Description: Based on the novel that has been called Japan's Gone With the Wind, Hiroshi Inagaki's acclaimed Samurai Trilogy is a sweeping saga of the legendary 17th-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) set against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. Now available for the first time together in a specially priced gift pack, the films follow Musashi's odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior in an epic tale of combat, valor, and self-discovery.
Amazon.com: Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto Toshirô Mifune defines the quintessential samurai in Hiroshi Inagaki's 1954 Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, the first feature in a trilogy based on the epic novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. As in Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, which appeared the same year, Mifune plays a brash and ambitious peasant who desires fame and power as a swordsman. His dreams of glory in war sour when his army is routed and he becomes hunted by the authorities, but the "tough love" attentions of a kindly but severe monk help him develop from a hot-tempered outlaw to a thoughtful swordsman. Inagaki's somber color epic is very different from the energetic action of Kurosawa's films. The sword fights and battles are practically theatrical in their presentation, staged in long takes that emphasize form and movement over flash and flamboyance. Mifune brings a sad, almost tragic quality to the samurai warrior Musashi Miyamoto, whose dedication proscribes him to a lonely life on the road. Though the film stands well on its own, its stature takes on greater significance as the first act of Inagaki's stately, contemplative epic of the professional and spiritual development of Musashi.
Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple Picking up where Samurai I left off, Toshirô Mifune's samurai in training Musashi Miyamoto is a wandering swordsman who hones his skills in a succession of duels. When he defeats a succession of students from a local school of martial arts, he becomes marked for death by the school elders and is attacked in a series of cowardly ambushes. Romantic threads from the first film become further complicated when the virginal Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa) and the sad courtesan Akemi (Mariko Okada) meet and discover their rivalry and Musashi earns himself an archenemy, an ambitious young swordsman named Sasaki Kojiro (Koji Tsuruta) who vows to defeat Musashi to make his name as the finest fencer in all of Japan. Inagaki ably manages the rather complicated plot with unexpected ease (subtitles are employed to help English viewers make a few narrative jumps) while he charts Musashi's education in compassion and humility and his internal struggle with his conflicted love for Otsu. The direction is still as distant and unostentatious as in the first film, while the color and settings become richer and more pronounced: studio-bound locations take on the quality and delicacy of paintings. The dramatic centerpiece of the trilogy, an epic pre-dawn battle where 40 swordsmen ambush Musashi, uses darkness and landscape to great dramatic effect as figures seep in and out of the picture
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island Toshirô Mifune is confidence supreme and humility incarnate as the mature samurai master Musashi Miyamoto in the final film of Inagaki's sprawling trilogy. Now a legendary swordsman whose latest quest is to save an isolated village from rampaging brigands (shades of Seven Samurai), he remains haunted by the memory of Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa). Meanwhile the ruthless and increasingly jealous Kojiro Sasaki (Koji Tsuruta) plots his battle royal with Musashi to prove who is the finest fencer in Japan. Inagaki weaves the web of subplots into a series of grand confrontations, among them the most exciting battles of the trilogy: Musashi's skirmish with the army of cutthroats while the village erupts in a fiery inferno around him, and the sunset duel between Musashi and Kojiro on an isolated beach, the two warriors taking on mythic dimensions silhouetted against the sun setting over the surf. Inagaki's delicate use of color throughout the series becomes most pronounced in this final sequence, where the glow of orange and red adds dramatic flourish to the twilight battle. Inagaki's reserved, restrained style and Mifune's melancholy performance--his granite face and stocky stance the very essence of somber wisdom and sad assurance--bring a gravity and seriousness to the drama that ultimately illuminates the personal cost of Musashi's supreme skill as his story ends on an elegiac but hopeful note. --Sean Axmaker
samurai trilogy this movie is very good. i have seen movies of samurai when i was young but this one is great.
Don't expect this to be exactly like the book if you're like me then you've read Musashi "nice jobt man". Well after reading the book you where probably like "now i will buy and watch the movies". Well tlet me tell ya that only the First movie goes along with the books storyline 100 percent. so the first movie rocks and i'm not gonna talk about it so let me got right into movie number 2 before we go on i'm gonna tell you that i will probaly miss spell alot of the characters names
Now i know that all of you want to see the probably to see Musashi beat the hell out of the yoshiakaws students. well that can only be viewsd if your TV can increse the brightness becasue the film is so damn dark you can't hardly see anything. but before taht they get all the fights out of order like in the book Musashi fights with Sanjiro first and breaks his arm. well in the movie he fights him last and breaks his arm. then in the book Musahis fights Demichiro 2nd and cuts off his head in the movie he fights him first and ..... they don't show what ahppens graaaaaaaaa. another thing that really steams my noddles is taht they hardly show Jotoro at all I mean you see him like 2 times and that's it. I do like how that made Otsu and Akemi kind of rivels that wasn't in teh book so that was pretty cool
movie 3. this is just wierd in the book musashi is handing around a farm with his new buddy Ioni for a while. in the Movie that is praticaly all he does. it's like watching seven samuri only in coler I thank the best thing in all 3 movies was when Musashi and Kojiro finaly fight that was pretty aswome.
The way of the samurai This is a harrowing, breathtaking saga of the legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto. It captures some of his trials and tribulations as he embarks on his spiritual quest in the early 17th century. He was an unmatched master with the blade, but a priest tries to teach him wisdom and virtue. To know awe and fear God. To learn chivalry and tone down his brutal nature. To walk the Samurai path. There is lots of action with some romantic subplots. Initially Musashi seems to love himself and his warrior spirit more than he ever could any woman. The first of this trilogy is my favorite. Although it's not the most action-packed, it is the most emotionally complex and best developed of the three movies. It also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in '55. This epic collection is very entertaining, very close to par with the better known Seven Samurai. It's also very educational, even though it may embellish on the truth at times. Total running time is right at 5 hours.
Poor video quality detracts from the enjoyment. Out of the 3 discs, why is this one so poor in transfer quality in comparison to the other 2? I suppose Criterion could not find the original film masters from which to make a proper digital transfer? This one is a poor, low-grade VHS-era transfer slapped onto the DVD. The first 2 episodes were great, I was able to really see the depth in the colours as well as the quality of the cinematography. I was truly disappointed that this 3rd disc came from some poor tv/video transfer and nothing was done to it. May be the original negs were no longer available?
Second Rate Soap...but good cinematography Some movies stand the test of time. Not this one...Samurai Trilogy. The movie may very well be a big deal 40 years ago. Not now.
Moreover, the movie changed the life story of Miyamoto Musashi. For those who are interested, read his book, "A Book of Five Ring." Want to see a true samurai movie? Get "Samurai Rebellion."
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