60 Fun Facts About Toshiro Mifune

With which director did Toshiro Mifune make sixteen films?

Akira Kurosawa directed Mifune in sixteen films between 1948 and 1965, and Mifune said the only acting he was proud of was the work he did for Kurosawa.

In which present-day Chinese city was Mifune born in 1920?

Qingdao, in China's Shandong province, was where Mifune was born on 1 April 1920 to Japanese parents; he grew up in China and did not live in Japan until adulthood.

What business did Mifune's father run, in which the young Toshiro worked?

A photography studio was the family business: Mifune's father worked as a commercial photographer in China, and the son learned darkroom work there before the war.

Where did Mifune serve during World War II?

The Aerial Photography section of Army Aviation used his darkroom skills; conscripted as a young man, he spent the war as a photographer at army airfields rather than in combat.

Mifune got into films through a 1947 new faces contest at which studio?

Toho ran the 1947 new faces contest; a friend in the studio's photography department sent in Mifune's papers, and he was accepted although he had wanted a camera job.

Which actress told Kurosawa about a promising young man at the audition, prompting him to attend?

Hideko Takamine, watching the new faces auditions, went to tell the director about a striking young man; he arrived to find Mifune reeling around the room like a wounded beast.

Kurosawa said Mifune could convey in three feet of film an emotion that took the average Japanese actor how much film?

Ten feet of film was what the director said an ordinary Japanese actor needed to convey what Mifune could put across in three feet.

Which 1948 Kurosawa film, considered the first yakuza movie, gave Mifune the role of the gangster Matsunaga?

Takashi Shimura played the alcoholic doctor Sanada who treats him.

In Stray Dog (1949), Mifune's detective has what stolen on a crowded bus?

His Colt pistol is lifted from Detective Murakami's pocket by a pickpocket, and he spends the film hunting it through sweltering post-war Tokyo as it is used in crimes.

Which character does Mifune play in Rashomon?

The bandit Tajōmaru is Mifune's role: he is accused of killing a samurai and assaulting his wife, and the four accounts of the crime contradict one another.

Rashomon won which top prize at Venice, becoming the first Japanese film to gain major international acclaim?

The Golden Lion went to Rashomon at the 1951 Venice Film Festival, and the film went on to receive an honorary Academy Award as the year's outstanding foreign-language picture.

What animals did Mifune reportedly study on film to prepare for Rashomon and Seven Samurai?

Lions were the model: Mifune studied film footage of lions in the wild to shape his prowling, feral Rashomon performance, and the same animal study fed his Seven Samurai role.

What is the name of Mifune's wild, self-proclaimed samurai in Seven Samurai?

Kikuchiyo is the boisterous farmer's son carrying a stolen samurai genealogy; driven off at first, he is accepted as the seventh and dies in the final battle.

Kurosawa's 1954 epic about villagers hiring warriors was famously remade in 1960 as which Hollywood western?

The Magnificent Seven (1960), directed by John Sturges with Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen, moved the story to a Mexican village hiring gunfighters against bandits.

Throne of Blood, in which Mifune plays Washizu, adapts which Shakespeare play?

Kurosawa later adapted King Lear as Ran.

How was the famous death scene of Mifune's character in Throne of Blood staged?

Archers shot real arrows around him: expert bowmen fired into the wooden walls beside Mifune, who waved his arms to signal where the next shaft should land and was reportedly terrified.

Mifune plays General Makabe Rokurōta in which 1958 Kurosawa film that influenced Star Wars?

The Hidden Fortress (1958) tells its story through two bickering peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, whose viewpoint George Lucas borrowed for C-3PO and R2-D2.

In Yojimbo, Mifune's ronin invents his name after looking at what?

A mulberry field seen through the window gives him his surname, Kuwabatake (mulberry field), and he adds Sanjuro, meaning thirty years old, as a throwaway given name.

Which Sergio Leone film plagiarised Yojimbo, prompting a lawsuit by Toho?

A Fistful of Dollars (1964) copied Yojimbo's plot so closely that the Japanese studio sued; the settlement gave it East Asian distribution rights and a share of the worldwide gross.

How many times did Mifune win the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice?

Twice: Mifune won Venice's Volpi Cup for Best Actor in 1961 for Yojimbo and again in 1965, both for performances in films by the same director.

In High and Low, Mifune plays Kingo Gondo, an executive in what industry?

