Samurai Trilogy Box Set - Criterion Collection

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Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
Toshirô Mifune defines the quintessential samurai in Hiroshi Inagaki's 1954 Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, the first feature in a trilogy based on the epic novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. As in Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, which appeared the same year, Mifune plays a brash and ambitious peasant who desires fame and power as a swordsman. His dreams of glory in war sour when his army is routed and he becomes hunted by the authorities, but the "tough love" attentions of a kindly but severe monk help him develop from a hot-tempered outlaw to a thoughtful swordsman. Inagaki's somber color epic is very different from the energetic action of Kurosawa's films. The sword fights and battles are practically theatrical in their presentation, staged in long takes that emphasize form and movement over flash and flamboyance. Mifune brings a sad, almost tragic quality to the samurai warrior Musashi Miyamoto, whose dedication proscribes him to a lonely life on the road. Though the film stands well on its own, its stature takes on greater significance as the first act of Inagaki's stately, contemplative epic of the professional and spiritual development of Musashi.

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
Picking up where Samurai I left off, Toshirô Mifune's samurai in training Musashi Miyamoto is a wandering swordsman who hones his skills in a succession of duels. When he defeats a succession of students from a local school of martial arts, he becomes marked for death by the school elders and is attacked in a series of cowardly ambushes. Romantic threads from the first film become further complicated when the virginal Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa) and the sad courtesan Akemi (Mariko Okada) meet and discover their rivalry and Musashi earns himself an archenemy, an ambitious young swordsman named Sasaki Kojiro (Koji Tsuruta) who vows to defeat Musashi to make his name as the finest fencer in all of Japan. Inagaki ably manages the rather complicated plot with unexpected ease (subtitles are employed to help English viewers make a few narrative jumps) while he charts Musashi's education in compassion and humility and his internal struggle with his conflicted love for Otsu. The direction is still as distant and unostentatious as in the first film, while the color and settings become richer and more pronounced: studio-bound locations take on the quality and delicacy of paintings. The dramatic centerpiece of the trilogy, an epic pre-dawn battle where 40 swordsmen ambush Musashi, uses darkness and landscape to great dramatic effect as figures seep in and out of the picture

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
Toshirô Mifune is confidence supreme and humility incarnate as the mature samurai master Musashi Miyamoto in the final film of Inagaki's sprawling trilogy. Now a legendary swordsman whose latest quest is to save an isolated village from rampaging brigands (shades of Seven Samurai), he remains haunted by the memory of Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa). Meanwhile the ruthless and increasingly jealous Kojiro Sasaki (Koji Tsuruta) plots his battle royal with Musashi to prove who is the finest fencer in Japan. Inagaki weaves the web of subplots into a series of grand confrontations, among them the most exciting battles of the trilogy: Musashi's skirmish with the army of cutthroats while the village erupts in a fiery inferno around him, and the sunset duel between Musashi and Kojiro on an isolated beach, the two warriors taking on mythic dimensions silhouetted against the sun setting over the surf. Inagaki's delicate use of color throughout the series becomes most pronounced in this final sequence, where the glow of orange and red adds dramatic flourish to the twilight battle. Inagaki's reserved, restrained style and Mifune's melancholy performance--his granite face and stocky stance the very essence of somber wisdom and sad assurance--bring a gravity and seriousness to the drama that ultimately illuminates the personal cost of Musashi's supreme skill as his story ends on an elegiac but hopeful note. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Based on the novel that has been called Japan's Gone With the Wind, Hiroshi Inagaki's acclaimed Samurai Trilogy is a sweeping saga of the legendary 17th-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) set against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. Now available for the first time together in a specially priced gift pack, the films follow Musashi's odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior in an epic tale of combat, valor, and self-discovery.

