Samurai Rebellion: Toshiro Mifune, Screen Icon
Samurai Rebellion: Toshiro Mifune, Screen Icon
June 15–August 30, 2017
In films by Akira Kurosawa and others, Mifune showed astonishing vitality and range. We present a dozen of his iconic roles, plus a new documentary.
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Rashomon
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Stray Dog
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Throne of Blood
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High and Low
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Mifune: The Last Samurai
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Films
Rashomon
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1950Archival Print
Thursday, June 15 7 PMView DetailsAn act of violence is replayed through the eyes of witnesses and protagonists, each seeing a different thing, in “one of the most brilliantly constructed films of all time, a monument to Kurosawa’s greatness, and a landmark in film history” (James Monaco).
Drunken Angel
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1948Saturday, June 17 8:30 PMView DetailsDoctor meets tubercular gangster in the slums of postwar Japan in this noirish tale, the first film in the long collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune.
The Hidden Fortress
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1958Sunday, June 18 4 PMView DetailsMifune swashbuckles his way through this supremely entertaining samurai adventure, the plot inspiration for Star Wars.
Stray Dog
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1949Wednesday, June 21 7 PMView DetailsMifune is a driven detective in Kurosawa’s bravura Tokyo noir. “A bona fide masterpiece” (Time Out).
Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1954Friday, June 23 7 PMView DetailsA ragtag group of samurai band together to protect a village from bandits in Kurosawa’s masterpiece, often cited as one of the ten best films ever made.
Rashomon
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1950Archival Print
Sunday, June 25 5 PMView DetailsAn act of violence is replayed through the eyes of witnesses and protagonists, each seeing a different thing, in “one of the most brilliantly constructed films of all time, a monument to Kurosawa’s greatness, and a landmark in film history” (James Monaco).
The Hidden Fortress
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1958Friday, June 30 7 PMView DetailsMifune swashbuckles his way through this supremely entertaining samurai adventure, the plot inspiration for Star Wars.
Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1954Sunday, July 2 6:30 PMView DetailsA ragtag group of samurai band together to protect a village from bandits in Kurosawa’s masterpiece, often cited as one of the ten best films ever made.
Mifune: The Last Samurai
Steven Okazaki
United States, 2016Thursday, July 6 7 PMSteven Okazaki in PersonView DetailsOscar-winning Bay Area filmmaker Steven Okazaki pays tribute to the ferocious charisma and larger-than-life talents of the great Mifune in this supremely entertaining documentary.
I Live in Fear
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1955Saturday, July 8 8:30 PMView DetailsMifune gives a daring performance as an eccentric patriarch with a neurotic fear of the atomic bomb. “The final effect is overwhelming, and perhaps Kurosawa’s most sweeping statement on the human condition” (Film Forum).
Throne of Blood
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1957Wednesday, July 12 7 PMView DetailsKurosawa’s Noh-influenced version of Macbeth is “the most brilliant and original attempt ever made to put Shakespeare on screen” (Time). Mifune is paired with the legendary Isuzu Yamada in “a partnership of titans” (Film Forum).
The Bad Sleep Well
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1960Thursday, July 20 7 PMView DetailsKurosawa charts corporate evil as a company is torn from within by scandal, greed, and lust. “Enron meets Hamlet” (Film Forum). “Better than Shakespeare” (Francis Ford Coppola).
Yojimbo
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1961BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Saturday, July 22 8:15 PMIntroduced by Steven Okazaki (July 22 screening only)View DetailsMifune is a sly, amoral mercenary in a town ruled by killers in Kurosawa’s tongue-in-cheek anti-epic. “A visually faultless and highly sophisticated satire on violence and human weakness” (Sight and Sound).
High and Low
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1963Wednesday, July 26 7 PMView DetailsA kidnapping becomes a moral dilemma for executive Mifune in “one of the best detective thrillers ever filmed” (New York Times).
Sanjuro
Friday, July 28 8:45 PMView DetailsKurosawa’s spirited follow-up to Yojimbo finds Mifune leading a band of comically inept samurai. “A superb parody” (Donald Richie).
Yojimbo
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1961BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Wednesday, August 2 7 PMIntroduced by Steven Okazaki (July 22 screening only)View DetailsMifune is a sly, amoral mercenary in a town ruled by killers in Kurosawa’s tongue-in-cheek anti-epic. “A visually faultless and highly sophisticated satire on violence and human weakness” (Sight and Sound).
Samurai Rebellion
Masaki Kobayashi
Japan, 1967Friday, August 18 8:15 PMView DetailsMifune is a dutiful samurai whose subservience is about to end. With music by Toru Takemitsu and an unforgettable supporting turn by Tatsuya Nakadai.
High and Low
Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1963Thursday, August 24 7 PMView DetailsA kidnapping becomes a moral dilemma for executive Mifune in “one of the best detective thrillers ever filmed” (New York Times).
Samurai Rebellion
Masaki Kobayashi
Japan, 1967Wednesday, August 30 7 PMView DetailsMifune is a dutiful samurai whose subservience is about to end. With music by Toru Takemitsu and an unforgettable supporting turn by Tatsuya Nakadai.