Hollywood honors Toshiro Mifune – Japanese samurai actor gets star on Walk of Fame

This news has been read 7763 times!

LOS ANGELES, Nov 15, (Agencies): Hollywood celebrated the life of legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune on Monday, honoring him with a star on its iconic Walk of Fame two decades after his death.

Mifune rose to stardom through Akira Kurosawa’s classics, including “Rashomon” (1950) and “Seven Samurai” (1954), with masculine portrayals of powerful warlords that earned him a reputation as the world’s best samurai actor.

He died in Tokyo at the age of 77 in 1997. He had been mostly confined to his home since suffering a heart attack five years earlier.

His death shocked Japan’s cinema industry, which took pride in him as its most presentable actor in international cinema, fondly calling him “Mifune of the world.”

Kurosawa cast Mifune in leading roles in all but one of 17 films he made between 1948 and 1965. “Rashomon,” in which Mifune played a cynical bandit, won the Grand Prix award at the 1951 Venice Film Festival.

Mifune played a peasant-turned samurai leading farmers’ resistance against bandits in “Seven Samurai,” which inspired two Western remakes, both titled “The Magnificent Seven” (1960 and 2016).

Born in Qingdao, China, on April 1, 1920, to a photographic studio owner, Mifune joined film company Toho Co. in 1946 after serving six years in an Imperial Japanese Army aerial photography unit during World War II.

He appeared in around 170 feature films, including such foreign productions as Terence Young’s “Red Sun” (1972) and Steven Spielberg’s “1941” (1979).

He also starred in the 1980 popular US television mini-series “Shogun,” based on James Clavell’s bestselling book.

Mifune’s last role on the silver screen was in “Fukai Kawa (Deep River)” in 1995, in which he portrayed a man tortured to the last moment of his life by his experience eating one of his comrades during war.

He left assets of 630 million yen (then $5.4 million), according to local tax officials.

“My grandfather passed away when I was nine so the memories I have of him are mainly as a grandfather figure, but I remember him as a gentleman at home,” said his grandson, the actor Rikiya Mifune.

Perfect

“He would talk in a gruff and manly manner and always have perfect posture, like a true samurai, even at home.”

His life is the subject of documentary “Mifune: The Last Samurai,” screened at the American Film Institute’s AFI Fest this year. It is set to be released in US theaters on Dec 2.

Mifune appeared in more than 150 films, rising to prominence after working with legendary director Akira Kurosawa on 16 features, including “Seven Samurai” and “Throne of Blood”.

“In the 1950s and ‘60s there was no one like Mifune,” said Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Steven Okazaki, who will release a documentary on the actor next month.

Rikiya Mifune received the star on his grandfather’s behalf and said he was happy the films were still being appreciated.

“Next year it will be 20 years since Mifune passed away and it’s great to know that his accomplishments are still acknowledged and appreciated,” he said.

Also:

LOS ANGELES: “The tale as old as time” comes to life in the first official trailer for “Beauty and the Beast.”

The trailer, released by Disney on Monday, offers the closest look to date of Belle, the Beast, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and the mansion’s other anthropomorphic household items.

The new footage of the live-action remake features several iconic moments from the 1991 animated classic, including the famous waltz between Belle, clad in a yellow gown, and the Beast, and Gaston inciting the townsfolk to attack the castle.

The studio released a teaser poster for the film last week.

Bill Condon directed the adaptation, which stars Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, Stanley Tucci as Cadenza, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as LeFou, Kevin Kline as Maurice, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, and Audra McDonald as Madame de Garderobe.

Eight-time Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken, who won Oscars for best original score and best song for the 1991 animated hit, and penned songs for “Aladdin” and “The Little Mermaid” provided the score, which will include new recordings of the original tunes written by Menken and Howard Ashman, as well as new songs written by Menken and three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice.

“Beauty and the Beast” produced by Mandeville Films’ David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, invites you to theaters on March 17, 2017.

SHANGHAI: Brad Pitt made his first promotional appearance for a movie in China since reportedly being banned over a film about Tibet almost 20 years ago.

He spent 40 minutes giving autographs to Chinese fans on Monday and 20 minutes at a tightly controlled media event promoting his latest movie.

The Chinese government reportedly didn’t like his 1997 film “Seven Years in Tibet,” about an Austrian explorer’s relationship with a young Dalai Lama, because of its portrayal of harsh Chinese rule in the Himalayan region.

Reporters were not allowed to ask questions at the event in Shanghai held to publicize the World War II romantic thriller “Allied.” Interest is high in his recent divorce from Angelina Jolie Pitt.

Instead, a host asked a string of questions about “Allied.”

Pitt did visit China two years ago to accompany his then-partner, who was on a publicity tour, but kept a very low profile.

“Allied” debuts on Nov 23 in China, the US and some European and Asian countries.

This news has been read 7763 times!