Customer Reviews:

The spirit of Samurai.......2007-07-11

No daubt that Mifune Toshiro is the best actor in Japan, and Inagaki Hirashi a very good director. In this movie Teach us how can transfer a simple, useless human been to a total spirit Samurai. How to get that pacient and the strong mind to be a gentalmen, a Samurai. It's very good to see this movie and to teach our kids that how can be a usefull man, maybe this socialty we live can change a little. Itnis a legend of samurai, and a true story of Miyamoto Musashi, a true legend of Japan.
Cook John from Costa Rica

The best samurai series.......2007-03-03

While many point to the works of Akira Kurosawa as being the quintessential films about the samurai, I've been a huge fan of the Samurai Trilogy for decades now. It is based on the popular novel by Eiji Yoshikawa, and the Musashi Miyamoto character is played flawlessly by Toshiro Mifune. Great swordbattles, colorful backdrops, entangling politics, swooning damsels, humor, drama, classic soundtrack and a strong moral undertone make this the Gone With the Wind of medieval Japan. While many cite the historical discrepencies about Musashi, I say, enjoy these movies for what they are.

Not the whole story........2007-02-13

The Samurai Trilogy is very well done even with a few very slow segments to show Musashi's efforts to be 'culturalized.' The Trilogy ends with his sword fight with Sasaki Kojiro and I was hoping that the whole story would be told to his final days. What happens to Otsu?

Yoshikawa 's novel for the screen.......2007-01-31

I really enjoyed reading Eiji Yoshikawa's book Musashi. It's a wonderful journey filled with some incredible characters and more twists than you can imagine. The Samurai trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune is a good rendition of the book, although it misses alot of the builds, drama and character development. It's deinitely worth addiing to your "Samurai collection".

Beloved Musashi.......2007-01-19

Japan loves the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi,and in this version Toshiro Mifune is absolutely charming. He acted in this at about the same time as Seven Samurai, if I am not mistaken, and surely he took a page from his 7 Samurai characterization of Kikuchiyo. His youthful Musashi is an animal!(he's not Musashi yet! He was still Takezo! He had to EARN his name!)
But, he learns. And, though it takes three films to tell the tale, it is most enjoyable throughout. Mifune was young, handsome, at his physical prime, and a darn entertaining actor! Ok, maybe the director Inagaki is no Kurosawa. Still, if you like this genre, this is fun!

Samurai I - Musashi Miyamoto - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

The First Of Director Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy!
Alright Japanese action flick from the '50s
Pretty good, not great
Part 1 of Mifune's Great Samurai Trilogy
An interesting film for Criterion to release

Samurai I - Musashi Miyamoto - Criterion Collection
Starring: Toshirô Mifune , Rentaro Mikuni , Kuroemon Onoe , Kaoru Yachigusa , and Mariko Okada
Director: Hiroshi Inagaki
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0780021045
Release Date: 1998-07-28

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Toshirô Mifune defines the quintessential samurai in Hiroshi Inagaki's 1954 Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, the first feature in a trilogy based on the epic novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. As in Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, which appeared the same year, Mifune plays a brash and ambitious peasant who desires fame and power as a swordsman. His dreams of glory in war sour when his army is routed and he becomes hunted by the authorities, but the "tough love" attentions of a kindly but severe monk help him develop from a hot-tempered outlaw to a thoughtful swordsman. Inagaki's somber color epic is very different from the energetic action of Kurosawa's films. The sword fights and battles are practically theatrical in their presentation, staged in long takes that emphasize form and movement over flash and flamboyance. Mifune brings a sad, almost tragic quality to the samurai warrior Musashi Miyamoto, whose dedication proscribes him to a lonely life on the road. Though the film stands well on its own, its stature takes on greater significance as the first act of Inagaki's stately, contemplative epic of the professional and spiritual development of Musashi, whose training and adventures continue in Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Hiroshi Inagaki's acclaimed Samurai Trilogy is based on the novel that has been called Japan's Gone with the Wind. This sweeping saga of the legendary seventeenth-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (powerfully portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) plays out against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. The Trilogy follows Musashi's odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior. In the first part, Musashi Miyamoto, the hero's dreams of military glory end in betrayal, defeat, and a fugitive lifestyle. But he is saved by a woman who loves him and a cunning priest who guides him to the samurai path. This installment won the 1955 Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film.

