TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 9 -- Summer Under The Stars: Toshirô Mifune

[Staph]

The most famous Japanese actor in the world was not born in Japan. Toshirô Mifune was born Sanchuan Minlang on April 1, 1920, in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents, and did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. He actually wanted to be a photographer, not an actor. He got his start in the movies when he blundered into an audition by mistake and flew into a rage. His last years were plagued with Alzheimer's Syndrome and he died of organ failure in 1997, a few months before the death of the director with whose name he will forever be linked, Akira Kurosawa. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Drunken Angel (original title - Yoidore tenshi) (1948)
98 min, TV-PG
An alcoholic doctor builds a shaky friendship with a dying gangster.
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Toshirô Mifune, Michiyo Kogure

Drunken Angel is the first collaboration for Akira Kurosawa with both longtime actor Toshirô Mifune and longtime composer Fumio Hayasaka.


7:45 AM -- Rashomon (original title -- Rashômon) (1950)
88 min, TV-PG
In medieval Japan, four people offer conflicting accounts of a rape and murder.
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Takashi Shimura

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Takashi Matsuyama and H. Motsumoto

Won an Honorary Award -- Voted by the Board of Governors as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951. This film is often credited as the reason the Academy created the "Best Foreign Film" category.

During shooting, the cast approached Kurosawa en masse with the script and asked him, "What does it mean?" The answer Akira Kurosawa gave at that time and also in his biography is that Rashomon is a reflection of life, and life does not always have clear meanings.


9:15 AM -- Seven Samurai (original title -- Shichinin no samurai) (1954)
207 min, TV-14
Japanese villagers hire a team of traveling samurai to defend them against a bandit attack.
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Kuninori Kodo

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Takashi Matsuyama, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Kôhei Ezaki

Early in the writing process, six of the samurai were conceptualized, all loosely based on historic figures. Originally Toshirô Mifune was meant to play Kyuzo, the extremely stoic master swordsman. However, Akira Kurosawa and his collaborating writers decided that they needed a character they could more identity with who wasn't a fully-fledged samurai, so Kikuchiyo was created. Since Kikuchiyo didn't have a historic basis, Mifune was allowed to do an unprecedented (for a Kurosawa film) amount of improvisation in the part.


12:45 PM -- Throne of Blood (original title -- Kumonosu-jô) (1957)
109 min, TV-14
Spurred by his wife and a witch's prediction, a samurai murders his lord to steal the throne.
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura

The famous arrow scene near the end was in fact done with real arrows. That is, the arrows hitting the wooden planks were not done with special effects, but rather choreographed with archers. Mifune waves his arms to brush away the arrows sticking from the planks, indicating to them that he wanted to go in that particular direction. The real arrows were included to get Mifune's facial expressions of real-life fear, which is exceptionally hard to imitate. Of course, the arrows that hit the Mifune character were bamboo fakes.


2:45 PM -- Yojimbo (original title -- Yôjinbô) (1961)
111 min, TV-14
A samurai-for-hire sets the warring factions of a Japanese town against each other.
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Seizaburo Kawazu

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Yoshirô Muraki

Yojimbo is an uncredited film version of Dashiell Hammett's novel 'Red Harvest', which has yet to be filmed. Red Harvest is about a detective who comes to a small city and sets two sides of a gang war against one another until both gangs are almost completely wiped out. The scenes where Toshirô Mifune's character is held and beaten, however, was taken from Hammett's novel The Glass Key, which has been adapted for the screen twice. This film was later remade as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) with Clint Eastwood and as Last Man Standing (1996) with Bruce Willis.


4:45 PM -- Red Beard (original title -- Akahige) (1965)
185 min, TV-14
A tough doctor takes a young intern under his wing.
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Yoshio Tsuchiya

This movie marked the end of Akira Kurosawa's collaboration with Toshirô Mifune, as well as Kurosawa's last black-and-white film.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: Toshirô MIFUNE


8:00 PM -- Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1955)
C-94 min, TV-PG
A young man dreams of becoming a master samurai warrior and must overcome his humble, poverty-stricken roots to achieve that goal.
Dir: Hiroshi Inagaki
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Kaoru Yachigusa, Rentaro Mikuni

Based on the novel Miyamoto Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa.


9:45 PM -- Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955)
C-103 min, TV-PG
Japan's greatest samurai returns to Kyoto to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing.
Dir: Hiroshi Inagaki
Cast: Mariko Okada, Toshirô Mifune, Michiyo Kogure

Based on Eiji Yoshikawa's novel Ichijoji no ketto.


11:45 PM -- Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956)
C-105 min, TV-PG
A humble fencer abandons his life as a knight errant and becomes a teacher.
Dir: Hiroshi Inagaki
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Mariko Okada, Koji Tsuruta

In one scene, Mifune's characater Musashi catches a fly out of the air with chopsticks -- referenced nearly thirty years later when Mr. Miyagi does the same thing in The Karate Kid (1984).


1:45 AM -- Samurai Rebellion (original title -- Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma shimatsu) (1967)
121 min, TV-14
A young man, with the help of his father, rebels against his overlord in order to keep his wife.
Dir: Masaki Kobayashi
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Takeshi Kato, Yoko Tsukasa

Based on the novel Hairyozuma Shimatsu by Yasuhiko Takiguchi.


4:00 AM -- Muhomatsu, the Rickshaw Man (1958)
C-104 min, TV-PG
A poor rickshaw driver finds himself taking care of a young woman and her son after the woman's husband dies suddenly.
Dir: Hiroshi Inagaki
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Hideko Takamine,

Remake of The Life of Matsu the Untamed (1943).