Mifune: The Last Samurai
Strand Releasing | Release Date: November 25, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 1, 2016
As directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Steven Okazaki, "Mifune" is thorough and insightful enough to enlighten the man's numerous fans and serve as an introduction to those unfamiliar with his gifts and his influence, which were huge. Read full review
80
TheWrapJames GreenbergNov 26, 2016
The real accomplishment of Mifune: The Last Samurai, and perhaps of any successful documentary about cinema history, is that it makes you want to run out and see the movies all over again. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonDec 8, 2016
It’s a film sure to delight fans and make new ones of one of the movies’ most special personalities. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyDec 1, 2016
We hear from Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, several still-awed costars, one of Mifune’s sons, Kurosawa’s script supervisor, and a film sword master identified as “killed by Mifune more than a hundred times.” Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 26, 2016
Even if it is too brief and leaves too much out to be “definitive,” it serves up heaping helpings of Mifune’s film work and bits of home movies and the like to create a fascinating man-behind the stoic face/samurai icon below-the-topknot portrait of Mifune. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyNov 25, 2016
What the movie is very good at revealing and expanding upon is how this reluctant actor became such a masterful one. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayNov 23, 2016
Mifune: The Last Samurai is less a comprehensive overview of the actor’s life than it is an analysis of what that life meant. Read full review
70
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergNov 25, 2016
It’s a brisk and energetic primer for those who don’t know his movies or are ready to watch them again. And it doubles as a history of the chanbara (sword fighting) genre, providing an opportunity to sample clips from seldom-seen or partially lost silent films. Read full review
67
The Film StageEd FranklNov 23, 2016
Mifune: The Last Samurai, the well-assembled documentary on the life of actor Toshirô Mifune, the long-time Akira Kurosawa collaborator, should be a worthy introduction to one of Japanese cinema’s greatest icons, if a little light on more revelatory findings. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanNov 27, 2016
A dutiful and diverting but rather bare-bones documentary portrait. Read full review
50
Village VoiceSimon AbramsNov 23, 2016
Okazaki gets close to, but never sheds enough light on, Mifune's elusive personality. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberNov 23, 2016
The subject is a rich one, but the film simply isn’t incisive enough. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonNov 21, 2016
In many ways, Toshirô Mifune the man remains just as mysterious after watching Steven Okazaki's film as he was before. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichNov 25, 2016
A thin, dull, and by-the-numbers biography that fails to capture its subject’s irrepressible spirit or properly contextualize his importance. Read full review
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