Mifune: The Last Samurai (February 2nd and 4th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[MIFUNE: THE LAST SAMURAI screens Thursday February 2nd at 6:30 pm and Saturday February 4th at 9:15 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Known primarily for his roles in Akira Kurosawa's classic films SEVEN SAMURAI, YOJIMBO, and RASHOMON, Toshiro Mifune was one of the most iconic movie stars of all time. He had a larger than life presence, yet his performances often contained great subtleties as well. Hoping to follow in his father's footsteps as a photographer, his plans were derailed by World War II. He served in his country's military, where he often ran into trouble with his superiors. When he later found fame and fortune as an actor, he displayed a love of fast cars and hard drink, all too often mixing those passions with disastrous results.. You would think the life of a guy like this would make for an interesting documentary.

And maybe it would. Unfortunately, MIFUNE: THE LAST SAMURAI isn't that film. And perhaps that film can't be made. For starters, Mifune is dead (he passed away in 1997). So is Akira Kurosawa, the director he is most associated with. Also no longer with us is Mifune's wife. And either these people simply didn't do television or radio interviews, or the makers of THE LAST SAMURAI were unable to get permission to include any such materials in their film.

Ikiru (March 15th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[IKURU screens Saturday March 15th at 7:00 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I don't know what Akira Kurosawa was doing during WW2 (pretend I don't have access to online bios or movie-book encyclopedias, come on, work with me you people!). Maybe some minor assignment like experimenting on Malaysian POWs to try and get them to have perfectly triangular faces and eyes taking up half their heads. After numerous grotesque failures he had to report back to the Emperor that no, Japan will have to settle for that sort of aesthetic beauty only in comic-book and cartoon form.

But after VJ-Day Kurosawa went on to become one of the great humanists of world cinema. Kurosawa's 1952 drama IKIRU (known in the western world as TO LIVE), from an original script he co-authored, was prompted by his thoughts about confronting his own mortality, musings which he said did not make him so much sad as thoughtful about what his life had been about - and what he still had to accomplish.