Only Old Movies - ultimate source of old, good classics from 1930`s to 1980`s: Toshirô Mifune

Showing posts with label Toshirô Mifune. Show all posts

Friday, March 20, 2009

The hidden fortress aka Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (1958) - Akira Kurosawa

Rating 8.0/10
Runtime: 138 min
Language: Japanese (English subtitles hardcoded)
Country: Japan
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051808/

Cast

Toshirô Mifune ... General Rokurota Makabe
Misa Uehara ... Princess Yuki
Minoru Chiaki ... Tahei
Kamatari Fujiwara ... Matakishi
Takashi Shimura ... The Old General, Izumi Nagakura
Toshiko Higuchi ... Farmer's Daughter bought from slave trader

Description: Two luckless peasants, Tahei and Matashichi (Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara) escape the aftermath of a battle. While trying to make their way home, they meet and begin to travel with General Rokurota Makabe (Toshiro Mifune). The general is trying to transport the princess of a defeated royal family and what remains of their wealth to safe territory in secret. The peasants mostly impede his mission sometimes trying to run off with the gold. They are later joined by a farmer’s daughter (Toshiko Higuchi), whom they acquire at an inn from a slave-trader, or procurer. Together, the five make an arduous and desperate trek through enemy territory, transporting a treasure of gold that the princess and the general hope to use to rebuild the princess's military to one day retake her land and rebuild her realm.

Screens:

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Yojimbo (1961) - another samurai movie from Akira Kurosawa

Rating 8.3/10
Runtime: 111 min
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055630/

Cast

Toshirô Mifune ... Sanjuro Kuwabatake / The Samurai
Tatsuya Nakadai ... Unosuke, gunfighter
Yôko Tsukasa ... Nui
Isuzu Yamada ... Orin
Daisuke Katô ... Inokichi, Ushitora's rotund brother
Eijirô Tono ... Gonji, tavern keeper

Description: Sanjuro, a wandering samurai enters a rural town in nineteenth century Japan. After learning from the innkeeper that the town is divided between two gangsters, he plays one side off against the other. His efforts are complicated by the arrival of the wily Unosuke, the son of one of the gangsters, who owns a revolver. Unosuke has Sanjuro beaten after he reunites an abducted woman with her husband and son, then massacres his father's opponents. During the slaughter, the samurai escapes with the help of the innkeeper; but while recuperating at a nearby temple, he learns of innkeeper's abduction by Unosuke, and returns to the town to confront him.

Screens:

Download links

http://www.filefactory.com/file/5imc6oz3scr9/n/Yojimbo_1961_torrent

Also set of extra material included:

* A 45-minute documentary on the making of Yojimbo, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create"
* Theatrical trailer and teaser
* US theatrical release title sequence

Video and audio information:

Video : 1.43 GB, 1843 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 672*288 (2.35:1), XviD 1.3.0.dev55
Audio : 355/152 MB (main/commentary), 448/192 Kbps, 44100 Hz, 3 channels/1 channel, 0x55 = AC3

Subtitles (English, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazilian, German, Turkish) included

Dual audio track information

This movie contains two audio tracks, one is original Japanese, and the other is additional audio commentary by film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince. You can use VLC Player to easily choose between any of audio tracks or you can use VirtualDub to get rid of any of audio tracks by following these steps:

1. Download Virtualdub from that WWW address:

http://www.virtualdub.org/download.html

2. Download your version, unzip the files, start the program by running VirtualDub.exe

3. From “File” tab choose “Open video file” and find your dual audio file on your HDD (or you can simply drag and drop movie file into program window)

4. If any warning window pops up, just click on “OK”

5. From “Video” tab choose “Direct stream copy” option (very important, do not miss that step)

6. From “Audio” tab choose which audio stream you want to use, usually English is Stream 1, and commentary is on Stream 2, but to be 100 % sure use preview option that VD provides by clicking on “Play” button on the butttom of program window when video file is loaded. Of course you can get rid of original audio and save the file with commentary that way too, just by choosing other stream.

7. From “File” tab choose “Save AVI file”, put movie name and choose destination folder and then click on OK. Program will start its job after no more than 2 minutes your only one audio track movie should be ready.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Rashomon (1950) - Akira Kurosawa classic with Toshirô Mifune

Rating: 8.5/10
Runtime: 88
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876/

Cast

Toshirô Mifune ... Tajômaru
Machiko Kyô ... Masako Kanazawa
Masayuki Mori ... Takehiro Kanazawa
Takashi Shimura ... Woodcutter
Minoru Chiaki ... Priest
Kichijiro Ueda ... Commoner
Fumiko Honma ... Medium

Description: In 12th century Japan, a samurai and his wife are attacked by the notorious bandit Tajomaru, and the samurai ends up dead. Tajomaru is captured shortly afterward and is put on trial, but his story and the wife's are so completely different that a psychic is brought in to allow the murdered man to give his own testimony. He tells yet another completely different story. Finally, a woodcutter who found the body reveals that he saw the whole thing, and his version is again completely different from the others.

Screens:

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Seven samurai (1954) - Akira Kurosawa

Rating 8.8/10
Runtime: 207 min
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
IMDb Link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0047478/

Cast

Takashi Shimura ... Kambei Shimada
Toshirô Mifune ... Kikuchiyo
Yoshio Inaba ... Gorobei Katayama
Seiji Miyaguchi ... Kyuzo
Minoru Chiaki ... Heihachi Hayashida
Daisuke Katô ... Shichiroji
Isao Kimura ... Katsushiro Okamoto
Keiko Tsushima ... Shino
Yukiko Shimazaki ... Rikichi's Wife
Kamatari Fujiwara ... Manzo, father of Shino
Yoshio Kosugi ... Mosuke

Description: A village is constantly attacked by well armed bandits. One day after an attack they seek the wisdom of an elder who tells them they cannot afford weapons, but they can find men with weapons, samurai, who will fight for them, if they find samurai who are in down on their luck and wondering where their next meal will come from. They find a very experienced samurai with a good heart who agrees to recruit their party for them. He selects five genuine samurai and one who is suspect but the seven return to the village to protect it from the forty plus bandits.

Screens: