Miyamoto Musashi
Tags: romantic, suspenseful, atmospheric

Plot synopsis:
In 1600 AD in Miyamoto Village an army assembles and marches. Two young men, Takezo and Matahachi watch from high in a tree, Takezo is eager to join up while Matahachi has a girl Otsu. She scolds the men for climbing the tree. Matahachi casually mentions he may go away for a year, Otsu professes eternal love but asks him to stay.At night Takezo crosses a river, Matahachi joins him and the two go off laughing on their adventure.At the rainy Battle of Sekigahara one side is in retreat. Takezo and Matahatchi are digging trenches as their side tells them to run, the enemy is coming. Takezo vows to fight on and Matahachi joins him. The two join a counterattack against a mass cavalry charge. Afterwards many dead lie strewn on the vields of battle. Takezo gets up groggily and helps Matahachi, who has an injured leg. The two evade a mounted rearguard party and slip off into the forest. Matahachi is very weak but they manage make it to a solitary cabin.After three months the two are recovering well. They are staying with a mother, Oko and 16 yr old daughter, Akemi. Takezo tries to break a stray horse, Matahachi's leg is still a little weak. He misintreprets Akemi's attentions and embraces her, she pushes him off. She goes to Takezo instead and gets a wild horse ride. They fall off, Akemi is unhurt, but exhilarated and tries to seduce Takezo. A band of outlaws on horses comes by and tells Akemi they will come later for the their payment. At the house the four hide jewels in the ceiling attic, the women scavange from dead samurai. Oko explains her dead husband was a brigand also and she has plans to move to Kyoto. At night the bandits arrive and begin to ransack the house and menace the women. They find the treasure. Takezo fights back although vastly outnumbered. He kills the leader and the survivors escape. Oko is sexually charged by Takezo's bravery and offers herself, but he refuses and runs off. Oko, Akemi and Matahachi prepare to leave, Oko tells the others Takezo assaulted her as she makes sweet with Matahachi. Akemi runs outside and cries out for Takezo.Later, Takezo returns to the abandoned cottage, realizes Matahachi has left wth the women, and curses the other's foolishness. Near a lake the three travellers are confronted by thugs, Matahachi and Oko fight them off.On the way home Takezo is stopped at a gate, martial law requires all travellers to have proper ID. The guards attempts to arrest him but he fights them off and runs away.Back in Miyamoto village Otsu jokes with the Buddist priest Takuan. Otsu then meets Matahachi's mother Osugi, there is a townhall meeting with the precinct captain, he is organizing a search posse for Takezo. A tearful Otsu notices Takezo scampering through the temple grounds, guards also give chase but Takezo stabs one and manages to escape. The townsfolk turn against him. The Captain demands two from each family help with the search, the large group beats its way up the hillsides. All Takezo's relatives are arrested. Takezo watches the posse from safety. As night falls Osugi offers Otsu to come live with her even though she is not an official in-law. Takezo appears and tells the women Matahatchi is alive but he can't reveal any details. Osugi seems motherly and offers him some food and a bath. While in the tub guards appear, called by Osugi. Takezo jumps from the tub, grabs his kimono and again is able to escape capture.The next day more soldiers from the castle arrive to help. The Captain appears to take interest in Otsu but is stopped by the Priest Takuan. The holy man gives her a mail package. It is a letter from Oko explaining Matahachi is her husband and lover and to forget him. In the forest Takezo beats a wood gatherer senseless.Takuan announces he is going to catch Takezo himself, Otsu offers to join him. Takuan and Otsu camp out and chat. Otsu plays a mournful flute, Takezo arrives and is given a bowl of ramen, Takuan convinces the emotional wreck to give himself up. In town Takuan convinces the Captain to release Takezo to him, the priest then has Takezo trussed up and raised high on a tree branch. Takezo demands to be put to death, the priest laughs at him. Otsu asks the priest to have mercy. Young boys tease the suspended samurai. Osugi once again offers her home to Otsu, who refuses, the older woman is deeply insulted. At night Takuan lectures to the struggling Takezo, he needs to be a better man, you only live once, etc etc. A short time later Otsu loosens the rope and lets Takezo down, she gets bad rope burn on her palms. The two make their escape. Otsu slows them down and soon another posse catches up to them. Takezo fights valiantly and eludes capture while Otsu is taken to Himeji Castle.Takezo tries to climb the walls to rescue her but Takuan notices and gets him to stop and follow him inside. The priest leads him to an attic room where Otsu is to be waiting, but, it's a trap, Takuan closes the door and locks him in. The room is filled with books, Takuan tells him to read and learn. Otsu gets a job nearby to wait for Takezo's release.Five years later in Kyoto Akemi sings for a gentleman, Seijuro Yoshioka. Her mother Oko looks on with her new man friend, Toji. Matahachi is in the house too, now a layabout cuckolded wastrel. He realizes he is a fool.Takezo has been in training to serve Himeji Castle for three years. Priest Takuan renames him Miyamoto Musashi. He kneels before Lord Himeji and says he is not ready to serve, the Lord tells him to go travel and train himself. Well groomed, dressed and armed, Takezo prepares to leave but wishes to say farewell to Otsu, Takuan tries to get him to leave his past behind. But Takezo looks for and finds her at a shop by the bridge. Otsu pleads to go with him, but the samurai can't do it, he leaves silently leaving an apologetic note scratched onto the bridge railing. He heads toward the setting sun.

Review: The strengths of this movie are a simple story with wonderful characters set to a background of beautiful scenery and costumes using skillful cinematography.
Unlike today's movies with emphasis on action, special effects and fast cuts to move the story along, this movie unfolds its drama at a leisurely pace and introduces us to the title characters so we feel well acquainted with them.Samurai I sets the foundation for the story.
Matahachi is Musashi's friend who is set to marry Otsu, but the civil war in Japan during that time separate them and put their plans on hold.
What drives the first part of the trilogy are the characters, especially the rambunctious Musashi and what he does for his friend Matahachi and his mother.
Part I ends with Musashi professing his love for Otsu, but also leaving her in order to further his warrior training.Samurai II is again driven by its characters, but this time the cinematography opens up to show us breathtaking scenery and backgrounds.
The background and costumes of Japan during medieval times make for a very Zen-like and peaceful atmosphere despite the story is about fighting and developing the warrior's skills.
His tastes are different from the simpler Musashi, and each character is developed to portray them as very strong individuals.Samurai III shows us the final battle at last between Musashi and Kojiro and is easily the most artistic of the trilogy.
Musashi was about to duel Kojiro to the death early in Part III, but decided at the last minute that there were things in life he still wanted to do.
In the Samurai Trilogy, one can appreciate his use of color and composition of the scenes, e.g. the bridge scenes in Samurai I, the opening title sequences in II or the final battle scene in III.
These were not just early high-quality color samurai movies, not just great films-- they were a nationwide event, and a milestone in Japanese social evolution.
All three episodes are directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and star Toshiro Mifune as Miyamoto-san, in a performance that is perfection.
Miyamoto Musashi shows the young samurai aspirant as a hot-headed, imperfect man, neither hero nor monster-- but possessed of a fierce dark force that could impel him toward either outcome.
All these issues are played out without preachiness, in the actions of real people, well-drawn characters whom we meet and get to know before the episode ends in a series of parting of ways.
"Miyamoto Musashi" (1955): by Hiroshi Inagaki, starring Torshiro Mifune.
It has something of the feel of Herman Hesse's book "Siddhartha", but with Samurai battle scenes (no, it is NOT a silly martial arts film).
Having won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film of 1955, this is 97 minutes of serious life dramas, with the priorities being Japanese, of course.
