Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

Hiroshi Inagaki

 
  • Japan
  • 1954
  • 93 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.33:1
  • Japanese
  •  
  • Spine #14

In the first part of the epic Samurai Trilogy, Toshiro Mifune thunders onto the screen as the iconic title character. When we meet him, Miyamoto is a wide-eyed romantic, dreaming of military glory in the civil war that is ravaging the seventeenth-century countryside. Twists of fate, however, turn him into a fugitive. But he is saved by a woman who loves him and a cunning priest who guides him to the samurai path. Though the opening installment of a series, this film, lushly photographed in color, stands on its own, and won an Academy Award for the best foreign-language film of 1955.

Cast

Takezo/Musashi MiyamotoToshiro Mifune
Honiden MatahachiRentaro Mikuni
TakuanKuroemon Onoe
OtsuKaoru Yachigusa
AkemiMariko Okada
OkoMitsuko Mito
OsugiEiko Miyoshi
Seijuro YoshiokaAkihiko Hirata
Temma TsujikazeKusuo Abe

Credits

DirectorHiroshi Inagaki
ProducerKazuo Takimura
ScreenplayTokuhei Wakao and Hiroshi Inagaki
From Hideji Hojo’s adaptation of Musashi, byEiji Yoshikawa
CinematographyJun Yasumoto
Art directionKisaku Ito and Makoto Sono
LightingShigeru Mori
SoundChoshichiro Mikami
MusicIkuma Dan

Film Essays

Thumbnail_samurai_feature_current

The Book of Five Rings

By William Scott WilsonJune 27, 2012

The warrior and philosopher protagonist of The Samurai Trilogy, Musashi Miyamoto, was a . . . Read more »


Film Essays

Thumbnail_samuraitrilogy_400_008_current

The Samurai Trilogy: Musashi Mifune

By Stephen PrinceJune 26, 2012

Hiroshi Inagaki’s action epic is as responsible for creating Toshiro Mifune’s legendary . . . Read more »


Film Essays

Samurai I

By Bruce EderJuly 21, 1998

Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy, of which this release is the first part, was adapted from . . . Read more »

Photo Galleries


Film Essays

Thumbnail_samurai_feature_current

The Book of Five Rings

By William Scott WilsonJune 27, 2012

The warrior and philosopher protagonist of The Samurai Trilogy, Musashi Miyamoto, was a . . . Read more »


Film Essays

Thumbnail_samuraitrilogy_400_008_current

The Samurai Trilogy: Musashi Mifune

By Stephen PrinceJune 26, 2012

Hiroshi Inagaki’s action epic is as responsible for creating Toshiro Mifune’s legendary . . . Read more »


Film Essays

Samurai I

By Bruce EderJuly 21, 1998

Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy, of which this release is the first part, was adapted from . . . Read more »