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To Americans, Toshiro Mifune is ...

The ultimate
samurai

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

Quick, ask Americans to name just one Japanese actor, and Toshiro Mifune comes in way ahead of Sailor Moon, although Godzilla might give him a run for the money. Star of more than 130 films, Mifune will be the subject of a couple of lectures this month by Victor Kobayashi, interim dean of the Outreach College of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Kobayashi, who first saw Mifune on the screen in his father's theater, said that he's "always been fascinated by Mifune's acting. Mifune was the first Asian actor to become world-famous since Sessue Hayakawa, and he was a major star and a hero in films."

Mifune also was something of a sensation in Japan, where movie acting had been contests in emotional rigidity. "He broke the pattern, showed that it was all right to show emotion on the screen," said Kobayashi.

"He also came into the Japanese movie system in a manner completely unlike other Japanese actors before him. He answered an open casting call for a film just after World War II. That was unheard of, but the American occupation forces were trying to instill democracy in Japan, even in the movie industry. And he got the part!"

Mifune Lectures

Toshiro Mifune: The Actor Who Never Dies

Time: At 7:30 p.m. tomorrow
Place: Yukiyoshi Room, Krauss Hall, University of Hawaii-Manoa
Admission: Free

A Halloween Special: Witches and Ghosts

Includes a screening of director Akira Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood," starring Mifune.
Time: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30
Place: Yukiyoshi Room, Krauss Hall, University of Hawaii-Manoa
Admission: $3
Call: 956-3836.