Customer Reviews:

The First Of Director Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy!.......2006-12-19

"Samurai I," starring Toshiro Mifune as first Takezo, then Miyamoto Musashi, is an excellent film into the trilogy which will conclude with the final, and best episode, "Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island." In this first film, Takezo (Toshiro Mifune) as he is known in the begining, [but will later be named Miyamoto Musashi], is a brash young man. As a peasant, he decides to leave his village and enter the army, which is on its way to do battle. However, he becomes despondent when his side is defeated. As he returns to his village, he has become an outcast, and when arrested for treason, he is saved by a monk from death, who tells Takezo to study the samurai code. When looking back on the episode, I realize that director Inagaki did a very good job with his plot development, as we see a brash and abrasive Takezo's fall from his lofty ambitions in the begining, to eventually emerge as a true samurai, due to the intervention of the priest Takuan.

It is the teachings of this priest that will set Takezo on the right path in life. Yet, Takezo must face many obstacles: most of which are of his own making, and of his inner self. His development into the samurai he wishes to be, and the samurai he eventually becomes is due to the efforts of the priest Takuan. From an irrational and wild young man, Takezo will some day emerge into a samurai who can hold his head up high. In the meantime, however, he aspires to be a great samurai. The character development that Hiroshi Inagaki gives to the characters in the film are very good. Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa), who becomes loyal to Takezo, and eventually frees him and flees with him, will become central to the films plot, and her role will continue until the final episode.

However, this is a Toshiro Mifune film. Albeit, with great characters in the film itself, his character and changing nature is the heart of the films trilogy. However, I really liked the character of the priest Takuan. This first film of the trilogy allows the viewer to understand how and why Takezo is the way he is. Where he comes from in his life, and why he aspires to be a great samurai. The film succeeds in large part due to the rough hewn nature of the samurai during the Tokugawa period. The film is not complete, in that the viewer must see the changes that Takezo [later Miyamoto Musashi] must undergo in order for the film to make full sense. I recommend that you watch all three episodes before coming to any conclusions in this first installment. The questions are all answered in the films trilogy in the climatic and suspenseful final episode. This is well worth viewing, and owning. I recommend the film highly, and add that if you stick with the first two installments, and see the final episode you will not be disappointed. Highly recommended.

Alright Japanese action flick from the '50s.......2006-02-01

The always-reliable Toshiro Mifune plays a wild young man with a strong urge to go off and fight in a local civil war. He goes, the war doesn't turn out well, and the young man Takezo (the Mifune character) ventured off with takes up with a prairie floozy and her beautiful daughter and promptly forgets all about the girl he left behind. Takezo doesn't, though, and when he returns to the village to tell Otsu of the betrayal by some prestidigitation or other he finds himself hunted by the villagers on trumped up charges of treason and proceed to hunt our young hero like a swamp dog.

Then or thereabouts a Buddhist priest enters the story and becomes the pivot point in the first installment in an epic trilogy. Will the priest prove able to break Takezo's stubborn willfulness without breaking his spirit? MIYAMOTO MUSASHI is released by Criterion and won an honorary, foreign language Academy Award in 1955. That's a pretty potent combination that's hard to resist, and I stuck this one in the player figuring maybe it is, as some have claimed, the Japanese `Gone With the Wind.'

