MCW: Best Foreign Actor: Toshiro Mifune

I don't know what modern Hollywood would have done had there not been an Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, my choice for best foreign actor. With feudal Japan as a backdrop for the rise of the warrior class, the samurai (specifically a masterless/ronin samurai) personified an archetype very familiar to us: an outsider with his own code of ethics; like Han Solo, or Eastwood's Man with No Name. The character Eastwood plays in A Fist Full of Dollars is essentially the same character Mifune plays in Yojimbo, the quiet stranger that rolls into town and unleashes some epic badassery where it is well-deserved. I can't watch Kill Bill without a million flashbacks to classic Mifune moments: sword fights in the snow; dealing with (literally) insane rivals, fights against impossible odds; betrayals by dragon ladies and so forth.

Here we have a neat little compilation (2:12) a fan made with clips from "the Sword of Doom" where Mifune's character (entering the clip at :22) battles the crazy as hell Ryunosuke (played by the excellent Tatsuya Nakadai) in a series of clips that will show you, definitively, where Quentin Tarantino developed his style.



Not only were these samurai movies big to Tarrantino, but George Lucas has said that the Hidden Fortress was a huge influence on Star Wars IV. The funny thing is how often Kurosawa, the best director paired with Mifune, drew upon western literature for his films - especially Shakespeare.

Epic struggles remain the same in every time and in every language. If you have never seen a Toshiro Mifune film, start with Yojimbo. Like all great art, it remains as cool now as the day it was made.



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Movie Clip Wednesday is a game that is open to all. To Play, visit Milk RIver Madman to find each week's assignment, then post your entry by wednesday.