Samurai I: Miyamoto Musashi

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