Erik Visits an (Non)-American Grave, Part 1,204

This is the grave of Toshiro Mifune.

I see no reason to write a biographical post of Mifune. I just want to make a few points.

First, THIS IS THE GRAVE OF TOSHIRO MIFUNE!!!!! Do you know how cool it is to see this? For me, this was peak grave. Not to mention that finding graves in a place where you don’t read the language takes a lot of work. Plus this was during that horrible heat wave in Japan this summer. Never let it be said I don’t work for you people.

Second, who in human history is cooler than Mifune? No one. Not a single person. This is Toshiro. Motherfucking. Mifune. Oh my god!!!

Third, Mifune had an interesting early life–he was one of the Japanese colonists in China, or more accurately, his parents were. In fact, his parents were Methodist missionaries. During the war, Mifune worked in photography, so good for him, he managed not to die and the world was better for that.

Fourth, the connection between Mifune and Kurosawa is probably the greatest combination of actor and director of all time. There’s a lot of competition for this–most of the great directors in world history tend to work with the same actors (think Scorsese and DeNiro, Bergman and Ullman/Von Sydow, Wong Kar Wai’s cast of greats, Ozu and Setsuko Hara, etc). But who was better than this combo? These are iconic roles. Although I would argue that The Seven Samurai is perhaps the greatest film ever made, the Mifune performance is one of the only ones that is pretty foreign to western audiences, with his feral nature including a style of acting that seems to be hamming it up from a western perspective. But that was just unique to that film. Think of the total badass of Yojimbo and Sanjuro. The tough but ultimately kindly loyal samurai of The Hidden Fortress. All the versions of the same character in Rashomon. His MacBeth in Throne of Blood. The humanitarian but ultimately badass doctor in Red Beard. Just great role after great role–16 in all. Too bad they broke in the end. Kurosawa’s career after this remained pretty great, but Mifune’s was a bit mixed.

Fifth, supposedly, at least according to his daughter, Mifune was offered the role of either Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Vader. Luckily, he did not soil his legacy with such a laughable role in such a stupid movie as Star Wars. Alec Guinness did and it embarrassed him for the rest of his life, though he happily cashed the checks.

Sixth, let’s not forget Mifune’s other great roles outside of Kurosawa–his work in the Mushashi Miyamoto series directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, his role in Chushingura, also under Inagaki’s direction, Okamoto’s Sword of Doom. Kobayashi’s astounding Samurai Rebellion. Just great work after great work.

Seventh, the last years of Mifune’s life were not great. He began to decline both physically and mentally by the early 90s and he died in 1997 of multiple organ failure. He was 77 years old.

In conclusion, TOSHIRO MIFUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you would like this series to visit American actors who worked with Mifune, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. One of his more unfortunate roles was in the weird and not successful but moderately interesting Winter Kills, where Mifune plays a butler of all things–not a good role. Also in that film was John Huston, who is in Los Angeles, and Dorothy Malone, who is in Dallas. Previous posts in this series are archived here.