Samurai Trilogy Box Set – Criterion Collection
admin | Feb 26, 2010 | 5 comments
Description
Based on the novel that has been called Japan’s Gone With the Wind, Hiroshi Inagaki’s acclaimed Samurai Trilogy is a sweeping saga of the legendary 17th-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) set against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. Now available for the first time together in a specially priced gift pack, the films follow Musashi’s odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior in an epic tale of combat, valor, and self-discovery.Ama… More >>
Samurai Trilogy Box Set – Criterion Collection
Filed Under: Boxed Sets
First, we must understand that this film was made in 1954 and that the move industry has advanced technology, acting, cinematographer – in all aspects and the film cannot compare to some masterpieces of today. However, what we see in this 51 year old film is the benchmark that made films what they are today.
Good points
a. Beautiful photography
b. Beautiful color. The screen really pops at you.
c. Story line is wonderful full of morals, lessons, and adventure.
Bad points
a. The written translations are horrid.
b. The choreography of the sword fights are horrid.
c. The acting is second rate.
Is it worth $75? Yes, it’s entertaining and a piece of movie history. In its time it was a masterpiece but now I think it is better to just say it’s a classic. But, I doubt I will watch it again for a long time…
What is truly needed is to make a new version using all the knowledge that has been develop in these 51 years but what director would dare take on the task? Oh! What a wonderful film it would be!
Overall, I found this to be a good, entertaining samurai movie, but would not consider it to be excellent as many claim. I have yet to see part II, and it has been some time since I saw part I, which was not all that impressive. Part III, therefore, is an improvement. But the story ultimately fails to be engrossing, and at times the acting on the part of some of the lesser characters leaves much to be desired. And in the end, the fight scene between Musashi and Sasaki really is not all that great–and I actually found it somewhat humorous when the victor states that his opponent was the best he ever faced. Mifune was, however, great, and for this alone it was well worth watching the movie.
thank god for the international film channel… they have ‘samurai saturdays’ where they show asian classics such as this. im hooked now and hafta get my collection started.
this is my new addiction.
the versions i saw were all originally in black and white, but recently they aired the third installment and it looked like someone had ATTEMPTED to colorize it… i thought it was god-awful, but that’s not enough to keep me from gettin this collection. it did detract some, but the story lines are so good, i cant resist.
i hafta have this. american cinema falls waay short of this type of story telling.
This trilogy is not particularly faithful to the book. The love story is overplayed in the movie. The most memorable part of the book is the part where Musashi trains a village to fight off a band of brigands. That scene appears in this third installment of the Samurai trilogy. It is poorly done here, and masterfully done in the book.
In the book, Musashi goes into very interesting detail about how to prepare for the attack of the brigands. He strategizes beautifully. I remember that the townspeople allow only a handful of brigands to breach their defenses at a time, and then seal the defenses up and massacre the handful of brigands they allowed in.
It is quite a sport, to duel to the death. Not conducive to rematches though.
The entire trilogy really fails to capture the mastery of the book Musashi. Those who love the movie so much really should pick up the book here on Amazon. It is a cliche already that “the book is much better than the movie”, and it is extremely true about this story.
The only time I noticed that a movie was clearly superior to the book it was based on was the movie Contact starring Jodie Foster, which was far superior to the book by Carl Sagan, a brilliant man who was not really a very good fiction writer. His book is poor, and the movie is very good.
I suppose the movie director felt that if you are going to make a movie out of it, you’d better play up the romance angle. It was simply a mistake here, and I give the director an X on his report card for making that foolish decision.
The Samurai Trilogy tries really hard to recreate the world brought to life by Eiji Yoshikawa in his magical novel “Musashi”. Unfortunately, director Inagaki ignored story elements that would have been amazing on film if done well, and added elements that cheapen and downright detract from the story and the philosophy behind it. Samurai I is perhaps the closest to the novel, but the quality of writing degrades as the film trilogy progresses.
Duel at Ganryu Island is the most guilty of these sorry departures from the novel. Scenes are cut and pasted sloppily, in a seemingly rushed effort to get through the story. The story is rewritten to include a catfight; Otsu (Musashi’s love interest)is given way too much screentime to wince, weep, and shuffle around pathetically; Jotaro, a lively and complex member of the novel’s cast is basically a prop on film; while Mifune as Musashi is almost non-existent for want of direction. The only part of this film that makes it worth watching is the stunningly beautiful Koji Tsuruta as Sasaki Kojiro. His character is at least given some personality, and he is absolutely gorgeous on screen.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the final duel scene. Those familiar with the novel will know that Yoshikawa crafted this scene carefully to show Mushashi perfecting his style of swordfighting–several elements of Musashi’s individual style of duelling are combined in a breathtaking and crushing climax that brings the whole story full circle. I won’t spoil the movie for readers, but for some reason, I can’t imagine what, Inagaki inserts an element–completely unnecessary–into the final blow that absolutely negates that intention.
Maybe Musashi is just too big an epic to represent on film. Inagaki’s simplified version definitely did more harm than good to this particular story.