Cast:
Toshiro Mifune (Miyamoto Musashi a.k.a. Takezo), Rentarō Mikuni (Honiden Matahachi), Kuroemon Onoe (priest Takuan Sōhō), Kaoru Yachigusa (Otsu), Mariko Okada (Akemi), Mitsuko Mito (Oko), Eiko Miyoshi (Osugi), Akihiko Hirata (Seijuro Yoshioka), Kusuo Abe (Temma Tsujikaze), and Eitaro Ozawa (Terumasa Ikeda) Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki.
Review:
The career director is a respectable one, identifiable pattern of direction or not. Hiroshi Inagaki directed over eighty films from a span of 1928 to 1972. He was the son of a shinpa actor (i.e. a modern form of Japanese theater) that became an actor himself with the Nikkatsu studio. He had aspirations of directing and did so with Chiezō Productions and then Kikkatsu. In 1935, the first part of a serial, as written by Eiji Yoshikawa, was released in the newspaper Asahi Shimbun. Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era eventually finished in 1939 with a novel release and translation following decades later. It detailed the exploits (fictionized) of swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, a legend who lived from 1584 to 1645 in Japan. It made ideal sense to make a film about Musashi, because, well, there have been dozens of them, with Inagaki having done a serial in 1941 about him to go with directors such as Kenji Mizoguchi and Daisuke Ito doing their own films during the same era. Inagaki made Conclusion of Kojiro Sasaki: Duel at Ganryu Island [Kanketsu Sasaki Kojirô: Ganryû-jima ketto] (1951), which had Mifune play Musashi. At any rate, this is a film belonging to a genre labelled the "jidaigeki", or more specifically, a period drama, with this being set around the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. This was released by Toho in September of 1954, which was behind countless films that would be considered classics that included Seven Samurai (released in April, which also had Mifune) and Godzilla (October). It was this one that was awarded an Honorary Academy Award among the international films, the last "Honorary" award before a formal category was created. Inagaki did further jidaigeki films such as the epic Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki (1962) prior to his death in 1980 at the age of 74.
Two further films followed with Inagaki as director among a cast led by Mifune (who appeared in twenty (!) films directed by Inagaki): Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955) and Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956). The pursuit of spiritual wisdom makes for an interesting start with this film, which makes for a worthy folk tale where fact and fiction do not entirely matter when it comes to an entrancing presence and the promise for more. One loves those period dramas that give time to build on the desire to see people use swords in graceful execution. The 93 minutes is handled in two ways: building the legend that must rise from low beginnings (a battle that sees a quest for glory turn to being a fugitive) to the realization of the ways that come in a samurai. In short: it isn't all talk or all about finding where to put the sword in someone's gut. Mifune is at the heart of it all in ways that come in appreciating how he puts his energy into the role that encompasses all of the impulse and rawness that comes in a person wracked in having to figure out who they really are. Sure, Seven Samurai may have been the big Mifune spotlight film of that year (where he played a would-be samurai), but this is just as interesting to watch him in raptured roughness, whether that involves women (such as trying to not cling on Yachigusa) or hanging from a rope. One can only be on the road so much before either stumbling onto enlightenment of some kind of crashing into the end of a sword (literal or not), you might say. Filmed in Eastman Color, you can't beat a film that looks the way it does in showing the landscape of a time long ago with a workman spirit that likes a good legend for the public to see play out for more than just one time, where one really will return without hesitation.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
Next: Robert Bresson's Angels of Sin.
