writer)

Release Date:

18 November 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Biography | Drama | History

Plot:

With his closest friend, Matahachi, Takezo (the town's wild, orphan kid) leaves his village to join an army on its way to battle...

Plot Keywords:

Samurai | Warrior | First Of Series | Jidai Geki | Japan

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Toshirô Mifune	...	Musashi Miyamoto (Takezo)
Rentaro Mikuni	...	Honiden Matahachi
Kuroemon Onoe	...	Takuan Osho
Kaoru Yachigusa	...	Otsu
Mariko Okada	...	Akemi
Mitsuko Mito	...	Oko, Matahachi's wife
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Osugi, Matahachi's mother
Akihiko Hirata	...	Seijuro Yoshioka
Kusuo Abe	...	Temma Tsujikaze
Eitarô Ozawa	...	Terumasa Ikeda (as Sakae Ozawa)
Akira Tani	...	Kawarano-Gonroku
Seijiro Onda	...	Chief Official
Fumito Matsuo	...	Petty Official
Masanobu Ôkubo	...	Petty Official
Jirô Kumagaya	...	Villager

Also Known As:

Master Swordsman
Musashi Miyamoto (USA) (video title)
Samurai
Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto
The Legend of Musashi

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG

Company:

Toho Company

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV)

a good start to an excellent trilogy

Toshiro Mifune stars as a foolish young man who longs to run off to war to make his fortune and prove he is a man. When a battle looms, he runs off to volunteer and his friend, showing some initial reluctance, follows. Instead of glory, they barely escape with their lives. Their paths leads them to two women--an incredibly evil sociopathic mother and her daughter who is not yet as jaded and selfish as the mother. Mifune resists temptation and runs from them, while his friend succumbs to their pleas to stay--and in essence throws away his life and honor. Where Mifune's path takes him I'll leave for you to discover when you watch the film.

Despite having Mifune in the lead, this is NOT an Akira Kurasawa film and some may be disappointed that it is a little more stodgy than one of his films. Instead, I just see it as different but certainly worthwhile. The movie does have tremendous scope and is a very effective opening film to the Samurai Trilogy.

It is important to note that these movies were made nearly 50 years ago and existing copies on DVD are in poor condition--with fading and sepia tones instead of the vibrant original. This became VERY apparent when I saw the beginning of the 3rd film. The color was nearly perfect for the initial scene and that is great, as it's a beautiful and extremely artistic shot. At times throughout the movie, some of the scenes are once again vivid while others are faded and lose their impact. You can't blame the film for that, but you wish Criterion would try to digitally enhance the prints they've got to improve the colors and get rid of some scratchy cels.