Toshiro Mifune’s tragic role as sixteenth-century samurai Kansuke Yamamoto is the centerpiece of Hiroshi Inagaki’s finest film, the epic Furin kazan, from Yasushi Inoue’s 1955 novel, a reflection on modern Japan’s ambitious, self-deluding dreams of conquest—a point the film also makes, too glibly perhaps. Covering nearly twenty years, the convoluted narrative fits the contours of […]