Toshiro Mifune
Actor
Filmography (All Films)
- Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) (1948)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
- The film that made Toshiro Mifune a star – playing a petty gangster with TB, who turns to an alcoholic doctor for help after a shoot–out.…
- Stray Dog (Nora Inu) (1949)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune
- An early film noir from Japan’s best–known director tracks police detective Toshiro Mifune into the underbelly of Tokyo in search of a pistol…
- Quiet Duel, The (Shizukanaru ketto) (1949)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
- A pre–RED BEARD Toshiro Mifune plays an idealistic doctor who fatally contracts syphilis from performing surgery in this minor Kurosawa…
- Scandal (Shubun) (1950)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Shirley Yamaguchi, Takashi Shimura…
- This excellent early Kurosawa, has Mifune playing a painter who becomes acquainted with a pop–singer, and thus the target of a tabloid…
- Rashomon (1951)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori…
- The film that brought Kurosawa to the attention of the world, and an Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film.
Four wildly varying perspectives on a…
- Idiot, The (Hakuchi) (1951)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori…
- Flawed but compelling adaptation of Dostoyevsky's classic novel of human frailty, in which a madman and war criminal (Mori), is released from an…
- Life of Oharu (1953)
- Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune
- The prolific, though rarely seen dir. Mizoguchi came to attention with this chronicled downfall of a court–concubine in 17th century Japan,…
- Seven Samurai, The (1954)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune
- Kurosawa's classic 'Eastern Western' about a village who hire an elite band of warriors to fend off marauders. Compassionate storytelling with combat…
- Samurai Trilogy, The (Musashi Miyamoto, Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Duel at Ganryu Island) (1954-1956)
- Dir. Hiroshi Inagaki
Feat. Toshiro Mifune
- Sweeping saga of a legendary 17th century samurai Musashi Miyamoto, that made an icon of actor Toshiro Mifune. Played out against the turmoil of a…
- I Live in Fear (Ikimono no Kiroku) (1955)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
- Convinced a nuclear holocaust is imminent, an elderly industrialist (Mifune) decides to uproot his reluctant family (even his mistresses!) from Tokyo…
- Throne of Blood (1957)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura
- Kurosawa transposes MacBeth into a Samurai setting and the result justifies his reputation. Nothing short of an awesome spectacle Shakespeare himself…
- Lower Depths, The (Donzoko) (1957)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Isuzu Yamada…
- Arresting Maxim Gorky stage adaptation (previously filmed by Jean Renoir) is transposed to Japan’s Edo–era slums. Social realisms and the…
- Hidden Fortress (1958)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune
- Toshiro Mifune displays astounding skill with horse and sword as the ultimate warrior in this innovative amalgam of fairy–tale and Samurai…
- Samurai Saga (Aru kengo no shogai) (1959)
- Dir. Hiroshi Inagaki
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Tsukasa
- Feudal Japanese retelling of Rostand's 'Cyrano de Bergerac', with the charismatic Toshiro Mifune as the shogun–poet with a…
- Bad Sleep Well, The (1960)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune
- A contemporary gangster saga that uses a Hamlet–esque narrative to indict corporate and political corruption. Government officials were not…
- Yojimbo (1961)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa
- Mercenary Sanjuro walks into town and sells his services to both factions of rival gangs – to stand back and watch them destroy each other.…
- Daredevil in the Castle (Osaka jo monogatari) (1961)
- Dir. Hiroshi Inagaki
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Yuriko Hoshi…
- Another solid genre excursion from seasoned dir. Hiroshi Inagaki (THE SAMURAI TRILOGY), with Toshiro Mifune again taking the lead as a despondent,…
- Sanjuro (1962)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai
