Toshiro Mifune: The world's three ships are half Kurosawa Akira and half Yamamoto Isoroku
December 24, 1997 - Twenty years ago today, Japanese movie superstar Toshiro Mifune, who was born and raised in China, passed away
Toshiro Mifune (1 April 1920 – 24 December 1997) was born in Qingdao, China during the Japanese Lend-Lease period. He is a world-renowned Japanese film actor who has twice won the Best Actor Award at the Venice International Film Festival. His collaboration with Akira Kurosawa has been called "The Kurosawa of the World, the Three Ships of the World."
Toshiro Mifune has performed well in films such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Heart Stick, Tsubaki Santenro, and Red Beard, which he has collaborated with Akira Kurosawa, and has won great fame.
After parting ways with Akira Kurosawa, he starred in many World War II war movies. Especially in the movie "Commander of the Combined Fleet - Yamamoto Fifty-Six", Yamamoto Fifty-Six is vividly interpreted.
【Born in China, Grown Up in China】
Toshiro Mifune was born on April 1, 1920 in Qingdao, Shandong Province. When he was 4 years old, he moved to Dalian with his parents, and after graduating from high school in 1938 (at the age of 18), he helped his father run a photo studio. Soon after, he was conscripted into the army and joined the First Air Force of the Manchurian Army as a photographer.
In 1946, Japan was defeated, and the 26-year-old Toshiro Mifune returned to Japan for the first time. Toshiro Mifune, who has no relatives, applied for toro film companies and began his legendary acting career. In particular, his cooperation with Akira Kurosawa has been called "the kurosawa of the world, the three ships of the world".
On December 24, 1997, Toshiro Mifune died of multiple kidney and organ failures at the age of 77.
【Samurai Movie】
Rashomon (1950)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa. The main plot of the story is adapted from the novels "In the Bamboo Forest" and "Rashomon" by Japanese writer Ryunosuke Wasagawa, which tells the story of a samurai and his wife who are intercepted and bound by robbers on a long journey, who is raped by robbers, and the samurai dies for unknown reasons. The film expresses the meaning of "people's words cannot be trusted" through the different descriptions of this event by many people.
Toshiro Mifune plays the bandit in the play. The film won the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice International Film Festival, the Italian Film Critics Award, the Academy Award of Honor (equivalent to today's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film) and many other awards. This is a landmark work in the history of Japanese cinema and is considered one of the greatest films of all time.
The Seven Samurai (1954)
Director Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece. It has been ranked first among the top ten best films in the history of Japanese cinema and is considered by many Japanese critics to be the highest masterpiece in the history of Japanese cinema.
Steven Spielberg has said that when he hit a bottleneck in filmmaking, this film is one of four films that can return to his original intentions (the other three are "The Searcher", "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Man of the Storm").
Warring States Heroes (1958)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa. George Lucas has confessed that the fourth part of Star Wars, which he directed in 1977, was based on this work, and its opening and ending are also imitated from this film.
Stick of Hearts (1961)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Actor Toshiro Mifune won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival. In 1964, Italian director Sergio Leonei's Western "Red Dead Redemption" was a remake of this film.
Sanjuro Tsubaki (1962)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa, for the sequel to the 1961 work "Heart Stick", Toshiro Mifune once again played the chivalrous role of Thirty Lang to the fullest.
Red Beard (1965)
Akira Kurosawa is based on the novel "Red Beard Diagnosis and Treatment Tan (赤ひげ診醫譚)". Actor Toshiro Mifune won the Best Actor Award at the 1965 Venice Film Festival for this film, becoming an international superstar, but has since stopped working with Akira Kurosawa.
Of the 30 films Akira Kurosawa made in his lifetime, 16 were performed by Toshiro Mifune. However, since the film, the two have not continued to work together, becoming a major unsolved case in the history of Japanese cinema. Whenever the reporter mentioned this issue, Kurosawa always replied with a smile: "In fact, I and Mifune Jun have not been deadlocked, but the work that can be done with Mifune Jun has been completed." That is, there is nothing left to do. ”
【War Movie】
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
A commemorative film of the 35th anniversary of the founding of Toho Film Company. The film won the 38th place in the Top 100 Classic Films of Japanese Cinema.
The so-called "longest day" is the day when the emperor declares that he will surrender unconditionally.
Commander of the Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto (1968)
The production lineup is unique in Japanese films, using almost all of Japan's first-class film superstars at the time, and the war scenes are represented by a close-up model of Eiji Marutani, which is the largest biographical film about General Yamamoto fifty-six in history.
Battle of the Sea of Japan (1969)
Narrates the Russo-Japanese War, a fierce naval battle between the Japanese Combined Fleet and the Russian Baltic Fleet. Toshiro Mifune starred as Heihachiro Togo.
The Thrilling Showa History warlord (1970)
Describes the story of Hideki Tojo, a generation of Japanese warlords during World War II, and explains the real history of Japan's cabinet chaos and Japan's defeat, ending with the dropping of atomic bombs by the US military.
Two Hundred and Three Highlands (1980)
The content is based on the russo-Japanese War, in Lushun, China, the commander of the Japanese Third Army Nogi Nogi Nogi noshin captured this highland. Toshiro Mifune starred as Emperor Meiji.