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Foreword Reflections
I learned about him in Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, and later watched many of his movies and checked his profile. He was born in Qingdao, China. When he was 4 years old, he went to Dalian with his father, and after graduating from Dalian Middle School in 1938, he helped his father run a photo studio, and was soon conscripted into the local army. He returned to Japan in 1946 and entered the film industry in the same year, and in 1948 he became famous by starring in Akira Kurosawa's film "Muddy Angel". Toshiro Mifune is good at playing rough, tough, action-oriented, thick-lined characters, and after middle age, he mostly plays the role of a leader, and his films have won many awards at major international film festivals.
But in fact, the people of Mifune are quite short, and on the screen, the chivalrous always looks tall, which is just an illusion. He was sixty-seven years old this year, but his hair was not bald, and after it was blackened, although it was thin, it seemed that if he was fifty-seven, some people would believe him. Mifune has always been known for his alcoholicry in the film industry, and he once returned from Europe, got drunk on the plane, and wanted to beat up journalists. In cooperation with Ishihara Yujiro's company in "The Sun of Kurobe", the two quarreled non-stop, although they lived in the same district, did not communicate with each other, and one night borrowed alcohol, took a shotgun and ran to Ishihara's house, clamoring to shoot him to death, which is a well-known thing. On the one hand, he said that he would still have to go to "Happy Tonight" for an interview, and on the other hand, he should not be too arrogant in front of the consul general, which can also be seen in his rigor in his conduct. Also, whenever he finished the dish, he would arrange the chopsticks neatly. The waiter divides the dishes well, and he must eat the food in front of him cleanly, like a typical old-school Japanese.
Toshiro Mifune
In 1965, Akira Kurosawa directed the famous film Red Beard. The film still stars his favorite royal actor, Toshiro Mifune. This is their seventeenth and final collaboration. In their long film careers of 28 years, the two have not made another movie together. This regrettable and puzzling phenomenon has become a famous unsolved case in the history of Japanese cinema.
There has been much debate about why the most famous golden duo in the history of Japanese cinema parted ways at the peak of their creations. For this, Akira Kurosawa has explained on different occasions: there is no contradiction between him and Mifune, but the roles that can be created have all been completed. In other words, the fate between the two is over. This explanation is hard to believe. Other characters aside, the role played by Tatsuya Nakayo in Akira Kurosawa's 1980s Shadow Samurai and Chaos, especially the latter, is often reminiscent of this tailor-made for Mifune. If Toshiro Mifune plays Akira Kurosawa's version of King Lear, he is likely to create the second glory of his acting career.
But history has no ifs. After Toshiro Mifune left Akira Kurosawa, he no longer had the style of the old days. Although "Red Beard" won him the Venetian film emperor and then became an international superstar; despite his efforts, he did not give up a chance to perform on the screen, even if it was a small role in one or two shots. But the decline of his film career is irretrievable.
Fate teased people that Akira Kurosawa, after losing Toshiro Mifune, also experienced one of the biggest setbacks in his film career. After "Red Beard," Akira Kurosawa began to develop ambitiously overseas, first working with Tetsuro Aoyagi, a Japanese producer who had studied in the United States, to write the script "The Runaway Train" for Hollywood (the film was finally directed by Soviet-American director Andrei Goncharovsky), and even chose the location, but the last-minute plan was stranded; then with the American 20th Century Fox Company, as "Tiger! tiger! tiger! " by the Japanese director. After more than 20 days of difficult filming, Fox dismissed Akira Kurosawa as a director for his neurasthenia.
A year later, Akira Kurosawa began filming his first color film, The Ringtones of the Tram. This low-budget small production took only 28 days to shoot, showing Akira Kurosawa's extraordinary creative prowess. However, contrary to expectations, the film completely failed at the box office. For this reason, the following year, Akira Kurosawa committed suicide at home, but fortunately ended in an attempt.
