{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox film | name = The Samurai Trilogy | image = | caption = The cover of the Criterion Collection DVD box set of all three films. | director = Hiroshi Inagaki | producer = Kazuo Takimura | writer = Hideji Hōjō (play)<br />Hiroshi Inagaki<br />Tokuhei Wakao<br />Eiji Yoshikawa (novel) | starring = Toshiro Mifune<br />Kaoru Yachigusa<br />Rentarō Mikuni | music = Ikuma Dan | cinematography = | editing = | studio = Toho Studios | distributor = Toho Studios | released = {{Film date|1954| | |1|1955| | |2|1956| | |3}} | runtime = 303 minutes | country = Japan | language = Japanese | budget = }} The '''''Samurai Trilogy''''' is a film trilogy directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshiro Mifune as Musashi Miyamoto and Kōji Tsuruta as Kojirō Sasaki. The films are based on ''Musashi'', a novel by Eiji Yoshikawa about the famous duelist and author of ''The Book of Five Rings''.
The three films are: * ''Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto'' (1954) * ''Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple'' (1955) * ''Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island'' (1956)
Together, they are a trilogy following the character growth of Musashi from brash—yet strong—young soldier to thoughtful and introspective samurai.
The choreography for the films was by Yoshio Sugino of the Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū.
==Reception and influence== ''Samurai I'' won the 1955 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
In a review almost 60 years after the release of the trilogy, the late academic and film critic Stephen Prince noted "the absence of gore" in the films: "Severed limbs and spurting arteries hadn't yet arrived as a movie convention, and the fights in ''The Samurai Trilogy'' are relatively chaste, not showing the carnage that such duels would have actually resulted in".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2358-the-samurai-trilogy-musashi-mifune |title=''The Samurai Trilogy'': Musashi Mifune |author=Stephen Prince |author-link=Stephen Prince |date=June 26, 2012 |website=The Criterion Collection |publisher= |access-date= |quote=}}</ref>
The trilogy became an influence for future films.
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|qid=Q1631789|id=tt0047444|title=Samurai I}} * {{IMDb title|qid=Q325621|id=tt0048579|title=Samurai II}} * {{IMDb title|qid=Q4407113|id=tt0049710|title=Samurai III}}
{{Samurai Trilogy}}
Category:Japanese film series Category:Jidaigeki films Category:1950s samurai films Category:1950s Japanese films Category:Films scored by Ikuma Dan
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