MIFUNE REDUX

 

Friday, July 8 - Thursday, July 21

Film Forum 

 

SEVEN SAMURAI , 1954

 

일본 영화 거장 구로사와 아키라(黒澤明, Akira Kurosawa, 1910-1998) 감독의 영화로 스타덤에 오른 배우 미후네 도시로(Toshiro Mifune, 1920-1997)의 회고전 '미후네 리덕스(Mifune Delux)'가 7월 8일부터 21일까지 맨해튼 필름포럼(Film Forum, 209 West Houston St.)에서 열린다. 

 

'미후네 딜럭스(Mifune Delux)'에선 라쇼몽/ RASHOMON(羅生門), 7인의 사무라이/ SEVEN SAMURAI(七人の侍), 요짐보/ YOJIMBO(用心棒), 츠바키 산주로/ SANJURO(椿三十郎), 붉은 수염/ RED BEARD(赤ひげ), 천국과 지옥/ HIGH AND LOW(天国と地獄), 숨은 요새의 세악인/ THE HIDDEN FORTRESS(隠し砦の三悪人), 거미집의 성/ 피의 왕관/ THRONE OF BLOOD(蜘蛛巣城), 주정뱅이 천사/ DRUNKEN ANGEL(醉いどれ天使), 들개/ STRAY DOG(野良犬)가 상영된다. https://filmforum.org/series/toshiro-mifune-redux  

 

 

 

MIFUNE REDUX Opens July 8 at Film Forum - 10 Kurosawa Masterpieces, 35mm & New 4K Restoration of RASHOMON

 

JULY 8 – 21 AT FILM FORUM (TWO WEEKS)

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND FROM OUR RECENT TRIBUTE TO JAPANESE ACTOR TOSHIRŌ MIFUNE

 

10 KUROSAWA MASTERPIECES:

SEVEN SAMURAI, HIGH AND LOW, THRONE OF BLOOD, STRAY DOG, SANJURO, YOJIMBO, RED BEARD, HIDDEN FORTRESS, DRUNKEN ANGEL – ALL IN 35mm, AND A NEW 4K RESTORATION OF RASHOMON

 

 

Public Screening Schedule: 

 

DRUNKEN ANGEL  

Japan, 1948 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Reisaburo Yamamoto 

35mm. Approx. 98 min. 

 

Mifune’s greasily-coiffed “Jungle Boogie”-dancing gangster gets the bad news from alcoholic doctor Takashi Shimura — he’s got TB; and then the prewar boss returns. First collaboration of “the greatest actor-director team in film history” (David Shipman). 

 

Friday, July 8 at 12:30

Sunday, July 10 at 8:50

Tuesday, July 12 at 3:00

Tuesday, July 19 at 12:30, 7:50

Wednesday, July 20 at 3:10

 

 

STRAY DOG 

Japan, 1949 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura 

35mm. Approx. 122 min. 

 

While a rubble-strewn Tokyo swelters through a torrid heat wave, awkward young white-suited detective Mifune finds to his shame that his pistol has been stolen — and that it’s been used in a murder. Thus begins his obsessive, guilt-ridden search, highlighted by a nearly 10-minute sequence shot by hidden camera in the city’s toughest black market. Kurosawa adapted his own unpublished novel for this, the beginning of the genre in Japan. 

 

Friday, July 8 at 2:40

Tuesday, July 12 at 12:30

Saturday, July 16 at 8:35

Wednesday, July 20 at 12:30, 7:40

 

RASHOMON 

Japan, 1950 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura 

Based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story “In a Grove” 

4K Restoration. Approx. 88 min. 

 

Rape and murder in 12th-century Kyoto, as seen by four conflicting witnesses. Adapted from two stories by the great Ryunosuke Akutagawa, its worldwide acclaim (Venice Grand Prize, Best Foreign Film Oscar) vaulted an already-great-but internationally-unknown director and national cinema to world prominence. Machiko Kyō’s performance would land her a LIFE cover and, as the Bandit, Mifune goes beyond overacting into something so outrageous it could only be real.  

 

Friday, July 8 at 5:20

Sunday, July 10 at 12:30

Monday, July 11 at 9:00

Friday, July 15 at 12:30, 6:00

Monday, July 18 at 4:50

Thursday, July 21 at 12:30

 

HIDDEN FORTRESS 

Japan, 1958 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara 

35mm. Approx. 139 min. 

