Toshiro Mifune makes for a badass samurai.

One of my favorite memories from college was watching Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven projected on our living room wall and remarking how similar Toshiro Mifune's samurai character was to my buddy Nielsen, just by the goofy look on his face and how he strutted around and was always scratching himself and laughing, but occasionally morphing into alpha male badass when necessary. Tonight and a week ago I watched Yojimbo and Sanjuro, which are absolutely brilliant. Mifune doesn't play the same character--less goofy, more grumpy, but still badass--but the resemblance is still there, and the movies are absolutely must-see.

In case you're wondering, I've seen 10.5 Kurosawa films this summer:

• Rashomon--brilliant
• Drunken Angel--slow but good
• Throne of Blood--very good, and the final scene is fantastic, but I didn't quite like it as much as many people do
• I Live in Fear--slow
  
• The Lower Depths--unwatchable (and yet I watched it?) I'm sorry, but I require a plot.
• Ikiru--brilliant. My favorite existential film since Bergman's Winter Light
• The Hidden Fortress--So annoyingly not funny that Jar Jar Binks makes this look good.
• Seven Samurai--Brilliant. I've been meaning for 7 years to make t-shirts with the flag on them.
• Yojimbo--See above.
• Sanjuro--Funnier than Yojimbo, just as amazing.
• Scandal--Seemed like a morality tale that was all hyperbole and no nuance; I left halfway.