One must think that with less than a decade having passed since Japan's defeat in WWII, this film's considerations (set in the 16th century) - about identity, goals, love, war, status, and true purpose - were nearly unavoidable.
Beautiful photography, good color (considering the era), music that occasionally over-swelled the scene, believable sets, and again, a serious story line, make this one worth seeing.
Mountains, green pastures, lakes, forests with bamboo undergrowth and the cities and villages in typical style serves as the backdrop.Takezo (Mifune) is the strong and wild character all the woman likes, but he cant handle the attention very well so he keeps running.
This review is for at least the first two films of the Samurai Trilogy, and for the third installment unless my opinion of that is different.
The Samurai Trilogy is a very good work, very well worth watching.
I give each segment of the samurai trilogy a solid 8/10 (unless the third installment is particularly great or awful; i will most likely post a comment for that film by itself)..
This title is really only the first part of a three-part story of the early life of Musashi, the legendary Samurai.
You can try to watch the first disc alone, it stand by itself, but it ends just as Mushashi starts out on his quest, and you'll miss Koji Tsuruta's serene and slightly creepy role as Kojiru, Musashi's arch-enemy, which for me was the best part of parts 2 and 3.The DVDs feature not very well restored prints, maybe it was the best they could do, and there is no supplemental material.The movie itself is a fun and lively retelling of the legend.
Mifune is more wooden than usual, but this is a time when Japanese action films were taking their cues from westerns, and his Musashi grows from a wild spirit to the requisite strong, silent type.
Toshiro Mifune stars as a foolish young man who longs to run off to war to make his fortune and prove he is a man.
The movie does have tremendous scope and is a very effective opening film to the Samurai Trilogy.It is important to note that these movies were made nearly 50 years ago and existing copies on DVD are in poor condition--with fading and sepia tones instead of the vibrant original.
Toshiro Mifune (of Akira Kurosawa fame) stars as Takezo.
Thus, Takezo becomes the film title, Miyamoto Musashi.An excellent and colorful film.
Ambitious, but not as strong and mature as he should be for a samurai.If you don't know too much about classic samurai cinema, this is a good place to start (this is part one in a trilogy of three films).
With his short running time and color film, it may help you break into the other samurai classics that are in B&W (Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, etc.,).As a note, this won of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1955..
I've finally gotten down to the first in the trilogy of films based on a story that has been touted as the Japanese's equivalent of Gone with the Wind.
The Samurai Trilogy, directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, is based on the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa, which tells of the story of the famous samurai Miyamoto Musashi, and an intriguing character who has authored The Book of Five Rings.What more, the titular character is played by the legendary Toshiro Mifune, and that itself is a major treat and a draw for more contemporary audiences.
Sadly to say, as with most first films in a series, this one sets out to establish the baseline character of Mushashi, or Takezo as he's better known in his early days, an orphan brought up by relatives and who possesses great strength, but is brash and ill-disciplined.
Together with his best friend Honiden Matahachi (Rentaro Mikuni), who had to leave behind his fiancé Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa), they sign up for war in the hopes of being samurai warriors at the end of battle, only to discover they're fighting on the losing end, and become fugitives.What transpires later involves their flight from the dark, a couple of seduction scenes by a mother-daughter pair of grave-diggers whose fancies for Takezo gets turned toward Honiden, therein splitting the two best friends up, and Takezo being persecuted by his village folk for deserting his best friend since he returned to the village as the sole survivor.
But the shrewd monk Takuan (Kuroemon Onoe) sees a diamond in the rough in Takezo, and therefore sets him up to fall under his tutelage, while at the same time Takezo has to decide for himself how to deal with some new found love in Otsu.There's romance, there's battle scenes, there's the obligatory hero who's still unsure of his destiny.
Sure a key female character here is as conniving can be, and future installments (I've taken a look at the cast list) seem to demonstrate that there's still more to it all than meets the eye.In short, Samurai I has set the stage, transforming Takezo from nobody, to a ready warrior yet to be tested in the real world.
