2. Akira Kurosawa And Toshiro Mifune
Films Together: Drunken Angel, The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog, Scandal, Rashomon, The Idiot, Seven Samurai, I Live in Fear, Throne of Blood, The Lower Depths, The Hidden Fortress, The Bad Sleep Well, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, High and Low and Red Beard. Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune made a remarkable sixteen films together, and at least five can be considered undebatable masterpieces. Their contrasts in personalities made for the perfect collaboration, Kurosawa was precise and meticulous, Mifune was spirited and emotional. Their time together is the most celebrated in Japanese cinema, and though Mifune is best recognised for playing a samurai, there is so much more to him, such as his unheralded performance in The Bad Sleep Well. Kurosawa and Mifune single-handedly created the idea of the Japanese warrior in cinema and their work together continues to influence and inspire. Mifune is an imposing and dominating screen presence and it is an outrage that he gets so little credit on "Best Actors of All Time" lists as he could play quiet and understated, proud and loud and brilliantly funny all with effortless brilliance. Everybody from Sergio Leone to Clint Eastwood has been inspired by their work. Kurosawa thought Mifune was a one of a kind talent, which makes their acrimonious split all the more painful. The two never met after 1965 until 1993 at Ishiro Honda's funeral where they embraced and shed tears. It was a poetic reconciliation, but they would never work again as both men would die before the turn of the decade.