Yojimbo 1961
Chris's 101-level entry point: the menace and action fused with physical comedy.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Hall of Fame
100 Years of Genius: The Toshiro Mifune Hall of Fame | The Big Picture
April 3, 2020/ 85 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
For Mifune's centenary and the show's 250th episode, Sean Fennessey and Chris Ryan build a Hall of Fame for Toshiro Mifune: the 16 films he made with Akira Kurosawa, sorted into an inner and outer ring, plus the work he did with everyone else.
30 films across 3 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Why Mifunethe case for the greatest movie actor of his generation
Seven Samurai 1954
His Kikuchiyo is nearly a Charlie Chaplin turn: expressive, glee-drunk, hilarious inside a movie no one remembers as funny.
I Live in Fear 1955
At about 36 he plays a 65-year-old patriarch; it took Sean 45 minutes to realize the old man was Mifune.
High and Low 1963
Designed for the first hour so he can dominate every room. Think Shaq in the late '90s: you just let him dunk.
The Toshiro Mifune Hall of Famethe Kurosawa collaborations, chronological, sorted into inner ring and outer ring
Drunken Angel 1948
Where Kurosawa and Mifune first meet; the first post-war modern yakuza movie. Outer ring. First team-up with Takashi Shimura, who plays the sage doctor.
Stray Dog 1949
Inner ring for Sean. A summer movie to set beside Do the Right Thing: a rookie cop loses his gun and it's off to the races. Invents the older-cop/younger-cop team-up.
Scandal 1950
A solid film in the transition toward the morality plays.
Rashomon 1950
Inner ring, and now a verb. Mifune studied caged lions for the bandit; Scorsese calls him a caged animal.
The Idiot 1951
Their Dostoevsky adaptation, part of the early-'50s morality-play run.
The Lower Depths 1957
Their Maxim Gorky adaptation; for Sean the most well-known, least successful of the collaborations.
Throne of Blood 1957
Inner-ring top two. Functionally Macbeth in 16th-century Japan; the ending, Mifune shot at with real arrows, is Chris's favorite movie ending of all time.
The Hidden Fortress 1958
Outer ring. The template George Lucas built Star Wars from: Obi-Wan, Leia, and Vader all traceable here.
Yojimbo 1961
Inner ring. The most pop movie they made: a ronin plays two clans against each other. 'I'll get paid for killing and this town is full of men who deserve to die.'
Sanjuro 1962
The Yojimbo follow-up; its final duel invents the arterial blood spray that Peckinpah and Kill Bill inherit.
I Live in Fear 1955
Nuclear-dread drama; Mifune, aged way up, plays a patriarch trying to move his family to South America. Resonant on a 2020 rewatch.
The Bad Sleep Well 1960
A Hamlet mashup and, per Sean, one of the most cynical movies he's seen, a Coen-brothers cold. Outer ring.
High and Low 1963
Inner ring; based on an Ed McBain novel. A shoe executive must decide whether to ransom his chauffeur's kidnapped son. The height of the moral-dilemma film.
Red Beard 1965
Their last film together, 16 in 18 years. Mifune plays a doctor and, for once, fights with his hands, not a sword: a closed loop back to Drunken Angel.
Beyond Kurosawathe soft five, the American work, and where each career went next
The Life of Oharu 1952
A Mizoguchi film; Mifune lasts about 30 minutes as a noble warrior who sacrifices himself for love, a romantic register you don't see elsewhere.
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto 1954
Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai trilogy, shot in Technicolor. A huge influence on Kill Bill; Chris's real discovery of the rewatch.
The Sword of Doom 1966
One of the better-known non-Kurosawa samurai films worth seeking out.
Samurai Rebellion 1967
The other well-known non-Kurosawa samurai film Sean flags.
Grand Prix 1966
John Frankenheimer's F1 movie; Mifune plays a Honda-founder figure who hires James Garner to race. Probably his best-known American work.
Hell in the Pacific 1968
A near-wordless two-hander with Lee Marvin, directed by John Boorman before Deliverance. Pure face-and-body acting.
Red Sun 1971
The one where he fights Charles Bronson; in the Criterion set, though Sean's not sure you need it.
1941 1979
Spielberg's famously maligned comedy, a lot of not-funny Belushi. Spielberg never made a comedy again.
Dersu Uzala 1975
Kurosawa without Mifune, made in Russia after a decade in the wilderness and a suicide attempt. Won him an Oscar.
Kagemusha 1980
Part of Kurosawa's late-career comeback run.
Ran 1985
Kurosawa's late Shakespearean epic; recommended alongside the rest of the comeback.
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams 1990
Kurosawa's late classic, again without Mifune.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Its DNA in later movies Star WarsThe Magnificent SevenThe Mighty DucksUncut GemsThere Will Be BloodKill BillRaiders of the Lost ArkThe Wild BunchRide the High CountryDie HardKnives OutTraining DayMean StreetsParasiteLethal Weapon
In passing Mean GirlsDo the Right ThingDazed and ConfusedThe Petrified ForestThe IrishmanFord v FerrariThe Treasure of the Sierra MadreGunga DinTouch of EvilTaxi DriverDog Day AfternoonRopeRio BravoContagion
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