Review of Mifune: The Last Samurai (2016) by Mike T — 20 Nov 2016

Director Steven Okazaki brings to life perhaps one of the greatest actors of any generation and nationality. Mifune-san, whose career spanned decades, was most effective while working with the great director Akira Kurosawa-where the two teamed up to work on 17 films together-most notably "Rashomon", "Seven Samurai", "High and Low" and "Red Beard" as well as Hiroshi Inagaki's "Samurai Trilogy" - a story based on the life of famed samurai swordsman Minamoto Musashi-who penned "The Book of Five Rings"-a book that is still used by modern businessmen today.

The film was based on Yoshikawa Fiji's book "Musashi". This documentary is a must-see for anyone who has seen any if not all of the aforementioned films. Okazaki does a great job collecting some of the actors he has worked with in the past as well as directors Steven Spielberg (who teamed with him in "1941") and Martin Scorsese-The latter of whose relationship with actor Robert DeNiro parallels that of Mifune and Kurosawa.

The movie not only chronicles his working life, but also his younger days while serving in the Japanese military during WWII and his later years, where alcohol became a factor in his life, before he died on Christmas Eve in 1997 due to complications from Alzheimer's Disease.

Mr. Okazaki does a great job of piecing together the life of an icon of Japan. Narrated by Keanu Reeves - initially a curious choice, which later proves to be an effective one. The actor's voice, known for surfer type inflection of "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Point Break" or his other popular role in "The Matrix" series, takes on a measured tone that doesn't distract from the story.

The clips used, were spot on. Via interviews, the filmmaker is best at drawing out his former colleagues of Mifune-who posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week. It would have been nice to find out what happened when an apparent rift between Mifune and Kurosawa occurred for a period of decades, but since both subjects have long passed away, that The only issue I noticed occurred during two interviews towards the start of the film when Okazaki could be heard talking to the person on-camera before they spoke.

But that's nitpicking as Okazaki's "Mifune..." is a film well worth watching-in theaters on December 2.