Toshiro Mifune (of Akira Kurosawa fame) stars as Takezo. A young man who seeks fame as a warrior. He and his friend Matahachi join to fight in a civil war. When their "platoon" (for lack of a better term due to my lack of Japanese warfare knowledge) is wiped out, the two young men confide in the help of two women.
The two women rob the dead bodies of Samurai. When a group of bandits wants to cash in on their treasure, Takezo fights off and kills the bandits. When Oko (the mother of the two women) observes this, she falls for Takezo. When he refuses and runs off, she tells Akemi and Matahachi that Takezo forced himself, and she refused. So, Akemi, Oko, and Matahachi leave. Only for Takezo to return to an empty home.
Takezo tries to return to his home village to let Matahachi's fiancé and mother know that he is still alive. When he is accused of leaving Matahachi for dead he is pursued by the town in a manhunt. Otsu, Matahachi's fiancé, learns of Matahachi's marriage to Oko. She eventually falls for Takezo. During all this, Takezo is capturd by a Buddhist monk. Only part of the monk's larger scale plan of eventually moralizing and training Takezo. Thus, Takezo becomes the film title, Miyamoto Musashi.
An excellent and colorful film. Toshiro Mifune excels as Takezo. He proves that he is up to play any type of character. His character is somewhat similar to that of his character in Seven Samurai. Ambitious, but not as strong and mature as he should be for a samurai.
If you don't know too much about classic samurai cinema, this is a good place to start (this is part one in a trilogy of three films). With his short running time and color film, it may help you break into the other samurai classics that are in B&W (Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, etc.,).
As a note, this won of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1955.
The two women rob the dead bodies of Samurai. When a group of bandits wants to cash in on their treasure, Takezo fights off and kills the bandits. When Oko (the mother of the two women) observes this, she falls for Takezo. When he refuses and runs off, she tells Akemi and Matahachi that Takezo forced himself, and she refused. So, Akemi, Oko, and Matahachi leave. Only for Takezo to return to an empty home.
Takezo tries to return to his home village to let Matahachi's fiancé and mother know that he is still alive. When he is accused of leaving Matahachi for dead he is pursued by the town in a manhunt. Otsu, Matahachi's fiancé, learns of Matahachi's marriage to Oko. She eventually falls for Takezo. During all this, Takezo is capturd by a Buddhist monk. Only part of the monk's larger scale plan of eventually moralizing and training Takezo. Thus, Takezo becomes the film title, Miyamoto Musashi.
An excellent and colorful film. Toshiro Mifune excels as Takezo. He proves that he is up to play any type of character. His character is somewhat similar to that of his character in Seven Samurai. Ambitious, but not as strong and mature as he should be for a samurai.
If you don't know too much about classic samurai cinema, this is a good place to start (this is part one in a trilogy of three films). With his short running time and color film, it may help you break into the other samurai classics that are in B&W (Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, etc.,).
As a note, this won of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1955.