 

Two constantly bickering and bumbling farmers on the run from clan wars are dragooned by superman general Mifune into aiding his rescue of fugitive princess Misa Uehara and her family’s hidden gold. Pure entertainment from the masters, acknowledged by George Lucas as the inspiration for Star Wars. 

 

Saturday, July 9 at 3:30

Thursday, July 14 at 12:30, 7:40

Saturday, July 16 at 1:00

Tuesday, July 19 at 2:40

 

 

SEVEN SAMURAI 

Japan, 1954 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Daisuke Katō, Isao Kimura, Minoru Chiaki, Seiji Miyaguchi, Yoshio Inaba 

35mm. Approx. 207 min. 

 

In 16th-century Japan, farmers under the heel of marauding bandits decide to hire ronin for protection; the odds: 7 samurai vs. 40 bandits; their pay: a few grains of rice. With Takashi Shimura as the calm leader, and Mifune as #7, transitioning from manic goofball to tortured, self-hating tragic hero, amid some of the most hair-raising battles ever shot. “No one has come near it.” – Pauline Kael.  

 

Friday, July 8 at 7:20

Saturday, July 9 at 6:30

Sunday, July 10 at 4:50

Thursday, July 14 at 3:30

Monday, July 18 at 12:30

Thursday, July 21 at 7:00

 

THRONE OF BLOOD 

Japan, 1957 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Isuzu Yamada 

35mm. Approx. 110 min. 

 

Macbeth transforms into a medieval Japanese legend, as General Mifune gallops through a seemingly endless forest to his encounter with a single witch, then, as dense fog lifts, finds himself before a looming castle. With the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his Lady, this is a partnership of titans. 

 

Sunday, July 10 at 2:30

Monday, July 11 at 3:40

Saturday, July 16 at 6:15

Tuesday, July 19 at 5:30

Wednesday, July 20 at 5:20

 

HIGH AND LOW

Japan, 1963 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai,  Kyōko Kagawa. 

35mm. Approx. 143 min. 

 

Shoe company exec Mifune is in the midst of a mortgage-everything takeover battle when the phone rings with a giant ransom demand for his son. Adapted from Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom, this is the ultimate kidnap movie, with the cops led by Steve McQueen-cool Tatsuya Nakadai; the money transfer aboard the Shinkansen (bullet train); and a jailhouse interview punctuated by the heaviest steel door closing in film history. 

 

Saturday, July 9 at 12:30

Monday, July 11 at 12:30

Friday, July 15 at 2:30, 8:00

 

RED BEARD 

Japan, 1965 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Yūzō Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Reiko Dan 

35mm. Approx. 185 min. 

 

In a 19th-century slum clinic for the poor, a gruff heavily bearded Dr. Mifune (Best Actor, Venice) straightens out an arrogant young intern and through his hardboiled warmth and stern compassion creates, instead of the usual “circle of evil,” rather a circle of good. Mifune’s last film for Kurosawa. 

 

Wednesday, July 13 at 2:45

Sunday, July 17 at 5:10

 

SANJURO 

Japan, 1962 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yūzō Kayama, Reiko Dan 

35mm. Approx. 96 min. 

 

Painfully sincere young samurai plan how to save the day in their clan’s power struggle, but they have to be straightened out and bailed out by grubby ronin Mifune, repeating his Yojimbo role, his final showdown with Tatsuya Nakadai coming to a startling conclusion.  

 

Wednesday, July 13 at 12:30, 9:00

Sunday, July 17 at 3:00

Monday, June 18 at 6:50

Thursday, July 21 at 4:55

 

YOJIMBO 

Japan, 1961 

Directed by Akira Kurosawa 

Produced by Akira Kurosawa, Tomoyuki Tanaka and Ryūzō Kikushima 

Starring Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai  

35mm. Approx. 110 min. 

 

Wandering into a deserted village, scruffy and hungry ronin Mifune sees his chance to rake in the ryo as a yojimbo (bodyguard). And after checking out the sake merchant’s thugs squaring off against the silk merchant’s goon squad, twice as much, if he hires out to both sides. But there’s a final showdown with Tatsuya Nakadai’s pistol-waving, Elvislike Samurai killer. 

 

Tuesday, July 12 at 5:30

Saturday, July 16 at 3:50

Sunday, July 17 at 12:30, 8:45

Monday, July 18 at 8:55

Thursday, July 21 at 2:30

 https://filmforum.org/series/toshiro-mifune-redux