Mifune: The Last Samurai 2015

Toshiro Mifune was the greatest actor from the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema. His collaboration with Akira Kurosawa transformed the chanbara film, the period of sword fighting movie, into bold narratives exploring individuality versus power and repression in Japanese society. His samurai image had inspired Darth Vader in the Star Wars Series.

This documentary film focuses on some of Mifune's finest period films with Kurosawa, woven together with archival footage and interviews with his family, actors and crew who knew him well, and other film luminaries including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Koji Yakusho, Kyoko Kagawa, Kaoru Yachigusa and Teruyo Nogami. Narrated by Keanu Reeves, the film explores Mifune's life and films as well as his pivotal role in the evolution of the samurai film.