Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954) is a Japanese period drama you can watch online on iFILM. Toshiro Mifune stars as the hot-headed young Takezo, years before he becomes the legendary swordsman Musashi Miyamoto.

Set in early 17th-century Japan, the film follows Takezo as he marches off to war chasing glory, only to be swept into the slaughter at Sekigahara on the losing side. He comes home a feared, half-wild fugitive, his temper running well ahead of his sense. It takes a stubborn Buddhist monk, Takuan, to break and remake him — through pain, captivity and books — into a man who seeks a path rather than a fight.

This is the opening chapter of Hiroshi Inagaki's celebrated trilogy, adapted from Eiji Yoshikawa's novel about a real, near-mythic master of the sword. The Academy handed it an honorary Oscar as the year's best foreign film, won over by the sweep of its battles and lush color long before Kurosawa made samurai cinema a Western obsession. Mifune is raw and very young here, playing on pure instinct. Stream Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto online on iFILM.