Many directors have favorite actors and many actors have favorite directors. One thinks of John Ford and John Wayne, Ingmar Bergman and Max von Sydow, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Leaud. The mutual attraction between Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune was, however, strongest of all.
The actor starred in more than half of Kurosawa's films and once told me that his best work was done with him. The director himself said that Mifune had the kind of talent he had never before encountered, that it was astonishing. Obviously the two gave each other something important.
Just what that was is the subject of this well-researched account. As the author states: "Their faith in one another resulted in their own self-discovery. In this work, it is my hope to uncover the essence of these two great artists."
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