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context: movies > some films
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Toshiro Mifune as Musashi |
Samurai Trilogy
1954, 1955, 1956. Original titles: Musashi Miyamoto, Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Duel at Ganryu Island. Director: Hiroshi Inagaki. Starring: Toshiro Mifune.
The great Musashi, the subject of this trilogy, is discussed elsewhere here.
Musashi the painter and fighter
The first film covers his early life, and does its own thing with what few facts are known, and the other two deal with a couple of his major conflicts (the second has a version of what I describe in the fighting stories link from the link above). It looks great, filmed for beauty and formal thematic qualities, though the fights are disappointingly unimpressive - you would struggle to realise that this is the man generally reckoned to be the greatest swordfighter in Japanese history, though the third gets better. I think it was slightly overvalued in the West (the first won an Oscar) in the wake of Kurosawa's new celebrity, but these are fine movies.