Latest news with #ToshiroMifune
Epoch Times
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
‘Sanjuro': The Triumphant Return of the Ronin
NR | 1h 36m | Action, Drama, Thriller | 1962 Akira Kurosawa's 'Sanjuro' (1962) arrived with a sharp edge and light step, pairing the cynical charisma of Toshiro Mifune's wandering swordsman with a story that subtly pokes fun at the ideals of samurai conduct.
Geek Vibes Nation
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
Criterion Collection Announces September Titles Including Works From Akira Kurosawa, Rob Reiner & More
The Criterion Collection has announced six new titles to join the collection on 4K UHD and Blu-Ray in September: High and Low (1963), This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Born in Flames (1983), Flow (2024), Read My Lips (2001), and The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005). These represent Akira Kurosawa's highly influential police procedural, a legendary mock rockumentary, a DIY fantasia of female rebellion, an Academy Award–winning animated international sensation, and two tour-de-force thrillers from modern French master Jacques Audiard. These titles join the previously announced Wes Anderson 4K UHD Collection, along with the individual releases of Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch. Details on these films can be found below: Street Date: September 9, 2025 Synopsis: Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in High and Low, the highly influential domestic drama and police procedural from director Akira Kurosawa. Adapting Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom, Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary, creating a diabolical treatise on class and contemporary Japanese society. 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with 4.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Audio commentary featuring Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince Documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create Interviews with actors Toshiro Mifune and Tsutomu Yamazaki Trailers and teaser PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien and an on-set account by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richie Street Date: September 16, 2025 Synopsis: Spinal Tap has come to be recognized as England's loudest and most punctual band. In the legendary rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, now beautifully restored, Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) embark on their final American tour, with filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) capturing all the mishaps, creative tensions, dwindling crowds, and ill-fated drummers. This Is Spinal Tap takes DiBergi's brilliant vérité style and turns it up to eleven! DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Rob Reiner, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack Alternate 2.0 uncompressed stereo soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features Three audio commentaries: one with actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer; one with Reiner, producer Karen Murphy, and editors Robert Leighton and Kent Beyda; and one with band members Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls New conversation between Reiner and actor Patton Oswalt The Cutting Room Floor, featuring outtakes, alternate takes, and abandoned subplots Spinal Tap: The Final Tour (1982) Trailers, promotional spots, media appearances, music videos, and commercials English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by critic Alex Pappademas Street Date: September 16, 2025 Synopsis: A blistering rallying cry issued loud, clear, and unapologetically queer, Lizzie Borden's explosive postpunk provocation is a DIY fantasia of female rebellion set in America ten years after a revolution that supposedly transformed the country into a democratic socialist utopia. In reality, racism, sexism, and economic inequality are as virulent as ever, and a band of radicals—led by Black, lesbian, and working-class women—join forces to fight back. Told through a furiously fractured, kinetically edited flurry of television news broadcasts, pirate radio transmissions, agitprop, and protests shot guerrilla-style on the streets of New York City, Born in Flames is a shock wave of feminist futurism that's both an essential document of its time and radically ahead of it. