宮本 武蔵 Miyamoto Musashi was perhaps Japan’s greatest samurai. Mifune Toshiro, the absolute coolest Japanese actor of all time*, played Musashi in a trilogy of movies called ‘Samurai’ in English.

One of my earliest posts here was announcing I had started to read Musashi by Eiiji Yoshikawa (in English). I forgot to mention but I finished it a while back. I really enjoyed it.

The reason behind reading the book, other than being able to write a review on it at TJS, was so I could really enjoy the Mifune Toshiro movies that were based on it.

We rarely have time to watch a single TV show let alone a two hour movie, but I watched the first of the trilogy yesterday while Yumi distracted Makoto.

Many moons ago whilst at the university, I convinced my roommates to watch the trilogy. This was before DVDs so we had to watch it with an old, worn out VHS tape on an even older and more worn TV - it was color though! I remember my roommate (who was a large man) threatening me each time Musashi left Otsu crying. “Clay, this better not end badly. He better marry Otsu - OR ELSE” Yes, it had gotten personal.

Suffice it to say, I survived thanks to Mifune’s excellent acting abilities.

My thoughts as I watched the first flick:
1) Mifune Toshiro was in his thirties when he made these movies, but he is supposed to play a boy of 16 I believe as the movie begins during the battle of 関ヶ原. Still, it’s Mifune! So who cares?
2) Some of the nature shots are breathtaking. I was amazed at the beauty of many of the camera pans.
3) The audio was pretty good. Very often, when I watch old Japanese jidai flicks I really can’t understand much. I don’t know if it is the poor audio or just the stylized old-style Japanese, but I reluctantly have to rely on subtitles for some old movies. Not this one. It seemed very clear and easy to understand.
4) It’s Mifune!

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* It’s a fact. Just as any one of the editors here at 1Nichi1Kai. Mifune Toshiro was da man.