Samurai Films (3 page)

Toshiro Mifune is not only the most well-known performer to appear in a samurai film, but also the most famous actor to emerge from Japanese cinema.

Mifune’s acting career began with an audition for Toho Studios in 1946. Having served in the Japanese army during World War Two, Mifune found himself in need of work, and decided to use his military experience as an aerial photographer to attempt to secure work as a camera operator at one of the major studios in Tokyo. There are a number of different accounts as to how Mifune ended up auditioning as an actor; one claims he did so in the hope of later transferring to become a camera operator, another that he was to be interviewed for a position as a cameraman, but auditioned as an actor by mistake (which certainly makes a better story). Whatever the case, the audition process angered Mifune. He felt demeaned by requests to show different emotions and flew into a wild rage, the expressive nature of which impressed Kajiro Yamamoto, one of Toho’s leading directors at the time, and an upcoming talent, Akira Kurosawa.

Mifune’s angry audition secured him work as an actor, beginning with roles in comedies and action films. His long association with Akira Kurosawa began with
Drunken Angel
, in which his originally small part was expanded into a co-starring role. Mifune’s relationship with Kurosawa continued throughout the 1940s, with leading roles in classic films such as
Stray
Dog
and
Rashomon
. His explosive entry to the samurai film genre came with Kurosawa’s masterpiece,
Seven Samurai
. Mifune brought a level of energy and expressiveness to all of these films, which Kurosawa was able to exploit to maximum effect. Between 1948 and 1965 Mifune had lead roles in 16 of Kurosawa’s films, each one an instant classic.

Mifune also worked with many other Japanese directors, and as his films were successfully distributed internationally he secured roles in productions from other countries, most notably
Hell
in the Pacific
and the hugely popular American samurai TV series
Shogun
, in 1980. He also started his own production company in the 1960s.

Toshiro Mifune had an enormous influence on the samurai film genre. Most of his characters, in particular Sanjuro (
Yojimbo
) and Kikuchiyo (
Seven Samurai
), were instant icons, and Mifune’s unique portrayal was quickly copied by other actors. Only Shintaro Katsu and Tatsuya Nakadai come close to having the same level of influence.

Tatsuya Nakadai is best known among fans of samurai films for his appearances in some of the genre’s best films, such as
Yojimbo
,
Sanjuro
,
Hara-kiri
,
Kill
!
and, perhaps his greatest of all,
Sword of Doom
.

Born in Tokyo in 1932, Nakadai worked in theatre before making the transition to film in 1953. His work with the Shingeki movement, a modern (rather than traditional) theatre group, rendered Nakadai with considerable acting experience before he was discovered by film director Masaki Kobayashi. Working for Shochiku Studios, Kobayashi used Nakadai in many of his films, most notably in
The Human
Condition
, a challenging trilogy telling the story of a conscientious objector drafted into the Japanese army during World War Two.

By 1960 Nakadai had appeared in numerous Shochiku films, but his greatest samurai film roles were yet to come. Interestingly, Nakadai makes a very brief appearance in the best-known samurai film of all,
Seven Samurai
. In the early stages of the film, Nakadai is one of the samurai glimpsed striding through town.

Throughout the 1960s, Nakadai gave many memorable performances in samurai films such as
Hara-kiri
,
Yojimbo
,
Sanjuro
,
Sword of Doom
,
Kill
!
and
Samurai Rebellion
. These roles ranged from tortured anti-heroes to sadistic villains, and Nakadai’s excellent performance in each is testament to his impressive range.

Nakadai continues to work. He runs his own actors studio,
Mumeijuko
, and also appears in films, on television and on the stage.

Most famous for his role as Zatoichi the blind swordsman, Shintaro Katsu was a huge star in Japan throughout the 1960s and 70s. Katsu was born into the acting profession, his family a successful kabuki (traditional Japanese theatre) troupe. In the 1950s he made the transition to cinema, working for Daiei Studios. His role as Zatoichi in the 1960s made him immensely popular, and the Zatoichi series continued into the 1970s and 80s. Katsu’s warm and charismatic performance as the blind swordsman endeared him to audiences, but he was also capable of many other roles, such as the cruel villain he played in
Incident at Blood
Pass
.

Katsu formed his own production company, which produced the popular
Lone Wolf and Cub
series, starring his older brother, Tomisaburo Wakayama.

The influence the samurai film has had on world cinema is unquestionable. Themes from samurai films have been adopted both directly and indirectly by Hollywood; the never-ending
American Ninja
series of films (1985–1993) and recent would-be blockbuster
The Last
Samurai
(2003) are both good examples of this. The relationship samurai films have with Hollywood’s most famous genre, the western, is a bit more complicated. Some classic westerns owe their origins to samurai films: Kurosawa’s
Seven Samurai
was remade as
The Magnificent Seven
(1960), while
Yojimbo
was remade by Sergio Leone in Italy as
A Fistful
of Dollars
(1964), beginning the popular spaghetti western genre. It should be noted, however, that Kurosawa, the man who invented the modern samurai film, lists John Ford, the master of the classic western, as one of his influences. Kurosawa was able to create something unique, using Ford’s films as one of his many inspirations. His work would then have a similar effect on directors of westerns in the 1960s. The samurai and western genres clearly share a very close relationship, but are distinct enough that they should remain separate.

