Movie Review: Mifune: The Last Samurai (2015)

Mifune: The Last Samurai (2015) co-written, edited, and directed by Steven Okazaki

Toshiro Mifune is easily the most famous actor from Japan. After World War II, when the country was in desperate times, Mifune applied for a job as a cameraman's assistant. He was soon swept in front of the camera. His international stardom came from his collaborations with director Akira Kurosawa. Their first film, Rashomon, put Japanese film on the world stage. They had a long string of artistic and box office successes, including Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, and Yojimbo, which respectively inspired The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars (George Lucas even wanted Mifune to play Obi Wan Kenobi!), and A Fistful of Dollars. Mifune had an electrifying presence on screen, with the sort of star power that every actor wishes for.

The movie delves a bit more into Mifune as a person. He would prepare for roles with a great deal of research and thought. He was passionate, dedicated, and fearless in his performances. He behaved the same way in his regular life. He loved cars and alcohol, indulging a bit too much at times. He was considerate of other actors. He worked hard and had a rich career.

Even though many of the interviews for this documentary are with his sons, Mifune's family life is only minimally described. How he was as a father or husband just barely comes across. The focus of the documentary is really on his public and professional persona. The movie does delve into the history of Japanese cinema, starting from the first silent films in the early 1900s through the popularity of chanbara (sword fighting) films and up to the propaganda films of World War II.

Mifune had both great talent and dedication to his task, making him a remarkable actor. His career is fascinating and had a huge impact on cinema everywhere.

Recommended, highly for Mifune or Kurosawa fans.

Movie Review: Rashomon (1950)

Rashomon (1950) co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa

A priest and a woodcutter are waiting out the rain in the old, derelict city gate called "Rashomon." The time is 12th century Japan, the city is former capital Kyoto. The country and the city have seen better days. A third man comes to the gate. He notices how glum they are; they tell him the most recent depressing news. A samurai was  killed in the forest. The woodcutter discovered the dead body, so he testified at the trial three days ago. The trial included depositions from the woodcutter, a bandit named Tajomaru, the dead man's widow, and a medium channeling the dead man. The varying stories don't match up, and it's very clear that the individual testimonies are given to make the witness look the best or most sympathetic in the story. The third man cynically harps on the fact that people lie to make themselves look good. The priest despairs of the existence of human goodness. Are all people selfish connivers?

The movie is very challenging in that it never spells out what happened in the woods, whether the samurai was killed by the bandit or by his own hand. Was the wife (who was raped by the bandit) complicit in the murder? Each version of the story has the characters behaving very differently. Even when the woodcutter gives a second version of his story, it still doesn't fit together with everything else. I've watched the film three times and at this point I'm fairly certain there is no way to figure out the actual details of what happened. So viewers may be frustrated by that ambiguity.

But the movie is not a police procedural. The thematic focus is not on truth but on the deeply flawed and broken way people treat the truth. The third man is very cynical and very modern in his understanding of human nature--everyone is selfish and works for their own good; either there is no evil (in which case, every action is morally okay) or everything is evil (in which case, why hold people responsible?). The priest has a classic crisis of faith--he sees no good in the world. There have been famines, fires, plagues, earthquakes. The world and the people in it are crumbling down like the Rashomon gate. The rain only adds to the dismal misery. Can anyone overcome their selfishness and act for the good of others?

The source material for the movie, author Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short stories "In the Grove" and "Rashomon" (reviewed here), clearly answer no. The movie presents Akutagawa's pessimism faithfully but adds a new twist at the end that undercuts that pessimism and gives at least one reason for hope.

The movie can also be viewed as an allegory for post-WWII Japan's situation, seemingly on the brink of ruin. Providing his countrymen with a glimmer of hope, an inspiration to get up and move on, is a beautiful thing.

Highly recommended (unless you really want the police procedural).

Book Review: Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa

Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa

If you ask anyone to name a Japanese film director, the most likely answer will be "Akira Kurosawa." He has directed many classics (like Seven Samauri, Yojimbo, and Hidden Fortress) that have been remade by Western directors (like The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, and Star Wars) and many classics that were remakes of Shakespeare's plays (Throne of Blood and Ran). One of his early films, Rashomon, won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and subsequently won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, putting Japanese cinema on the international stage only five years after World War II. Kurosawa's significance is indisputable.