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES 2K digital restoration—preserved by Anthology Film Archives, with restoration funding from the Golden Globe Foundation and The Film Foundation, and supervised and approved by director Lizzie Borden—with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Introduction by Borden New audio commentary featuring Borden; cast members Adele Bertei, Hillary Hurst, Sheila McLaughlin, Pat Murphy, Marty Pottenger, and Jeanne Satterfield; and camerapeople DeeDee Halleck and Chris Hegedus Regrouping (1976), Borden's directorial debut, an experimental documentary about a New York City women's group English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: Essays by film scholar Yasmina Price and author So Mayer See also 'In The Lost Lands' Gets Digital Release Date After Box Office Struggles Street Date: September 23, 2025 Synopsis: A thrilling tale of friendship and survival that took indie animation to ecstatic new heights of ambition and imagination, this Academy Award–winning international sensation follows a courageous cat after its home is devastated by a great flood. As the cat teams up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, the crew must rely on trust, courage, and their wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. Working with a small team using open-source software, visionary DIY animator Gints Zilbalodis conjures a sublime sensory odyssey and a profound meditation on the fragility of the environment and the spirit of community. DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES 4K digital transfer, with 7.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, approved by director Gints Zilbalodis 4K digital master of Away (2019), Zilbalodis's debut feature One 4K UHD disc of Flow and Away and two Blu-rays with Flow, Away, and the special features New audio commentary featuring Zilbalodis Full feature-length animatic New interviews with Zilbalodis and cowriter-coproducer Matīss Kaža Dream Cat (2025), a making-of documentary produced for Latvian Television Aqua (2012) and Priorities (2014), short films by Zilbalodis with new commentaries by the director Unused-shot reel, with new commentary by Zilbalodis Trailers, TV spots, and proof-of-concept teasers English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio PLUS: An essay by critic Nicolas Rapold and collectible stickers Street Date: September 23, 2025 Synopsis: Two outcasts are drawn together by crime and passion in this early tour de force from director Jacques Audiard. Carla (Emmanuelle Devos, who won a César Award for her performance) is an unappreciated, hard-of-hearing employee at a nondescript construction company. Her lonely life gets a jolt of excitement when she hires a new assistant: Paul (Vincent Cassel), an ex-con who soon enlists her (and her lip-reading ability) in a risky scheme. With visceral camera work and sound design, Audiard immerses viewers in the duo's increasingly turbulent world, blending noir conventions with complex character development for a thriller of unique depth and emotion. DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Jacques Audiard and director of photography Mathieu Vadepied, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features New afterword by Audiard Audio commentary with actors Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Devos Program about the making of the film featuring interviews with Audiard, Vadepied, and coscreenwriter Tonino Benacquista Interview with composer Alexandre Desplat Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Audiard Trailer New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau Street Date: September 23, 2025 Synopsis: A riveting character study in the guise of a gritty underworld thriller, Jacques Audiard's international breakthrough features an explosive performance from Romain Duris as a real-estate broker torn between the dirty dealings of his slumlord father (Niels Arestrup) and his recently rekindled love for classical piano. Can music offer salvation from a life of sin? Winner of eight César Awards, including Best Film, this bold reimagining of the New Hollywood cult classic Fingers showcases Audiard's gift for balancing breathtaking tension with galvanic human drama. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Onimusha: Way of the Sword Is Capcom Sharpening It's Sword
During a hands-off presentation at Summer Games Fest, Onimusha: Way of the Sword quietly emerged as one of the most exciting things on the horizon. Capcom let the game speak for itself. And what it said, loud and clear, is that they're not just reviving Onimusha to ride nostalgia. They're rebuilding it from the hilt up. It's been nearly two decades since Onimusha felt like a pillar of Capcom's portfolio. But with recent remasters and with Way of the Sword on the horizon, the studio is treating the return like an event. This isn't a low-stakes spin-off; this is a full-scale entry with real bite, and a very clear creative vision behind it. It wears its influences proudly, particularly from samurai cinema and modern action design, but it never feels derivative. Set in a stylized version of feudal Kyoto, the game follows Miyamoto Musashi, not the philosophical swordsman of legend, but a younger warrior modeled visually and vocally after Toshiro Mifune, a legendary Japanese actor and producere known for his work in the samurai film genre. That casting choice does a lot of lifting. It grounds the game in a very specific cinematic era. The kind built on black-and-white duels and sharp of course, isn't just slicing up bandits. The supernatural elements are baked in early. He