From: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Subject: Re: Toshiro Mifune
Date: 28 Jan 93 15:32:33 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Windows/DOS Users Ed Group

In article <1993Jan27.205707.712@cs.ucla.edu> reiher@ficus.cs.ucla.edu (Peter Reiher) writes:
>In article <1k6ln7INNrmt@transfer.stratus.com> jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes:
>>In article <C1IzI3.BFA@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>  
>>mvburke@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (mary virginia burke) writes:
>>> Apropos of nothing in particular, can anyone fill me in on what the 
>>> redoubtable Mr. Mifune has been doing in recent years?  
>>In the early '80s, he also had a cameo in 1941.  I don't know
>>if he's done anything since.
>
>It's my understanding that Mifune spent much of the eighties making highly
>paid appearences in bad films. I had heard that Kurosawa could no longer
>afford his salary for films like "Ran" and "Kagemusha".  That's no more
>than rumor, though.  I only know three titles for Mifune later than the 
>early eighties.  (Though I can add that he had the dubious honor of appearing 
>in "Inchon".)  In 1985, he appeared in "No More God, No More Love", directed 
>by Tooru Murakawa.  In 1987, he appeared in Kon Ichikawa's "The Princess 
>From the Moon", in the leading role.  Ichikawa is one of Japan's finest
>directors, with a long and illustrious career.  In 1988, Mifune had a major 
>role in "Tora-San Goes North", the 38th film in a series that never caught 
>on with U.S. audiences.  (I think it was Mifune's only appearence in the 
>series.)  I suspect he appeared in a number of other Japanese films that 
>did not get shown in the U.S. at all.
>-- 

To confirm Peter's description of Mifune's later career, let
me post a filmography extracted from Cinemania:




Toshiro Mifune (1920 -    )



Occupation:	Actor
Also:	producer
Born:	April 1, 1920, Tsingtao, China 

Although he had originally planned to work in films as an assistant
cameraman, Toshiro Mifune was auditioned as an actor instead, a
fortuitous career shift which helped change the course of Japanese
cinematic history. He has appeared in many of the great post-war
Japanese films, most notably those of director Akira Kurosawa.

Collaborations between Kurosawa and Mifune began with the film Drunken
Angel (1948) and continued with such notable works as Rashomon (1950),
The Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), Yojimbo (1961) and
Red Beard (1965). Mifune's career is not, however, limited to films
directed by Kurosawa. He also appeared in such varied Japanese films as
Senkichi Taniguchi's Snow Trail (1947), Kenji Mizoguchi's The Life of
Oharu (1952), Hiroshi Inagaki's samurai trilogy on Miyamoto Musashi
(1954-56) and his The Rickshaw Man (1958), in addition to Masaki
Kobayashi's Rebellion (1967). Mifune has also starred in films by
non-Japanese directors, including Ismael Rodriguez's The Important Man
(1961), John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix (1966) and The Challenge
(1982), John Boorman's Hell in the Pacific (1968), Terence Young's Red
Sun (1972), Spielberg's 1941 (1979) and Jerry London's TV miniseries
Shogun (1980).

Mifune's roles tend to fall within the area described in kabuki terms
as the tateyaku style, i.e., that of the forceful, disciplined leading
man, in contrast to the softer and more weak-willed nimaime male. His
fast-paced and explosive style is not, however, all bluster and
swordplay. He infuses a subtle degree of sensitivity and psychological
complexity into even the most thick-skinned warrior characters. In the
course of his career, he has undertaken roles ranging from a modern-day
cop to a wandering, masterless samurai (ronin), from a Japanese version
of Macbeth to a drunken Indian peasant. He has also excelled at playing
a wealthy industrialist, a ruthless bandit, a compassionate physician,
an aged obsessive and a day laborer.

With a talent for both drama and comedy, Mifune has refined, but never
totally lost, his earlier "angry young man" demeanor. He is the only
performer to have twice received the best actor Award at the Venice
Film Festival and is also the recipient of the 1988 Kawakita Award,
presented to those who have contributed significantly to Japanese
cinema. Since 1963, Mifune has owned his own production company, Mifune
Productions. He tried his hand at directing with a film entitled The
Legacy of the 500,000 (1963), but its failure persuaded him to
concentrate his energies on performing. Mifune Productions now
specializes in making films for TV.





Toshiro Mifune (1920 -    )


Year	Film			Jobs

1947	Ginrei no hate/Snow 
	Trail 			performer
1948	Yoidore Tenshi/Drunken 
	Angel 			performer
1949	Nora Inu 		performer
1949	Shizukanaru naru ketto 	performer
1950	Rashomon 		performer
1950	Shuban 			performer	
1951	Hakuchi 		performer
1952	Saikaku ichidai onna/
	The Life of Oharu 	performer
1954	Miyamoto Musashi 	performer
1954	Shichinin no Samurai/
	The Seven Samurai 	performer
1955	Ikimono no Kiroku 	performer
1957	Donzoko 		performer
1957	Kumonosu-jo/Throne of 
	Blood 			performer
1958	Kakushi Toride no 
	San-Akunin 		performer
1958	Muhomatsu no issho/The 
	Rickshaw Man 		performer
1961	The Important Man 	performer
1961	Yojimbo 		performer
1962	Chushingura 		performer
1962	Daitozoku 		performer
1962	Tsubaki Sanjuro 	performer
1963	Tengoku to Jigoku 	performer
1963	Gojuman-nin no isan/
	Legacy of the 500,000 	performer, director, producer
1964	The Lost World of 
	Sinbad 			performer
1965	Akahige/Red Beard 	performer
1966	Grand Prix 		performer
1967	Jiouchi/Rebellion 	performer
1968	Hell in the Pacific 	performer
1968	Yamamoto Isoroku 	performer
1969	Nihonkai Daikaisen 	performer
1970	Machi-buse 		performer, executive producer
1970	Shinsengumi 		performer, producer
1971	Zato-ichi to Yojimbo 	performer
1972	Soleil Rouge/Red Sun 	performer
1975	Paper Tiger 		performer
1976	Midway 			performer
1979	1941 			performer
1979	Oginsaga 		performer
1979	Winter Kills 		performer
1979	The Bushido Blade 	performer
1982	The Challenge 		performer
1982	Inchon 			performer
1983	Jinsei Gekijo 		performer
1984	Seiha 			performer
1984	Umi Isubame Joe No 
	Kiseki 			performer
1987	Taketori Monogatari  	performer



-- 
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
	"Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda