Miyamoto Musashi kanketsuhen: kettô Ganryûjima (1956)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Hiroshi Inagaki

Writers:

Hideji Hôjô (play)
Hiroshi Inagaki (writer)

Release Date:

November 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Biography | Drama | History

Plot:

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun...

Plot Keywords:

Japan | Jidai Geki | Third Part | 17th Century | Part Of Trilogy

Cast

Koji Tsuruta	...	Kojiro Sasaki
Toshirô Mifune	...	Musashi Miyamoto (Takezo)
Kaoru Yachigusa	...	Otsu
Michiko Saga	...	Omitsu
Mariko Okada	...	Akemi
Takashi Shimura	...	Sado Nagaoka the court official
Minoru Chiaki	...	Sasuke the boatman
Takamaru Sasaki	...	Omitsu's father
Daisuke Katô	...	Toji Gion
Haruo Tanaka	...	Kumagoro the horse thief
Kichijiro Ueda	...	Priest Ogon
Kokuten Kodo	...	Old Priest Nikkan (as Kuninori Kodo)
Ikio Sawamura	...	Innkeeper
Nakajiro Tomita
Sonosuke Sawamura

Also Known As:

Bushido (USA)
Duel on Ganryu Island
Kettô Ganryû-jima
Musashi Miyamoto Conclusion: Ganryu Island Duel (literal English title)
Musashi and Kojiro
Samurai 3: Ketto Ganryujima
Samurai III: Duel on Ganryu Island (USA)

Runtime:

105 min | Spain:115 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M

Company:

Toho Company

Goofs:

Continuity: The final duel is fought as the sun sets over the sea. The duellists have light on the sides of their bodies away from the sun - Sasaki has light on his back and Miyamoto light on his face

Quotes:

Musashi Miyamoto: Brace up, Akemi.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Karate Kid (1984)

An epic finale for a masterpiece trilogy

This is the 3rd and last episode of the "Miyamoto Musashi" or also called "Samourai" trilogy, from director Inagaki with famous Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. The 1st episode having won the 1956 Oscar award of best foreign movie ! Inagaki's directing is refined and perfect, scenery is beautiful especially the sunset duel, choreography of combats is marvellous. Inagaki's directing and Mifune's great acting bring life to Musashi's legend and depict him with a lot of humanity.

This episode has the most significance for Japanese with the famous combat between Miyamoto Mifune, invincible samourai of more than 60 duels armed with a wooden sword, and Sasaki Kojiro, most formidable adversary and skillful swordsman armed with an extremely long sword, on the beach of Ganryu Island at sunset. The trilogy shows the life of Japan's most famous samourai and one of it's main philosopher, with the "Gorin-no-sho" treaty of 5 rings, with his sword techniques and Budhism life philosophy. In summary, the 1st episode is how he becomes an adult man, the 2nd how he becomes an invincible swordsman and the 3rd how he becomes a legend. Subplots being his relationship with Otsu who sacrifices her life for Musashi.

This trilogy is among Japan's two samourai masterpieces with Kurosawa's "Seven Samurais", mainly because of the directing/acting and Musashi's aura. Other Must-see Sword movies are recent movie Gohatto (or Tabou, 1999), Kurosawa's "Ame agaru" (After the rain, 1999), "Yojimbo" (The bodyguard) and "Sugata Sanshiro" (The Judo saga).