Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki • 1955 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru Yachigusa
Toshiro Mifune furiously embodies swordsman Musashi Miyamoto as he comes into his own in the action-packed middle section of the Samurai Trilogy. DUEL AT ICHIJOJI TEMPLE furthers Miyamoto along his path to spiritual enlightenment, as well as further from the arms of the two women who love him: loyal Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa) and conniving yet tragic Akemi (Mariko Okada). The film also brings him face to face with hordes of rivals intent on cutting him down, especially his legendary rival Kojiro (Koji Tsuruta). The titular climax is one of Japanese cinema’s most rousingly choreographed conflicts, intensified by Jun Yasumoto’s color cinematography and Ikuma Dan’s triumphant score.
Up Next in Starring Toshiro Mifune
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Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki • 1956 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru YachigusaA disillusioned Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune) has turned his back on the samurai life, becoming a farmer in a remote village, while his nemesis Kojiro (Koji Tsuruta) now works for the shogun. Ci...
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Throne of Blood
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1957 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru ChiakiA vivid, visceral “Macbeth” adaptation, THRONE OF BLOOD, directed by Akira Kurosawa, sets Shakespeare’s definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan....
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The Lower Depths
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1957 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Kyoko KagawaOne of Akira Kurosawa’s darkest, most uncompromising films, this by turns bleak and blackly comic adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s social-realist play transplants the story to nineteenth-century Japan, where...