Kurosawa wrote an autobiography in 1983. The book only covers his early life, up to the international reception of Rashomon. He starts with his earliest memories (being in a bathtub as a toddler) and describes his life in the early decades of 20th century Japan. His home followed the classic samurai model, with traditional clothes and a simple layout to the house and a simple life style. He writes of his school years which both mirror and contrast to western education. He had the usual classes and problems with bullies and friends. He also took special lessons in calligraphy and kendo (weapon fighting), often having to walk several miles in the early hours before school. His love of art and literature started early and was a great help in his later career as a film maker.

His early adulthood was full of adventure. He was interested in being a painter and joined a socialist movement after school. That did not work out well (especially coming from a traditional home) and he wound up applying for an assistant director job at Toho studio. He had a tough time getting in but was soon under the tutelage of Kajiro Yamamoto. His skills as a writer, editor, and director bloomed at Toho, though there were many problems with union strikes and with censors, especially during World War II, when anything that seemed "British-American" was verboten. The book finishes with stories from several of Kurosawa's 1940s films, finishing with Rashomon. He recommends people interested in his later life to just watch his films, since he puts so much of himself into them and they are so central to his life.

Kurosawa's writing style is simple and direct with an unassuming air. He's open about his temper and mistakes he has made. His humility is refreshing and disarming. Occasional insights about film making are sprinkled throughout the book, with the lion's share at the end. I found the book very interesting and insightful about Kurosawa's film making and about him as a person. I want to watch (and rewatch) his early films.

Highly recommended!

Book Review: Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Ryunosuke Akutagawa was a Japanese author writing in the early twentieth century (he died a suicide in 1927). His fictional settings range through the centuries. His attitude toward human nature is mostly consistent--cynical and pessimistic. The texts are straightforward accounts where the nuances come out of the characters' actions and thoughts.

1. In a Grove--Various witnesses give testimony to a High Police Commissioner about a rape and murder in a grove off of a major thoroughfare. Some incidental witnesses give some details and the main witnesses (the bandit assumed responsible, the assaulted wife, and the dead man who testimony comes from a medium) have stories that don't sync up. The truth is hard to find when people hold their egos in higher regard. The story is more of a character study than a mystery--the enigma of what happened is perhaps unsolvable.

2. Rashomon--Standing in the rundown city gate called Rashomon, a samurai's servant is waiting out the rain. He's just been fired so he considers what he will do. Like the gate, the city of Kyoto (the former capital of Japan) is run down. The prospects of earning an honest living are minimal, so he considers becoming a thief. His considerations are interrupted when he discovers another lost soul in the Rashomon. The bleak atmosphere of the story is unrelenting and the ambiguous resolution makes for a good discussion.

3. Yam Gruel--In the remote past, mid-level (i.e. non-descript) samurai Goi has no other desire than to eat yam gruel, then considered a delicacy. Goi is shabby in appearance, clothing, thought, and will, making him the target of practical joking by his superiors and inferiors. One superior, Toshihito, decides to play a long joke and takes Goi off to his splendid mansion in a distant province with the promise of yam gruel in abundance. The author makes a big deal about Goi being the hero of the story, perhaps only to satirize the hero's journey. If so, it is a rather bleak and joyless satire.

4. The Martyr--An orphan shows up at a Jesuit church in Nagasaki. The brothers take the child in because of a rosary wrapped around his wrist and the child's sweet and silent disposition. He grows up only to find horrible accusations made against him. The final twist in the story is a little too unbelievable (though a postscript claims the story is based on true events), spoiling an otherwise interesting look at Christians in Japan.

5. Kesa and Morito--Two lovers plan to murder the woman's husband. The story is told twice--once from the man's perspective, next from the woman's. Their differing details are reminiscent of "In a Grove," with the same sort of pessimism running through it.

6. The Dragon--Ancient storyteller Uji Dainagon Takakuni collects a story from a potter much like one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from one of the pilgrims. The potter's story involves a prankster Buddhist priest who puts up a sign by a local pond: "On March third a dragon shall ascend from this pond." The sign causes a sensation all out of proportion from the intended joke, leading to massive crowds camping out on the assigned date. Even the priest starts to think a dragon may rise!

The most upbeat of the stories (The Martyr and The Dragon) are from other source materials, making me reluctant to seek out more from Akutagawa. I don't mind dark themes and stories but these are a bit too unrelenting for me. I am sure to rewatch Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, which uses the story Rashomon as a framing device around the In a Grove story. Kurosawa has a more positive resolution to the story, which makes a fascinating contrast.