Then I remembered I'm not all that partial to GWTW, either. Well, the `either' came after I watched MM and decided its `classic' elements eluded me. For one thing, its afflicted with first-installment-itis - it takes a whole long time for the plot to pick up momentum, and the ending has the always frustrating `to be continued' written all over it. Not only is it somewhat slow and choppy and inconclusive, its centerpiece - a climatic battle between Takezo and a forest full of angry men with long, pointy sticks - is a fizzle. It either wasn't choreographed well before filming, or the editors botched it in the cutting room, or the director didn't film enough footage for the editor to use in the first place. In any event, what ought to be a stirring, pitched battle is nothing much more than Toshiro Mifune hopping and snarling and spitting at a herd of extras who don't come within fifteen feet of him.

MIYAMOTO MUSASHI was good enough for me to recommend, just, and intriguing enough to line up a viewing of the final two installments. Kind of a mucky, dirty, hard-to-read print as well.

Pretty good, not great.......2005-10-14

It is easy to overrate certain films, and this is one of them. Certain films, like this one, have a lot of status for some reason. This is not a great film. The story isn't absorbing enough. There are some other faults as well.

The battle scenes are unbelievable. A number of times we have one solitary fighter, either Takezo or his friend, beating off a large number of attackers. The way this is accomplished is by showing the hero spinning around, and every time he swings his sword, someone else falls. It is absurd. The men fell, in turn, because the script told them to. There is no realism in any of the battle scenes.

We also don't understand why the characters behave as they do. We just have to chalk it up to Japanese culture, or whatever. They make no sense as real people. Why did the priest treat Takezo as he did? Ya got me! Why did Takezo make the final decision he made? Ya got me again. I don't feel it.

In one scene, darling Otsu tells Takezo to wait for him, and she disappears to change her clothes. Obviously he was going to walk out on her. I thought Otsu was an absolute idiot for walking away to change her clothes, after begging him to let her accompany him. Do you think he stayed and waited for her? How foolish was that scene.

It is a fairly absorbing story, but not nearly as absorbing as the book Musashi. I can't give this film more than 3 stars.

One thing that annoys me in Amazon reviews is how often people say "the movie was great but the dvd was bad". It is a cliche already. Rate the movie. When you are talking about a classic like this one, the only permissible way to criticize it is by saying the movie is great but the dvd is bad. Well, this movie isn't great. It's pretty good. That's it.

Part 1 of Mifune's Great Samurai Trilogy.......2005-04-10

Often called a "Japanese 'Gone With the Wind,'" Hiroshi Inagaki's beautiful trilogy follows the story of the legendary real-life samurai Musashi Miyamoto (played by the almost-always amazing Toshiro Mifune) on his journey from being a rebellious young man to becoming a masterful warrior. I find it difficult to separate these three films (parts 1-3) in terms of individual merit. By watching all three films the end result is greater than the sum total of each part. Criterion offers each film separately or together in a boxed set. The first film, titled Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto introduces the viewer to Musashi who begins his long journey be becoming a fugitive in his home land. Along the way, he is saved by and later falls in love with the beautiful Otsu and is befriended by a priest who becomes his mentor and teaches him the way of the samurai. It is also worth noting that this first volume received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1955. On the downside, the entire trilogy is skimpy in special features (there are no audio commentaries and the inner booklet is rather insubstantial compared to subsequent Criterion Collection releases). However, no amount of extra features can redeem a truly aweful movie, and a lack of extra features cannot take aware from a truly great movie.

An interesting film for Criterion to release.......2004-03-22

This film (which won an Oscar® in 1955 for best foreign language film) is the first part of a trilogy which is known as the Samurai Trilogy. I find it very impressive for a color film to be released in 1954 at a time where even most American films were still in B&W. At this time, color films were still far more expensive than B&W and Japan was not yet even close to becoming the tech savvy country it is known for being today.

The film itself is based loosely on the true story of 17th century Japanese samurai Musashi Miyamoto. He was considered a hero by the Japanese though I disagree because he participated in the massacre of a Japanese Christian community in Kyushu.

The films have been likened to a Japanese equivalant of "Gone with the Wind" as it is of a woman torn between two lovers during a civil war.

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