Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple Film Still

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple

Hiroshi Inagaki

Japan

1955

105 minutes

Color

1.33:1

Japanese

15

Synopsis

Hiroshi Inagaki’s acclaimed “Samurai Trilogy” is based on the novel that has been called Japan’s Gone with the Wind. This sweeping saga of the legendary seventeenth-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (powerfully portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) plays out against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. The Trilogy (whose first part won an Academy Award) follows Musashi’s odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior. In the second and most violent installment, Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Musashi beats a samurai armed with a chain and sickle and is later set upon by eighty samurai disciples—orchestrated by the sinister Kojiro—while the two women who love him watch helplessly.

Cast

Musashi MiyamotoToshiro Mifune
Kojiro SasakiKoji Tsuruta
OtsuKaoru Yachigusa
AkemiMariko Okada
Lady YoshinoMichiyo Kogure

Credits

DirectorHiroshi Inagaki
ProducerKazuo Takimura
ScreenplayTokuhei Wakao and Hiroshi Inagaki
CinematographyJun Yasumoto
SoundChoshichiro Mikami
MusicIkuma Dan

Disc Features

  • Original theatrical trailer

From the Current

Samurai II

by Bruce Eder Jul 21, 1998

Despite its title, Samurai II, Duel at Ichijoji Temple, is not really an action film. It has more than its share of action and violence, to be sure—the duel between Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune) and the chain-and-sickle master that opens the movie . . .

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Available Editions

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DVD

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The Samurai Trilogy Criterion DVD Add to Cart

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3 Discs

SRP: $69.95

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$55.96