Toshiro Mifune stars as a foolish young man who longs to run off to war to make his fortune and prove he is a man. When a battle looms, he runs off to volunteer and his friend, showing some initial reluctance, follows. Instead of glory, they barely escape with their lives. Their paths leads them to two women--an incredibly evil sociopathic mother and her daughter who is not yet as jaded and selfish as the mother. Mifune resists temptation and runs from them, while his friend succumbs to their pleas to stay--and in essence throws away his life and honor. Where Mifune's path takes him I'll leave for you to discover when you watch the film.

Despite having Mifune in the lead, this is NOT an Akira Kurasawa film and some may be disappointed that it is a little more stodgy than one of his films. Instead, I just see it as different but certainly worthwhile. The movie does have tremendous scope and is a very effective opening film to the Samurai Trilogy.

It is important to note that these movies were made nearly 50 years ago and existing copies on DVD are in poor condition--with fading and sepia tones instead of the vibrant original. This became VERY apparent when I saw the beginning of the 3rd film. The color was nearly perfect for the initial scene and that is great, as it's a beautiful and extremely artistic shot. At times throughout the movie, some of the scenes are once again vivid while others are faded and lose their impact. You can't blame the film for that, but you wish Criterion would try to digitally enhance the prints they've got to improve the colors and get rid of some scratchy cels.

Depicts the early life of the legendary warrior Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune); his years as an aspiring warrior, an outlaw and finally a true samurai.

Often compared to "Gone With the Wind", this is the first part of a three-film epic. What makes this so great when compared to all the other samurai films is that this is roughly based on a real man's life. The son and grandson of noted samurai, what better way to tell the life story of a samurai and introduce the world to certain historical events that may not be well-known outside of Japan? Ironically, for all of the film's success, ten years passed before Americans were able to see the other two follow-up installments in the Trilogy. During that time, Inagaki became well known for other films, such as The Rickshaw Man (1958),which won the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival, and The Forty-Seven Ronin (1962),while Toshiro Mifune became Japan's most popular leading man.

I watched the first part of the Musashi Miyamoto trilogy, dubbed simply Samurai 1 on the video, thinking that it might be a lot more stylish &/or violent than I was led to believe. It is the first part, but of the second part it is but only up to a point. This is a 1950s style epic tale through and through, and the violence is done in a kind of sweepingly done style, where it goes by fairly quick, no blood at all, though all the while there's the sense of loss that goes with seeing, for example, the big battle sequence early on. This is a trilogy that I saw long ago, but this one, along with some scenes from 2 and 3, sticks out in my mind to this day. There's a lot of touching care taken in what was Hiroshi Inagaki's power as a filmmaker. Like a Hollywood director actually more than a typical Japanese director, one might say, his take on the legendary samurai Miyamoto is one of reverence but wisdom, of production values of the highest standard (of the studio standard of Toho at the time),with brilliant color photography putting the colors in striking displays throughout at a time when Japan was first getting into it.

If it's less than really great, like a Kurosawa film, it's maybe because Inagaki is a little too comfortable at times with what's 'safe' in the story, particularly with the romance between Takezo/Musashi (Toshiro Mifune) and Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa). This actually becomes a little more unbelievable at times in parts 2 and 3, but for the sake of its magisterial, dedicated studio roots, it's not that bad, most notably the final scene at the bridge. Some of the plot on the first viewing may not be completely clear, at least through parts of the middle section involving the betrayals and Takezo's friend Matahachi's relationship with Oko. There are one or two really noteworthy supporting performances, like from Mitsuko Mito as Oko. But it's really Mifune's show here, and he plays Takezo in this film like a more naive but still as ambitious and unruly version of his character in Seven Samurai. He's not altogether, but he has it in him to be more, which of course then leads out into the rest of the trilogy. It's one of his better performances outside of his work with Kurosawa, and it gets better as the films go on.

Of course, it's best to start here with Inagaki's passionate, rousing work, and even if it isn't the best of the three it still has its high points. It's a very good example of an 'old-school', big-budget Toho picture with their brand of excitement and romance. If you're thinking it will be as graphic or darkly comic as Kurosawa's films though, it's not really here (though only in little sparks, as is more Inagaki's straghtforward style).