Word: toshiro
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...compelling images. Nevertheless, the film skillfully counterfeits the look of Russia in the last century-it was shot in a small town in northern Japan in the dead of winter-and it brilliantly intuits the mystical spirit of Russian Christianity. The demonic nature of that spirit is portrayed by Toshiro Mifune; the angelic aspect by Masayuki Mori, who marvelously distinguishes in his expression what is specifically Christian from what is peculiarly Oriental in religious feeling: the light in the eyes of a saint from the light in the eyes of a sage...
...more than an unfamiliar art form. They gave him a novel idea: Why not apply the technique of the classic Western ballet to the spirit and music of Bugaku, the Japanese court dance? Bugaku's 1,200-year-old tradition of "noble music" left Balanchine unawed, and Composer Toshiro Mayuzumi was asked to write "some Japanese-flavored music" that Balanchine could set to dancing. Last week, with the New York City Ballet's premiere of the new Bugaku, Balanchine proved how right he could be by daring to go wildly wrong...
...police grill two officials of the companies interested. They refuse to talk. Released, one of them commits suicide, and the other disappears and is presumed dead. But he is dangerously alive: a bomb in the hands of an almost insanely angry young man (Toshiro Mifune) who has sworn to avenge the murder of his father by the corporation. By a ruthless ruse-he has married the boss's daughter-the young man has placed himself inside the enemy's defenses. Can he get revenge before the corporation strikes? The suspense is terrific, but Kurosawa generates more than suspense...
...phlebotomously funny parody of a Hollywood western. When the film begins, the town is divided, just as the modern world is divided, into two armed camps. In each of them, like a land-grabbing cattleman surrounded by gunmen, sits a vicious little warlord surrounded by swordsmen. Enter the hero (Toshiro Mifune), a strong, silent, shabby samurai whose sword is for hire and no questions asked. He looks the situation over: sheriff bullied, citizens cowed, streets full of corpses, business at a standstill. Grimly he reflects: "Better if all these men were dead...
Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress is a true folk epic. It has a cast of thousands, plenty of fighting, a mute princess, Misa Uehara, a fire ritual and a noble hero (Toshiro Mifune). In fact, it contains all the ingredients of a first-rate western except a Shogun wedding. In addition, Kurosawa shores up his extravaganza with dramatically effective photography and he has directed his actors to move and speak in a style derived from Japan's traditional Kabuki Theater...