wears the Oni gauntlet on his arm, a cursed artifact that lets him absorb the souls of his enemies. Where most modern action games would streamline this into an auto-pickup system, Way of the Sword makes it an active mechanic. Enemies spill red, blue, and yellow orbs on death. Experience, skills, and health respectively. and Musashi has to manually draw them in. If he doesn't, they fade, or worse, get stolen by other enemies that'll power them up. That twist adds a real-time tension to every skirmish. It's good to see that this mechanic hasn't been lost to the modernization of the series. Combat reaches a new level with the return of the Issen. Veterans of the series know the name well. These are instant-kill counters that trigger on perfect timing and look really cool. Capcom has taken them from a subtle flourish to a centerpiece. Time slows, the camera tightens, and Musashi chains together one-hit kills that feel straight out of a Kurosawa dream sequence. And the best part is how expressive it all feels. We only got a glimpse, but another teased boss, Byakue, looked like a full-on nightmare—a towering, skinless beast covered in talismans and dripping with corruption. The fight was cut short, but the visual alone said enough. This game isn't afraid to get weird, and it knows how to build dread without over-explaining it. The supernatural elements in Way of the Sword extend beyond combat. Musashi can use Oni Visions to reveal hidden paths, phantoms, and clues. In one sequence, he watched a funeral procession turn to ash mid-step, revealing his path. In another vision, he uncovered the moments of a warrior whose soul had been twisted by regret after dispatching members of his village. These Dark Mass fragments add layers of context and melancholy, fleshing out a world that already feels haunted. The structure seems semi-linear from the look of things. You're following a main path, but it looks like there will be optional routes, side objectives, and if its like the previous entries, there should be alternate dialogue options that will offer room to explore. This isn't an open world, and it doesn't want to be. But it's also not a corridor. Instead, it feels like a tightly wound experience with thoughtful room to Way of the Sword is stunning. The art direction is doing the heavy lifting, but the animation work sells the rest. Musashi's stance looks like it shifts subtly depending on the enemy he faces. Even his idle moments feel charged with intent. Enemy design is equally sharp. What's maybe most exciting is how confident this all feels. Capcom isn't second-guessing what Onimusha should be. They've found it again. Not by recreating the past, but by distilling what made it work and making it sing in a new key. It's brutal, beautiful, and unafraid to let silence speak when it matters. There's still plenty we haven't seen. The full scope of the story, the size of the map, how far the mechanics evolve. But if the rest of Way of the Sword keeps this pace, Capcom isn't just reviving a franchise, they're reminding everyone why it mattered in the first place.
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Onimusha: Way Of The Sword' Brings Toshiro Mifune Back To Life
A youthful likeness of famous actor Toshiro Mifune will be used in 'Onimusha: Way of the Sword'. The latest entry in the long-running Onimusha series takes us to a corrupted Kyoto with youthful Toshiro Mifune as our guide. Specifically, Toshiro Mifune's likeness has been used for the main character of the game, Miyamoto Musashi, who in turn is a famous Japanese historical figure. This is very much in line with prior Onimusha games, as Takeshi Kaneshiro's likeness was used in the first game and Yusaku Matsuda's likeness in the second. The Onimusha games also use notable figures from Japanese history, and Miyamoto Musashi is arguably one of its most famous. Musashi was a legendary swordsman and undefeated in combat, so much so that his duels with other samurai are the stuff of legend. The latter is also noteworthy here, as Sasaki Ganryu is also present in this new Onimusha game as a rival antagonist who also wields an Oni Gauntlet. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Whether Musashi will defeat Kojiro in the same way he did historically remains to be seen, but I always find this repurposing of history both fun and interesting in the Onimusha games. This new entry also looks very impressive, not only graphically but also functionally. While the older Onimusha games took their functional guidance from the fixed camera setup in the Resident Evil games, this looks more like Nioh or Sekiro in terms of combat, and that's a definite improvement. It also seems that Onimusha: Way of the Sword will be playable at this year's Gamescom in August, so it will be interesting to see what people think of the game after getting to play it properly. Onimusha: Way of the Sword will be released in 2026 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, via Steam. Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
