A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #14: Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samu­rai I: Miyamoto Musashi.

Miyamoto Musashi is the first install­ment of Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samu­rai Tril­ogy, an action-​packed series of films that fol­lows the life of Japan’s great­est war­rior as he grows into his leg­end. This ini­tial film shows a very dif­fer­ent Musashi from the one most peo­ple are famil­iar with; when he was known sim­ply as Takezo, and was a hunted and feared ban­dit. Toshiro Mifune, who plays Musashi, is per­fect for the role; one might argue that thoughts about Musashi are at the core of most of his samu­rai per­for­mances. Yet, in this first film we see lit­tle of the nuance that Mifune is capa­ble of, instead we are immersed in the unfet­tered and unfo­cused inten­sity that is his other strength.

The cin­e­matog­ra­phy is care­ful to remove most of Takezo’s human­ity, often show­ing him in shadow, obscured by brush, or pur­sued by picket lines of searchers, like a hunted boar. As he gives him­self up wholly to this wild­ness he becomes dark­ness per­son­i­fied, and years later as he emerges as a focused and strong samu­rai, there is a par­al­lel with his emer­gence into light. Every aspect of Musashi’s char­ac­ter growth is care­fully man­aged and pack­aged in such a way that, although we are rarely privy to his actual thoughts, we under­stand his moti­va­tions as if they were our own.

There is an array of sup­port­ing char­ac­ters whose own jour­neys and moti­va­tions add impor­tant con­text to Musashi’s life. His friend Mata­hachi has more cun­ning, but is a cow­ard and faith­less. Otsu, Matahachi’s for­mer betrothed, is shown to have a strength of char­ac­ter and well of kind­ness that is likely more instru­men­tal in Takezo’s reform than the Bud­dhist priest Takuan’s own meth­ods. In the later films this devo­tion becomes much more promi­nent, cul­mi­nat­ing in one of the most Roman­tic romances of all time.

Takezo is an echo of his time as well, the coun­try was split in war and the Toku­gawa Shogu­nate would emerge vic­to­ri­ous at about the same time that Takezo becomes the samu­rai Musashi. At the end of the film, Musashi is told to go ronin, much like a knight errant, to build his skills and hone his dis­ci­pline, in order to be fit to serve his mas­ter. Set­ting the stage for the sequel, which I’ll rewatch and review when­ever it comes in from the library.

• My review of Samu­rai II: Duel at Ichi­joji Tem­ple.
• My review of Samu­rai III: Duel at Gan­ryu Island.
• Cri­te­rion Essay by Bruce Eder.
• The Cri­te­rion Con­trap­tion Review
• Kung-​Fu Cin­ema Review