Musashi Miyamoto Trilogy

Director; Hiroshi Inagaki
Starring; Toshiro Mifune
Genre; Samurai Drama
Year; 1954, 1955, 1956
Release; Korea YDM Vagabond Collection

Know largely, in the west at least, for his collaborations with legendary auteur Akira Kurosawa, Mifune here works under Inagaki. These are a trilogy of films depicting the tales of Japanese folk hero, Musashi Miyamoto. Fabled for his skill with a Katana, in 17th century feudal Japan, the tales do have an air of the embelleshment about them. However, who gives a rats arse about how true it all is? the tales are exciting, and that's what really matters. This first part tells the story of how he went from a wild, young, reckless and uncontrolled youth, and became a Samurai. The second deals with his wandering, learning to become a worthy samurai. The third film deals with the buildup to a big duel, with a highly skilled rival. Typical of Japanese samurai films of this era, the story plods along at a reasonable rate, with the film giving a certain air of calm (they all do this, especially the work of Kurosawa). The fight scenes are as far from later chop socky as you could get, really. Short sharp bursts of power, no swinging and flailing around. While the films do fall a little short of the greatness of the Kurosawa classics, that does not by any means mean they are bad films. Those films are on another level, these are mearly great movies. Definately to be seen. Incidently, I got my films from Korea, and they were packed in the wrong order, having virtually no English on the packaging, I could hardley tell which was which. So I watched them out of order.