60 Fun Facts About Toshiro Mifune

With which director did Toshiro Mifune make sixteen films?

Mifune said he had never done anything as an actor he was proud of except with him.

In which present-day Chinese city was Mifune born in 1920?

His parents were Methodist missionaries in Japanese-occupied Shandong, and he spent his first 19 years in China.

What business did Mifune's father run, in which the young Toshiro worked?

Mifune later hoped to join Toho's camera department rather than act.

Where did Mifune serve during World War II?

He later drew on his wartime experiences when asked to mime anger at his screen test.

Mifune got into films through a 1947 new faces contest at which studio?

A friend in the photography department sent in his resume; he was one of 49 accepted from about 4,000 applicants.

Which actress told Kurosawa about a promising young man at the audition, prompting him to attend?

Kurosawa wrote that he saw a young man reeling around the room in a violent frenzy, like a wounded beast.

Kurosawa said Mifune could convey in three feet of film an emotion that took the average Japanese actor how much film?

He valued Mifune's effortless portrayal of unvarnished emotion, and found fault only with his rough voice.

Which 1948 Kurosawa film, considered the first yakuza movie, gave Mifune the role of the gangster Matsunaga?

Takashi Shimura played the alcoholic doctor Sanada who treats him.

In Stray Dog (1949), Mifune plays a detective who has what stolen on a crowded trolley?

Detective Murakami spends the film hunting for it through post-war Tokyo.

Which character does Mifune play in Rashomon?

The film tells the same crime from contradictory points of view.

Rashomon won which top prize at Venice, becoming the first Japanese film to gain major international acclaim?

It earned roughly $800,000 abroad.

What animals did Mifune reportedly study on film to prepare for Rashomon and Seven Samurai?

His wild, scratching, growling recruit in Seven Samurai was based on a lion.

What is the name of Mifune's wild, self-proclaimed samurai in Seven Samurai?

He is accepted into the group only after attempts to drive him away fail.

Kurosawa's 1954 epic about villagers hiring warriors was famously remade in 1960 as which Hollywood western?

Its story and approach to action have been reiterated many times since.

Throne of Blood, in which Mifune plays Washizu, adapts which Shakespeare play?

Kurosawa later adapted King Lear as Ran.

How was the famous death scene of Mifune's character in Throne of Blood staged?

Kurosawa changed the ending to include the volley of arrows.

Mifune plays General Makabe Rokurōta in which 1958 Kurosawa film that influenced Star Wars?

Two bickering peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, foreshadow C-3PO and R2-D2.

In Yojimbo, Mifune's ronin invents his name after looking at what?

Kuwabatake means mulberry field and Sanjuro means thirty years old.

Which Sergio Leone film plagiarised Yojimbo, prompting a lawsuit by Toho?

Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name is a version of Mifune's nameless ronin.

How many times did Mifune win the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice?

The wins came in 1961 for Yojimbo and 1965 for Red Beard.

In High and Low, Mifune plays Kingo Gondo, an executive in what industry?

A kidnapper mistakenly abducts his chauffeur's son instead of his own.

High and Low was loosely adapted from a novel by which American crime writer?

The 1959 novel was King's Ransom, written under his Ed McBain persona's 87th Precinct series.

Which 1965 film was the last Mifune-Kurosawa collaboration?

Its two-year shoot kept him from other work and drove his production company into debt.

Why did the last Kurosawa film prevent Mifune from taking other roles during its two-year shoot?

The lost income put Mifune Productions deeply into debt and strained the partnership.

Mifune played which legendary swordsman in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy?

The first film won an Honorary Academy Award.

How many films did Mifune make with Hiroshi Inagaki, more than with Kurosawa?

All but two were period pieces, including Rickshaw Man, which won the Golden Lion at Venice.

Which admiral did Mifune portray in three different films?

One of them was the 1976 Hollywood war film Midway.

For the 1962 Mexican film Ánimas Trujano, Mifune learned to deliver all his lines in what language?

Many Mexicans believed he could have passed for a native of Oaxaca; the film was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

Which 1966 motor-racing film was Mifune's Hollywood debut?

James Garner, Yves Montand and Eva Marie Saint led the ensemble.

Hell in the Pacific (1968) has only two actors: Mifune and whom?

John Boorman directed the two-man survival drama.