As for why Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune ended up with "Red Beard", Akira Kurosawa's production manager Teruyo Nogami said: After the release of "Red Beard", Akira Kurosawa's royal screenwriter Hidekoku believed that Mifune's grasp of the character of Red Beard was not accurate enough, although the original author of "Red Beard", Goro Yama, praised the film and even thought that the film surpassed the original, although the film won a bunch of international awards. However, in the long-term cooperation between Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, for the first time, he expressed some dissatisfaction with Toshiro Mifune's acting skills. Don't forget, Akira Kurosawa has said this more than once to express his heartfelt approval of Toshiro Mifune: Without Toshiro Mifune, I would not have been able to make a movie.
Whether this reason is sufficient or not, the fact is that since RedBeard, Kurosawa has gradually and deliberately alienated Toshiro Mifune. Since then, there has been no intention of cooperating with his old golden partner. Even when Akira Kurosawa was invited by the Soviet Union to shoot Del su Uzara in 1973, although the Soviet producers drew up a cast with the name of Toshiro Mifune on display —perhaps the Soviet side wanted to recreate the glory of Kurosawa's partnership with Mifune, Kurosawa categorically rejected the Soviet plan on the grounds that he could not let Mifune stay in Siberia for a two-and-a-half-year shooting cycle. In the end, the role of Delsu Uzara fell into the hands of the unknown drama actor Maxim Muzouk.
In stark contrast to Akira Kurosawa's attitude is tosshiro Mifune's positivity and enthusiasm. First of all, Toshiro Mifune supports Akira Kurosawa when he is in trouble. When Fox lifted Akira Kurosawa's Tiger! tiger! tiger! At the same time as the director of ", Toshiro Mifune is invited to play the main character in the film, Yamamoto Isoroku. One of the conditions offered by Toshiro Mifune was the reinstatement of Akira Kurosawa as director. In particular, in the project of "Delsu Uzara", when Toshiro Mifune learned from somehow that he was included in the list of Soviet producers, he went abroad at his own expense to coordinate his work plan. At this time, in addition to presiding over the business of Mifune Production Company, Mifune mainly participated in foreign films. In order to perform "Del Sue Uzara", he freed up a schedule of nearly four years. Thus, from 1972 to 1975, Toshiro Mifune's film performance records were zero. You can imagine how much he wanted to cooperate with Akira Kurosawa again.
Unfortunately, however, not only did the two not work together since then, but they also drifted apart in their lives. After Watching Toshiro Mifune's role as Senritsu in Princess Gin, Norgami thinks of Toshiro Mifune's state of mind when he is alienated by Akira Kurosawa but cannot know the reason from the resolute and determined expression and lonely look of Mr. Mifune's character. According to Teruyo Nogami, Akira Kurosawa's last meeting with Toshiro Mifune was at a funeral. The deceased was the old Japanese director Honta Inoshiro who created Godzilla, and an old friend of Akira Kurosawa during his time at Toho. It was February 1993. At this time, Toshiro Mifune was already sick, so his face was very ugly, but he still insisted on standing in the funeral queue. Kurosawa saw this and greeted him: Are you okay? Don't hold on. Mifune replied: It doesn't matter. These two simple questions and answers turned out to be the last conversation of their lives.
Akira Kurosawa's last film was "Sunset Love", which was filmed in 1993. Two years later, he fell and fractured his bones, and never had the chance to return to the set. It was also in this year that Toshiro Mifune, who was seriously ill, did his utmost to participate in his last film, "Deep River" directed by Kei Kumai. Toshiro Mifune, who loves movies, has difficulty even reciting lines due to illness, but he still insists on shooting the last shot of his life.
Teruyo Nogami goes to see Akira Kurosawa in a wheelchair. And tell him about Toshiro Mifune's recent situation. Kurosawa was silent for a long time, looked at the sky, and said something like this: "Mifune is really good." If I see Mifune, I must praise him in this way. "As you can imagine, this is a certainty that Toshiro Mifune wants to hear." Regrettably, Toshiro Mifune was not able to hear it with his own eyes. So when Akira Kurosawa's trembling voice sounded from the distant sky, my tears as an outsider almost burst out of my eyes.
On December 24, 1997, Toshiro Mifune died at the age of 77. Nine months later, on September 6, Akira Kurosawa died at the age of 88. Together, the two of them ushered in a golden age of Japanese cinema.
summary
Of course, all this is personal speculation. The only thing that can be determined is that Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune's later years of creation are a permanent and irreparable regret in the hearts of all fans.