Miyamoto Musashi kanketsuhen: kettô Ganryûjima

It has been more than a decade since I first and last saw this movie, and it still haunts me. This whole trilogy of films, about two rival samurai in medieval Japan, is mythic. It even inspired me to write a poem-- which I will spare you. It is not just a male flick, either. The sub-plot about Otsu is very romantic, though in a non-feminist, self-sacrificial way. On the other hand, she is the only character who gets what she wants. She just has to wait through three movies to have it. Throughout the trilogy, Mifune plays the famous samurai Musashi Miyamoto who develops from an outlaw wild-man in the first movie to a mystic philosopher in this one. While his rival, Kojiro, possesses consummate skill, Musashi achieves, in this film, a graceful detachment which almost makes him resist the climactic sword fight. But swashbuckler fans need not worry because the final confrontation is spectacular.