The influence of samurai films in Hollywood was not limited to westerns. Many contemporary directors have a great deal of admiration for samurai films, and this has influenced their work in a variety of other genres. George Lucas’s original
Star Wars
film,
A New Hope
(1977), was inspired in part by Kurosawa’s
The Hidden Fortress
. Similarly, Quentin Tarantino’s
Kill Bill Volume
1
(2003) and
Volume 2
(2004) borrow heavily from samurai films, specifically
Lady
Snowblood
. It is not only mainstream American films which have been influenced by the genre. Jim Jarmusch, a highly acclaimed alternative director, made his own tribute to samurai films, titled
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
(1999), an interesting film placing the samurai’s unique moral code in the context of a modern American mob assassin.

The samurai film evolved from some of the earliest Japanese films, which were filmed kabuki theatre performances. A traditional form of Japanese theatre, kabuki features carefully choreographed movements set to music and singing. Although graceful and beautiful, kabuki choreography is highly stylised, and lacks the sense of realism that films are able to convey.

It was another form of theatre choreography which would lead to the birth of the samurai film. The Shinkokugeki school of popular theatre, which had been around since 1912, distinguished itself with realistic and athletic swordplay, a stark contrast to the slow and graceful choreography of the filmed kabuki performances. The more realistic and faster-paced stage fencing had proven popular with audiences, and Makino Shozo, a highly successful producer of filmed kabuki performances, saw the potential of the Shinkokugeki productions and began to make films using their choreography and actors. Throughout the 1920s and 30s Japanese filmmakers began to explore the full potential of film as a medium, and the filmed kabuki performances were gradually replaced by narratives which were actually designed for the screen, rather than for the stage. Among these films were the early samurai films, which were popular with Japanese audiences. It would take another 20 years for the genre to be discovered by international audiences.

Samurai films suffered greatly in the 1940s and early 50s. Interestingly, they were suppressed by both the World War Two militaristic Japanese government, who considered them a useless form of entertainment, and the American post-war occupation censors, who maintained the often violent samurai films would inspire feudalistic sentiments among the Japanese. This caused a large decline in the production of samurai films, which was only reversed when the Japanese production companies were completely released from American censorship in the early 1950s.

One company quick to take advantage of this was Toei, an already successful studio. They began to mass produce samurai films, with great success, and were quickly copied by other studios. Unfortunately the years of suppression and censorship had left their mark on the genre. As Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto
†
has pointed out, many of the films made in the 1950s were extremely formulaic, and revolved around simplistic battles between good and evil. Also, they had restored the kabuki choreography for the sword-fighting scenes, resulting in very slow, dance-like choreography.

There were, however, some excellent samurai films made during the 1950s. Many directors tried to break the predictable formula which had such a tight grip on the genre. Hiroshi Inagaki was one such director, who created his highly acclaimed
Samurai Trilogy
during the 1950s. Telling the exciting story of master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (an historical figure), Inagaki’s films utilised swift and realistic choreography.

Akira Kurosawa was another innovator, and is the master filmmaker who would have the most influence on the genre. His 1954 film,
Seven
Samurai
, was the beginnings of the samurai film as we know it today. As Yoshimoto has pointed out, in
Seven Samurai
Kurosawa created a very different kind of samurai film. Working for Toho, a company which had not made many samurai films, and didn’t feel constrained by the existing formula, Kurosawa injected a level of realism and detail into his film which clearly set it apart. Character motivations were carefully thought out at the scripting stage, and every detail of the production design was researched to convey the sense of realism clearly lacking in many 1950s samurai films. The battle scenes in the film were also brutally realistic, with characters battling feverishly for their survival, rather than engaging in symbolic dance. Kurosawa continued to make high-quality samurai films throughout the 1950s, with
Throne of Blood
and
The Hidden Fortress
.

The work of both Inagaki and Kurosawa was well received overseas, and with their films the samurai film genre found an international audience.

Discovering that bandits will return to their village next harvest, some peasants set about hiring unemployed samurai, in the hope that they will defend their village. They find Kambei, an experienced and charismatic warrior, who not only takes on the assignment, but helps gather six other samurai. Among these is Kikuchiyo, a particularly messy and unkempt individual, who is drawn to the group and accepted mainly out of pity. Relations between the samurai and villagers are tense at best, neither group fully trusting the other. More stress is placed on this relationship when Katsushiro, the youngest of the seven, and Shino, a young peasant girl, fall in love with each other. Kikuchiyo turns out to be the key to maintaining the alliance of samurai and peasant, as it is discovered that he is of peasant origin himself. In a series of violent exchanges the samurai are able to defeat the bandits, mainly through Kambei’s intelligent use of tactics. But this comes at a cost; at the end of the film only Kambei and two other samurai survive. The love between Katsushiro and Shino must remain unfulfilled; the samurai are no longer needed and must move on.

Seven Samurai
is the masterpiece by Akira Kurosawa that defined the samurai film as we know it today. The film is an accomplished mix of superb characterisation, well-executed battle scenes and observations on the class structure of feudal Japan.