Mifune: The Last Samurai

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ1dkl1ul-s

[rett2]

The John Wayne of Japan. I hope they include bits from High and Low as well.

10081

[sanjuro_ronin]

One of the amazing things about Mifune was that he never actually trained in any martial art per say, YET, his acting prowess was so great that he actually LOOKED better than MOST MA.

[Jimbo]

One of the amazing things about Mifune was that he never actually trained in any martial art per say, YET, his acting prowess was so great that he actually LOOKED better than MOST MA.

This is VERY true. Mifune could truly capture the 'spirit' of his characters and literally brought them to life. He 'became' the characters. That is what separated him from most MAists onscreen. The ability to transcend "acting" and make the character appear real and natural, as well as the ability to pick things up and follow directions, is far more important than actual MA ability.

There have been legions of great real-life MAists and real-life pro fighters who have come across as unimpressive onscreen because:

(1) They're not actors, or at least not very good actors. And because acting is not done in isolation, they must have good onscreen chemistry with their co-stars, or at least those they're acting with.

(2) Because they aren't good actors, they generally lack onscreen charisma, which makes them appear less powerful, or even clumsy.

(3) Their fighting skills, as good as they may be, do not translate well to the movies, or they don't know how to adapt them.

(4) Related to (3), they are unwilling to follow the choreographer's directions, because "I would never do that in a real fight."

And a myriad of other reasons.

Of course, there have been excellent MAists who excelled onscreen, but the vast majority of them already had considerable training and background in screen acting and/or performing onstage, or grew up around the industry. Others were simply blessed with natural talent and charisma (and physical skills) that translated well onscreen.

Many MMA advocates/fans say that the best and only logical choices for MA movies are the top MMA fighters. They say, "Why watch fake **** when you can see the real thing?" Not knowing how ignorant that statement is. Greatness in one endeavor does not automatically translate to other fields. And in acting, you either have some type of "it factor" or you don't.

*Edit to add:

SR, you probably meant that Mifune looked better than most MAists, period. But I decided to point out why so many MAists don't come across well onscreen as well.

[sanjuro_ronin]

The final duel from Sanjuro:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NNaj5YUxco

[rett2]

Mifune in The Quiet Duel

10089

complete film is on You Tube

[Jimbo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ByAzPe38Y&sns=em

[sanjuro_ronin]

That is old school "slash everybody and not give a crap", samurai action !

[GeneChing]

San Diego Asian Film Festival 2016: An Old Game, a New Reign and a Hall of Fame (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1323) by Craig Reid

[GeneChing]

Our hero Toshiro!

The distributors were kind enough to send me a screener.

This is a nice doc about Mifune, along with a lot of Kurosawa. I didn't know much about Mifune's childhood, nor that he made so many films. Scorsese & Spielberg chime in, and it's narrated by Keanu. The talking heads include Mifune's son, Kurosawa's son, some leading ladies, a guy who was killed on screen by Mifune like 100x, and another guy who was killed by Mifune on screen a lot who also played Godzilla. It was good to put the films in order of production - that gave more context. This is a really good documentary. I recommend it. It was quite moving and now I want to watch some Mifune movies again.