As he sets out for some reality based education, it would prove all the more interesting as he is likely to chance upon old friends and foes, and this time, being skilled and more refined in his ways, would prove to be engaging material for the subsequent films to deal with.
I watched the first part of the Musashi Miyamoto trilogy, dubbed simply Samurai 1 on the video, thinking that it might be a lot more stylish &/or violent than I was led to believe.
Like a Hollywood director actually more than a typical Japanese director, one might say, his take on the legendary samurai Miyamoto is one of reverence but wisdom, of production values of the highest standard (of the studio standard of Toho at the time), with brilliant color photography putting the colors in striking displays throughout at a time when Japan was first getting into it.
If it's less than really great, like a Kurosawa film, it's maybe because Inagaki is a little too comfortable at times with what's 'safe' in the story, particularly with the romance between Takezo/Musashi (Toshiro Mifune) and Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa).
Some of the plot on the first viewing may not be completely clear, at least through parts of the middle section involving the betrayals and Takezo's friend Matahachi's relationship with Oko. There are one or two really noteworthy supporting performances, like from Mitsuko Mito as Oko. But it's really Mifune's show here, and he plays Takezo in this film like a more naive but still as ambitious and unruly version of his character in Seven Samurai.
It's one of his better performances outside of his work with Kurosawa, and it gets better as the films go on.Of course, it's best to start here with Inagaki's passionate, rousing work, and even if it isn't the best of the three it still has its high points.
I must admit that I came in search of info about this trilogy after watching a promo on the History Channel for the new Tom Cruise movie, "The Last Samurai".
It had slipped my mind over the past few years, but the "Samurai" trilogy was at the top of my list of recommendations to friends for martial arts movies for years after I rented and watched it about 15 years ago when a now defunct video store had it in stock.
Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune stars as an unfocused ball of furious youthful energy in this first installment of the famed Samurai Trilogy.
Seeking a romanticized status as samurai, he rushes off to join the losing side of a civil war, enticing his best friend to tag along in search of similar fame and fortune.
Well, this movie does not quite feel like the perfect picture yet but what it does is setting the things up for the further movies within in the trilogy.In 1955 and 1956 the two follow-ups for this movie got released, which focuses on the soon to be samurai Musashi Miyamoto.
It's set in the 16th century Japan, in the middle of a war, featuring of course a lot of skilled sword masters.
Sounds all very much like a Akira Kurosawa picture so far, also not in the least because it also stars Toshirô Mifune as the movie its main character.
But of course there were lots of other Japanese skilled directors at the same time active within the business, such as Hiroshi Inagaki, who directed this entire movie trilogy.Don't expect this movie to feature a lot of fight- and battle sequences though.
Still Toshirô Mifune of course gets to do his thing in this movie though.A movie that serves its purpose as a setup for things to come in the following two movies of this quite well known trilogy.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
The philosophy woven throughout, mainly by the Priest Takuan (Kuroemon Onoe), about what it means to be a man and honor your family (community) is the hidden jewel of this film.Takezo (Toshirô Mifune) represents all the rebellious youth that only think of themselves.
But, the Priest finds that he is worthy of rehabilitation and proceeds to make him into a Samurai warrior in service to the castle.This is a slow and thoughtful film, full of swordplay for those looking for that, but it is so much more for those who take the time to discover it.Kaoru Yachigusa plays Otsu, who is abandoned by her fiancé (Rentaro Mikuni) and falls in love with Takezo.
Unfortunately, his training, after she waits for him for three years, has only begun as he begins a journey across Japan to get in touch with the people.I can't wait to see the next installment of this trilogy, which is cinematically brilliant, as one would expect from a Criterion disk, and features outstanding acting from all concerned..
The Seven Samurai is a highly praised film and story.
A Historic Epic Told Through One Man. Depicts the early life of the legendary warrior Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune); his years as an aspiring warrior, an outlaw and finally a true samurai.Often compared to "Gone With the Wind", this is the first part of a three-film epic.