Shoes are his trade: Gondo is an executive at National Shoes fighting for control of the company when a kidnapper seizes his chauffeur's son by mistake.

High and Low was loosely adapted from a novel by which American crime writer?

The 1959 novel was King's Ransom, written under his Ed McBain persona's 87th Precinct series.

Which 1965 film was the last Mifune-Kurosawa collaboration?

Red Beard (1965), with Mifune as the gruff clinic doctor Niide, ended a sixteen-film partnership; the two never made another film together.

Why did the last Kurosawa film prevent Mifune from taking other roles during its two-year shoot?

He had to keep his natural facial hair the whole time, because the doctor's beard was real and had to match across two years of shooting, so he could accept no other roles.

Mifune played which legendary swordsman in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy?

Miyamoto Musashi is the role across all three films (1954–56), and the first, Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, received an honorary Academy Award as best foreign-language film.

How many films did Mifune make with Hiroshi Inagaki, more than with Kurosawa?

Twenty films paired Mifune with Hiroshi Inagaki, most of them period pieces, including the Samurai Trilogy and the 1958 remake of The Rickshaw Man.

Which admiral did Mifune portray in three different films?

Isoroku Yamamoto, the admiral who planned the Pearl Harbor attack, was played by Mifune in two Japanese war films (1968 and 1970) and once for Hollywood.

For the Mexican film Ánimas Trujano, Mifune learned to deliver all his lines in what language?

Spanish was learned phonetically for the part: Mifune delivered every line in it as the Oaxacan peasant Ánimas, and the film earned an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film.

Which 1966 motor-racing film was Mifune's Hollywood debut?

Grand Prix (1966), John Frankenheimer's Formula One epic, cast Mifune as the Honda-like car builder Izo Yamura alongside James Garner and Yves Montand.

Hell in the Pacific (1968) has only two actors: Mifune and whom?

Lee Marvin plays the American pilot stranded with Mifune's Japanese naval officer on a deserted island; John Boorman directed the two-man survival drama.

In the 1971 Spaghetti Western Red Sun, Mifune starred alongside Alain Delon, Ursula Andress and which American?

Charles Bronson plays the outlaw Link, forced to ride with Mifune's samurai to recover a stolen ceremonial sword; Terence Young, director of Dr. No, made it.

Which character did Mifune play in the 1980 NBC miniseries Shōgun?

Lord Toranaga was Mifune's role, the scheming warlord who takes in the shipwrecked English pilot played by Richard Chamberlain.

Mifune's character in Shōgun is modelled on which real Japanese ruler?

Tokugawa Ieyasu, who won the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and founded the shogunate that ruled Japan until 1868, is the model for James Clavell's warlord.

In Steven Spielberg's 1941, Mifune commands what?

A lost Imperial Japanese Navy submarine is his command: as Commander Mitamura he surfaces off the California coast hunting for Hollywood days after Pearl Harbor.

Which James Bond role did Mifune turn down in You Only Live Twice?

Tiger Tanaka, head of the Japanese secret service, was the part offered to Mifune for the 1967 film; he declined, and Tetsurō Tamba played it.

According to his daughter, George Lucas offered Mifune which two Star Wars roles?

Darth Vader or Obi-Wan Kenobi were the parts his daughter Mika said Lucas offered; Mifune declined, reportedly worried the film would cheapen the samurai image.

Who was Mifune's martial arts instructor, who also choreographed the fights in Seven Samurai and Yojimbo?

Yoshio Sugino, a master of Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, arranged the sword fights for both films, and the director told the actors to imitate his bearing.

In what year did Mifune found his own production company?

1962 was when Mifune founded Mifune Productions; it built its own studio in Tokyo's Seijō district and backed hits such as The Sands of Kurobe (1968).

What was the title of Mifune's 1963 directorial debut, in which he also starred?

Legacy of the 500,000 (1963), a treasure-hunt adventure about wartime gold hidden in the Philippines, was produced by his new company and remained the only film Mifune directed.

Kihachi Okamoto's Samurai Assassin (1965), starring Mifune, is about a plot to kill whom?

An important government official is the target: the film dramatises the 1860 Sakuradamon incident, in which Ii Naosuke, the shogun's chief minister, was killed outside Edo Castle.

Which director made Mifune: The Last Samurai, the 2015 documentary about the actor?