In the 1971 Spaghetti Western Red Sun, Mifune starred alongside Alain Delon, Ursula Andress and which American?

Terence Young, director of Dr. No, made it.

Which character did Mifune play in the 1980 NBC miniseries Shōgun?

Richard Chamberlain played the English pilot Blackthorne.

Why was Shōgun less well received in Japan than in America?

Kurosawa criticised the series for its historical inaccuracies.

In Steven Spielberg's 1941, Mifune commands what?

His crew is searching for Hollywood shortly after Pearl Harbor.

Which James Bond role did Mifune turn down in You Only Live Twice?

United Artists offered him the Japanese spy chief.

According to his daughter, George Lucas offered Mifune which two Star Wars roles?

He was also considered for Spock's nemesis in an unproduced Star Trek film.

Who was Mifune's martial arts instructor, who also choreographed the fights in Seven Samurai and Yojimbo?

He taught the Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, and Kurosawa told actors to copy his bearing.

In what year did Mifune found his own production company?

His company had successes with The Sands of Kurobe and Samurai Banners.

What was the title of Mifune's 1963 directorial debut, in which he also starred?

It was his only film as director.

Kihachi Okamoto's Samurai Assassin (1965), starring Mifune, is about a plot to kill whom?

Okamoto's samurai films were often critical of bushido and Tokugawa Japan.

Which director made Mifune: The Last Samurai, the 2015 documentary about the actor?

It was released for the centenary period of his birth and screened widely.

In which year did Mifune receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

He had been inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame in 1999.

Mifune married Sachiko Yoshimine in 1950. Where had he met her?

She was one of 32 women chosen; Kurosawa helped persuade her family to allow the match.

Mifune, a Christian, married at Aoyama Gakuin, a place of worship of which denomination?

His wife was a Buddhist, but the wedding followed Christian tradition.

On what date did Mifune die in Mitaka, Tokyo?

He died of multiple organ failure at 77.

Which Japanese honour did Mifune receive in 1993?

He had received the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 1986.

Which silent-era actor did Danny Peary name as the last Japanese star with international fame before Mifune?

Hayakawa was a romantic sex symbol; Mifune's appeal was raw masculinity.

Which American actor recalled Mifune offering to be his tour guide in Japan when the script of The Challenge (1982) disappointed them both?

Mifune was known for throwing catered parties for cast and crew and paying for their families' onsen trips.

At whose funeral in 1993 did Mifune and Kurosawa meet again for the last time?

Honda was the director of Godzilla and a friend of both men.

Which 1999 Danish Dogme film is named after the actor?

It was directed by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen.

Roughly how many feature films did Mifune appear in?

He amassed more than 180 screen credits in all.

In which Manchurian city did Mifune grow up from the age of 4 to 19?

He was born in Qingdao to Methodist missionary parents and did not set foot in Japan until he was drafted.

Mifune was one of 49 accepted at Toho's 1947 new faces contest out of roughly how many applicants?

His friend Nenji Oyama had sent in his résumé only because the studio's photography department, where Mifune really wanted to work, was full.

Told to mime an emotion at his screen test, Mifune drew on wartime experience to show what?

Kurosawa, watching from the judges' table, described it as like watching a wounded beast trying to break loose.

Which director ran Mifune's screen test and recommended him to Senkichi Taniguchi?

That recommendation led to Mifune's first feature role, in Shin Baka Jidai, before Kurosawa ever cast him.

Mifune was considered to play Spock's nemesis in which unproduced 1970s film?

It was one of several Hollywood near-misses, alongside the Bond and Star Wars roles he declined.

Mifune appeared in which 1976 American war film about a Pacific naval battle?

It came during his run of foreign roles in the 1970s that also included Paper Tiger and Spielberg's 1941.

Mifune's mother Sen was the daughter of a hatamoto, which was what?

His father's side was more modest: Tokuzo was a trade merchant and photographer, the son of a physician from Akita Prefecture.

How old was Mifune when he died of multiple organ failure in 1997?

He died on Christmas Eve in Mitaka, Tokyo, and was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame two years later.

Kurosawa once said the only weakness he could find in Mifune's acting was his what?

That gruffness suited the coarse samurai and ronin he played, inverting the stereotype of the genteel, clean-cut swordsman.