What makes this so great when compared to all the other samurai films is that this is roughly based on a real man's life.
The son and grandson of noted samurai, what better way to tell the life story of a samurai and introduce the world to certain historical events that may not be well-known outside of Japan?
During that time, Inagaki became well known for other films, such as The Rickshaw Man (1958), which won the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival, and The Forty-Seven Ronin (1962), while Toshiro Mifune became Japan's most popular leading man..
I will say the second one is a lot better and I'm looking forward to the third after viewing it.Mifune's performance can be better appreciated after watching him 'grow' in the second film.
Although this is a samurai movie, story is far more than just sword fights.
He also meets the love of his life Otsu, his childhood friend Matahachi, and Akemi.There's dignity, and consideration for other human in Musashi.
As a society, we are definitely going down hill compared to the times this movie was made.You get to see very young Toshiro Mifune , Kaoru Yachigusa, and Mariko Okada in their prime delivering their A list performances.A very classy film that's worth watching..
For true comprehension of why this film is important and what makes it great one must watch all 3 parts...
When I think "samurai movie," I think of the American western-influenced films of Kurosawa like Yojimbo and Seven Samurai.
So I was happy when I finally got around to watching the first of the Samurai trilogy films that it is, in fact, very much a Japanese western, full of sweeping vistas, iconic characters, small town life, violence, and a score that you could attach to a John Ford film.
Only, as with the Kurosawa films, I like this better than I like most American westerns.The movie features two friends who go to war and wind up on the run.
The plot is definitely Eastern, and at times feels wandering and disjointed, but it manages to just hold together.While no match for Seven Samurai, this is a very pleasant, enjoyable film that makes me want to watch the rest of the series.
The story is only beginning in this first film in the Musashi Miyamoto trilogy.
It roughly begins from the Battle of Sekigahara.So there is not much yet to say, the film is more like the opening act of an epic film than something you may evaluate of itself, it ends just as Musashi embarks on his journey of swordsmanship.
The Battle of Sekigahara signalled the end of a long warring period and the beginning of the last Japanese shogunate.
Samurai 1 (1954) aka Miyamoto Musashi*** (out of 4) A wild orphan runs off to join the war but after a bitter defeat he finds himself being sought after for murder.
Toshiro Mifune shows a vast range of emotion, power and character growth in these this movie.
Toshiro Mifune shows a vast range of emotion, power and character growth in these this movie.
He _does_ present a life-altering presence in several Kurosawa pictures, including a samurai film in this same year.
Watch Mifune on the bridge when he decides to leave his love.
Or for that matter, look at the ending bridge scene in `Crouching Tiger.'This film is the Japanese equivalent of `Highlander.' Don't waste your time on it unless you wish to see a great actor unmanaged..
This film came out at the same time as Seven Samurai and won the Academy Award for best foreign film.
Ultimately, Musashi separates from his friend and returns to his town where he becomes a fugitive.As part of a trilogy, this film sets up the stage for the next two, but it also stands very much on its own.
Musashi begins as an impetuous young man and the film ends when he has matured.
A great film that looks into the character side of Musashi whereas the next two installments will make great use of traditional samurai duels..
This three part film is also derived from one singular literary work, from Eiji Yoshikawa's 1935 novel Musashi, loosely based upon the real life 17th Century Japanese folk hero, the samurai Musashi Miyamoto, who penned a classic book called The Book Of Five Rings.
Overall, The Samurai Trilogy is a good film, but while the narrative story gets better and tighter with each succeeding film, the visual quality of each succeeding film worsens on The Criterion Collection's three disks, both in the original film stock and the poor transfers.If nothing else, this film, The Samurai Trilogy, can be seen as a sort of training ground for the great Toshiro Mifune to try out and perfect a wide range of acting styles and characters within character that he would unleash on the film lovers of the world throughout the rest of his career, be it in his films with Kurosawa, or long after.