Steven Okazaki, an Oscar-winning documentary maker, directed it, with Keanu Reeves narrating and interviews with Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.

In which year did Mifune receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

2016 was the year: his star, in the motion pictures category, was unveiled on Hollywood Boulevard that November with members of his family present.

Where had Mifune met Sachiko Yoshimine, whom he married in 1950?

At the same Toho new faces contest of 1947, Sachiko Yoshimine was also accepted; her family opposed the match, and directors who had worked with Mifune helped win them over.

Mifune, a Christian, married at Aoyama Gakuin, a place of worship of which denomination?

Methodist: Aoyama Gakuin was founded by American Methodist missionaries, and Mifune, raised by Methodist parents, married there in a Christian ceremony although his bride was a Buddhist.

On what date did Mifune die in Mitaka, Tokyo?

24 December 1997, Christmas Eve, was the date; Mifune died of multiple organ failure at a hospital in Mitaka after several years of declining health.

Which Japanese honour did Mifune receive in 1993?

Order of the Sacred Treasure was conferred on him in 1993, following the Medal with Purple Ribbon, Japan's award for artistic merit, which he had received in 1986.

Which silent-era actor did Danny Peary name as the last Japanese star with international fame before Mifune?

Sessue Hayakawa, a Hollywood romantic idol of the 1910s, was the last Japanese star with international fame before Mifune, Peary wrote, contrasting his sex appeal with Mifune's raw masculinity.

Which American actor recalled Mifune offering to be his tour guide in Japan when the script of The Challenge (1982) disappointed them both?

Scott Glenn, his co-star in John Frankenheimer's The Challenge, said Mifune proposed to show him Japan instead; Mifune was known for throwing catered parties for casts and crews.

At whose funeral in 1993 did Mifune and Kurosawa meet again for the last time?

Ishirō Honda's funeral in 1993 brought them together one last time; Honda, who directed Godzilla, had been a close friend of both men and a frequent Kurosawa collaborator.

Who directed the 1999 Danish Dogme film Mifune's Last Song?

Søren Kragh-Jacobsen directed Mifune's Last Song (Mifunes sidste sang), the third certified Dogme 95 film, which won a Silver Bear at the 1999 Berlin festival.

Roughly how many feature films did Mifune appear in?

About 170 feature films carried his name over nearly fifty years, from his 1947 debut to his last role in 1995, spanning Japanese period pieces and Hollywood productions.

In which Manchurian city did Mifune grow up from the age of 4 to 19?

Dalian, the port at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, was home from age four; his father ran his business there, and Mifune first went to Japan only as a conscript.

Mifune was accepted at the studio's 1947 new faces contest from roughly how many applicants?

4,000 or so applied; Mifune's friend Nenji Oyama submitted his résumé only because the studio's photography department, where Mifune actually wanted to work, had no openings.

Told to mime an emotion at his screen test, Mifune drew on wartime experience to show what?

Anger was the emotion he was told to mime; furious at being judged as an actor when he had wanted camera work, he produced a rage so real that it won him a studio contract.

Which director ran Mifune's screen test and recommended him to Senkichi Taniguchi?

Kajirō Yamamoto, the veteran director and Kurosawa's mentor, oversaw the test and passed Mifune on to Senkichi Taniguchi, whose 1947 mountain thriller Snow Trail gave him an early leading role.

Mifune was considered to play Spock's nemesis in which unproduced 1970s film?

Star Trek: Planet of the Titans was Philip Kaufman's scrapped feature; Kaufman wanted Mifune as a Klingon antagonist before Paramount dropped the project in 1977.

Mifune appeared in which 1976 American war film about a Pacific naval battle?

Midway (1976) put Mifune in an all-star cast with Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, during a run of foreign roles that also included Paper Tiger (1975) and 1941.

Mifune's mother Sen was the daughter of a hatamoto, which was what?

A high-ranking samurai official is what a hatamoto was: a direct retainer of the Tokugawa shogun; his father Tokuzo came from a more modest line, the son of an Akita physician.

How old was Mifune when he died of multiple organ failure in 1997?

77 was his age: born in 1920, Mifune had largely withdrawn from acting by the mid-1990s, and he was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame in 1999.

Kurosawa once said the only weakness he could find in Mifune's acting was his what?

Rough voice was the one flaw the director admitted, and that gruffness suited the coarse samurai and ronin he played, inverting the stereotype of the genteel, clean-cut swordsman.