In Akira Kurosawa's film world, there are three very important actors, such as Kiku and knife and sake, who have long been famous in Japanese culture, and they have also supported Akira Kurosawa's excellent script and artistic shots with superb acting skills, and have achieved a series of amazing works by Emperor Kurosawa.
Kiku is known for his literary drama and is often used as an elder or a wise man in Akira Kurosawa's films. The wine represents the Nakadai Tatsuya, who has a wide play path, can be retracted and released, and the style should be thick and light. Then the natural sword is Toshiro Mifune, who often appears as a samurai or ronin in Kurosawa movies. Today, we will not taste wine or Kiku, but together we will observe this samurai sword that has been cut out for him by one international award after another at the peak of Akira Kurosawa - Toshiro Mifune!
Early years Toshiro Mifune
Toshiro Mifune, although Japanese, was born in 1920 in Qingdao, Shandong. At the age of 4, he moved to Dalian with his parents and finished high school in Dalian, where he then helped his father run a photo studio in the area. Dalian was in the japanese-occupied pseudo-Manchukuo at this time, and soon after, he joined the Manchurian Air Corps as a photographer, and it was not until he was 26 years old that he first set foot in Japan.
Joined the Manchurian Air Corps as a photographer
Perhaps it was mifune's early cinematography experience that sparked Mifune's interest in film, and in 1946, as soon as he returned to Japan, he immediately applied for the famous Toho Film Company at that time, and was lucky enough to pass the exam and was admitted as an alternate actor. The following year, he participated in "Top of the Silver Ridge", thus officially entering the show business circle.
Mud Drunk Angel Poster
Soon after, he was arranged by the company to co-star with Joe Shimura in "Muddy Angel" and won the opportunity to lead the way.
Shimura Joe was already a well-known actor in Japan at that time, and many people even questioned whether the fledgling Mifune could play well, and the response to the movie was very good after its release, and achieved a good box office. The director even commented: "If Shimura Joe's performance can score 90 points, then Mifune's performance is 120 points", which shows the director's extreme appreciation for Mifune's performance, and this director is Mifune's golden partner on the road to performance - Kurosawa Akira.
Kurosawa
The golden age of the duo was unveiled, with Akira Kurosawa in 1950 filming his masterpiece Rashomon in his heyday.
Rashomon
Toshiro Mifune played by Toshiro Mifune in Rashomon
Mifune also played against Joe Shimura in this film, playing the vain and cowardly samurai Tadashimaru, and the film eventually won the Venice Golden Lion Award. The subsequent Seven Samurai and Sengoku Heroes were also tridents with Joe Shimura and Akira Kurosawa and received excellent response. And the "Heart Stick" filmed later is the real peak of Mifune's acting as an actor.
Warring States Heroes
Seven samurai
He portrays a ronin samurai with a disgraced appearance but a unique skill almost perfectly. In addition to Akira Kurosawa's perfection of graphics and cinematic techniques, Mifune has also achieved the ultimate in some details. For example, he put the samurai's professional storage knife technique, the pure fire of the Juhe chopping practice, and for the needs of the plot, he also practiced the flying knife technique. The result of such careful carving is that he finally won the best actor at the Venice Film Festival with this film. The film was also selected as one of the best 200 films in the history of Japanese cinema and was used as a model for American Westerns due to its desolate set style.
Stick with heart
Stills from the heart stick
Later, "Tsubaki Sanshiro" was used as a companion piece to the film, and the doctor he portrayed in "Red Beard" who cared about the people at the bottom, Red Beard, won him the venice film festival crown for him once again.
Sanjuro Tsubaki
Red beard
However, since Redbeard, he has parted ways with his good partner, Akira Kurosawa. This matter is still difficult to understand, but it is undoubtedly a major regret in the Japanese film industry, and it has also caused an impact on the film careers of Mifune and Kurosawa. After all, despite their extraordinary strengths, it is difficult to find an actor who is as suitable for Kurosawa as Mifune. It was not until the appearance of Tatsuya Nakayo that Akira Kurosawa created such masterpieces as Shadow Samurai and Chaos.
Shadow Samurai
disorderly
After that, Mifune's film career was difficult to return to the peak, and Yamamoto Fifty-Six in "The Battle of Midway" and Taketori in "Taketori Monogatari" were also considered to be his later masterpieces.
Toshiro Mifune, the most masculine katana in Akira Kurosawa's films, has gradually lost its sharp edge after RedBeard. Just like Marlon Brando after filming "The Godfather", this legendary actor of his contemporaries on the other side of the ocean. They all have a handsome face, a brave and masculine atmosphere, and the most important actor's cultivation - acting skills. And his unique temperament that always looks down on others but resembles the master of the Methodist, Al Pacino, is always the noble soul inside the film.
Mifune treats feelings decisively, like the samurai in his films who look at all sentient beings. He was thirty years old and hurriedly married Sachiko Yoshiho, who was also an actor. Later, he cheated on another actress, Kitagawa Mika, and separated from the original match, and never got entangled until 1992, when he returned to the original partner because of myocardial infarction. He suffered from mild dementia in his later years, but fortunately his wife took good care of him regardless of his previous suspicions, and this life lasted for five years. On December 24, 1997, Toshiro Mifune, who had the title of "Mifune of the World", stopped beating his heart at the age of 77. Perhaps out of inspiration, his golden partner Akira Kurosawa also passed away nine months later at the age of 88. As if in a fit of rage, the most famous golden partner of Japanese cinema has since ceased to exist.