04-16-2025, 10:50 PM
Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955)
Still brilliant. Mifune is young, completely embodying the spirit of Musashi. So dashing. And the women are just falling at his feet. Otsu, Lady Akemi, and the courtesan, all just swoon. All the female characters are empty and Akemi’s mom is the worst, pimping out her daughter and doing nothing when she hears her being raped in the next room. Daisuke Katō is stand out as the sniveling toad, a very different role than the many characters he’s played in Kurosawa films.
Two things really stood out. 1. This film is gorgeous - the scenery, the textiles, the architecture, the cinematography - each shot is well conceived and perfectly framed. It captures the Japanese aesthetic in the fabrics, bordering on gaudy with their bright colors and designs, and yet they all work to further the character development. 2. Mifune is a great physical actor when it comes to sword fights. The fights are simple, bloodless, with many of the kill strokes just off screen. All through it, Mifune is coiled like a jaguar about to pounce. His grip is too tight on his katana, but he hits every pose with an angular viciousness that literally slays. Such powerful magnetism in every kamae. The first duel with the kamigusari master spends a lot of time with himjist spinning the chain end, but what makes it work is Mifune’s reactions. And the final fight where he takes on 80 Yoshioka students has fantastic tension, particularly with how the arrow through Musashi’s leg gets slowly broken into dangling pieces as the fight progresses.
I think this film is my fav of the three. The introduction of Sasaki Kojiro is pitch perfect, setting up part 3, which I’ll get to soon.
Also seen on criterion.
Still brilliant. Mifune is young, completely embodying the spirit of Musashi. So dashing. And the women are just falling at his feet. Otsu, Lady Akemi, and the courtesan, all just swoon. All the female characters are empty and Akemi’s mom is the worst, pimping out her daughter and doing nothing when she hears her being raped in the next room. Daisuke Katō is stand out as the sniveling toad, a very different role than the many characters he’s played in Kurosawa films.
Two things really stood out. 1. This film is gorgeous - the scenery, the textiles, the architecture, the cinematography - each shot is well conceived and perfectly framed. It captures the Japanese aesthetic in the fabrics, bordering on gaudy with their bright colors and designs, and yet they all work to further the character development. 2. Mifune is a great physical actor when it comes to sword fights. The fights are simple, bloodless, with many of the kill strokes just off screen. All through it, Mifune is coiled like a jaguar about to pounce. His grip is too tight on his katana, but he hits every pose with an angular viciousness that literally slays. Such powerful magnetism in every kamae. The first duel with the kamigusari master spends a lot of time with himjist spinning the chain end, but what makes it work is Mifune’s reactions. And the final fight where he takes on 80 Yoshioka students has fantastic tension, particularly with how the arrow through Musashi’s leg gets slowly broken into dangling pieces as the fight progresses.
I think this film is my fav of the three. The introduction of Sasaki Kojiro is pitch perfect, setting up part 3, which I’ll get to soon.
Also seen on criterion.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse