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? Ironically, for all of the film's success, ten years passed before Americans were able to see the other two follow-up installments in the Trilogy. 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.
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? Ironically, for all of the film's success, ten years passed before Americans were able to see the other two follow-up installments in the Trilogy. 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.