Slideshow
PREVIOUSLY PLAYED
SAMURAI SAGA
或る剣豪の生涯
Sunday, February 13 at 3:00
Japan, 1959
Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
Starring Toshirō Mifune
35mm print courtesy of the National Film Center of Japan. Approx. 111 min.
Mifune’s 17th century samurai responds to jibes about his enlarged proboscis with witty haiku and slashing swordplay, then plays ghost writer for tongue tied Akira Takarada’s courting of Yoko Tsukasa, even though he secretly loves her himself. Sound familiar? Of course, it’s Cyrano de Bergerac, with Mifune alternately hilarious and moving — and his nose is the best yet, both physically believable, and well, kind of ugly — as called for in the text.