Posted on 12/04/2015 2:26:04 PM PST by EveningStar
The legendary leading man of Akira Kurosawa turned down offers from George Lucas, said his daughter at an event with Steve Wozniak to announce Tokyo Comic Con.
Toshiro Mifune, the legendary actor and star of numerous Akira Kurosawa films including Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Rashomon, turned down the roles of Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, worried that Star Wars was going to look cheap, according to his daughter Mika.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
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He could have pulled off the Obi Won role very well!
It seems like he was in just about all Japanese movies or movies about Japanese.
Probably a good thing. He didn’t have the imposing physical presence to pull off Vader (behind the mask, his Death Glare would have been wasted), and I think Guinness’ portrayal of Kenobi as the quiet, wise instructor came off better than Mifune’s (likely) stern and fierce taskmaster would have.
Yes. He’s brilliant. He’s got to be quite old for it now though. Would love to have seen him in this IP.
Although, I will say that if he had been cast as Kenobi, at least the lightsaber fight at the end of Star Wars would have been more impressive than the arthritic swiping we ended up with. Criticize the “prequels” all you want, but the fight choreography benefited greatly from 30 years of Japanese-inspired action movies, giving us the far more fluid saber wielding we saw.
Yoda, perhaps, though the result would have been a very different character.
She is cute.
I bet her Mother is pretty.
Was brilliant. Dead now. Missed that starship.
Apropos of nothing, but appreciated nonetheless.
I can believe that. Very strong actor. I’m not sure about his English language skills, though. One of my favorites.
Toshiro Mifune: How You Like Me Now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0c_1XKJUSQ
Throne of Blood! The astonishing sequence when he is pinned with arrows to the wall - all done without crappy CGI nonsense. And very dangerous as well!
I saw that! ! How did they pull that off?
Expert archers and Mifune was an expert at dodging arrows. He always said that the fear in his eyes was real fear. It was choreographed within an inch of its life. Wonderful film; wonderful actor.
Toshiro has long been one of my favorites; I always thought of him as the Japanese prequel to Clint Eastwood. Funny that Clint’s first big break was a very close remake of one of Toshiro’s most famous films (Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo => A Fistful of Dollars), also remade later with Bruce Willis (Last Man Standing). All three great movies.
Actually, the voice of Vader was dubbed. I believe the actor playing Darth Vader was Dave Prowse, while the voice was supplied by James Earl Jones. TM’s voice was incredibly distinctive and powerful, and would have done very well.
Mark
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