- The sequel to YOJIMBO unravels the story of nine would–be Samurai unveiling a government corruption ring. Kurosawa adopts a satirical…
- 47 Ronin, The (Genroku chushingura) (1962)
- Dir. Hiroshi Inagaki
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Setsuko Hara
- A grand and spectacular take on a famous Japanese legend, with 47 ronin (masterless samurai) in feudal Japan seeking revenge on those responsible for…
- High and Low (1963)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune
- Adapted from a crime–novel by Ed McBain, this kidnapping–thriller is a central work in dir. Kurosawa’s series of film noirs, combining…
- Samurai Pirate (Daitozoku) (1963)
- Dir. Senkichi Taniguchi
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Mie Hama, Kumi Mizuno
- Odd hybrid of feudal Japan and swashbuckler fantasy, with Toshiro Mifune as a ruffian sailor assigned with rescuing a captive King’s daughter from…
- Red Beard (Akahige) (1965)
- Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki…
- An unusual hospital drama from dir. Kurosawa, collaborating for the final time with Mifune, who here plays a tough doctor coaching an intern (Kayama)…
- Samurai Assassin (1965)
- Dir. Kihachi Okamoto
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Keiju Kobayashi, Michiyo Aratana…
- Sharply delivered samurai epic based on the infamous Sakurada Gate Incident of 1860 in which a high–ranking shogunite official was assassinated…
- Grand Prix (1966)
- Dir. John Frankenheimer
Feat. James Garner, Yves Montand, Eva Marie Saint…
- James Garner, Yves Montand and others rival for the Formula One championship in this exciting sports epic. Split–screen effects and widescreen…
- Sword of Doom (Dai-bosatsu tôge) (1966)
- Dir. Kihachi Okamoto
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai
- Based on a long–running Japanese newspaper serial, this stars Tatsuya Nakadai as an evil wandering samurai in feudal Japan who sees himself as…
- Hell in the Pacific (1968)
- Dir. John Boorman
Feat. Lee Marvin, Toshiro Mifune
- American GI Lee Marvin encounters lone Japanese soldier Toshiro Mifune on a remote Pacific island. A series of tense confrontations unfolds, expertly…
- Red Lion (Akage) (1969)
- Dir. Kihachi Okamoto
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Shiwa Iwashita
- A fine samurai comedy from dir. Okamoto (KILL!), has a luckless soldier (Toshiro Mifune) don a brilliant red hairpiece (thus impersonating a…
- Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (Zatoichi 20) (1970)
- Dir. Kihachi Okamoto
Feat. Shintaro Katsu, Toshiro Mifune
- An enjoyable spin on the Japanese samurai genre, depicts a comedic rivalry between Katsu and Mifune in a secluded mountain village. Although lacking…
- Incident at Blood Pass, The (Machibuse) (1970)
- Dir. Hiroshi Inagaki
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Shintaro Katsu
- Pedigree shogun face off between genre icons Mifune and Katsu in a tautly conceived show down over hijacked gold between a remote mountain pass.…
- Red Sun (1971)
- Dir. Terence Young
Feat. Charles Bronson, Ursula Andress, Toshiro Mifune…
- Exotic western with samurai elements that boasts an international cast. The plot involves a munhunt to retrieve a ceremonial Japanese sword from a…
- 1941 (1979)
- Dir. Steven Spielberg
Feat. John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Toshiro Mifune
- The dir.’s only real commercial failure, this loose slapstick comedy, set in a Californian seaside town visited by a Japanese submarine in 1941,…
- Bushido Blade, The (1979)
- Dir. Shusei Kotani
Feat. Richard Boone, Frank Converse, James Earl Jones…
- Predating SHOGUN by a year, this martial arts adventure set in mid–19th century Japan, has an American marine (Boone) pledged to recover the…
- Winter Kills (1979)
- Dir. William Richert
Feat. Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins…
- Low–key but satisfying 'redux' of the Kennedy assassination posits a parallel scenario where the half–brother of an assassinated…
- Shogun (Mini Series) (1980)
- Dir. Jerry London
Feat. Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune
- Exciting TV mini–series version of James Clavell's novel set in Feudal Japan, here in its complete form (DVD) or as a cut–down movie…