Snow Trail (1947), the true beginning of Kurosawa?

Kurosawa didn’t direct this, but did script and edit it. It stars Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune as a pair of bank robbers on the run in a treacherous mountain pass. The old village headman from Seven Samurai also appears in the film. It feels more like a Kurosawa film than the actual film he directed in 1947, One Wonderful Sunday. It’s currently available for viewing on YouTube. Check it out, I think you’ll enjoy it.

I bought the Snow Trail DVD from one of the Japanese companies that sells rarities a few years ago. I have never made the time to watch it, perhaps now is the time.

Thanks for the recommendation, I hadn’t heard of that film, or the director. I just watched the first few minutes on YT – even the very first scene is beautifully shot and blocked. As soon as I have time I’ll watch it.

Apparently, Mifune made 13 films with Senkichi Taniguci. By contrast, he made 10 with Kihachi Okamoto,, 16 with Kurosawa and 20(!) with Hiroshi Inagaki.

Interesting tidbit from Wikipedia about Taniguchi and Mifune:

“Among Mifune’s fellow performers, one of the 32 women chosen during the new faces contest was Sachiko Yoshimine. Eight years Mifune’s junior, she came from a respected Tokyo family. They fell in love and Mifune soon proposed marriage.

Director Senkichi Taniguchi, with the help of Akira Kurosawa, convinced the Yoshimine family to allow the marriage. The wedding took place in February 1950 at the Aoyama Gakuin Methodist Church. Yoshimine was a Buddhist but since Mifune was a Christian, they were married in church as per Christian tradition.”

I also have the DVD from somewhere. It’s Mifune’s debut film. Do I actually remember correctly that Mifune’s very first appearance on the silver screen is his bare buttocks at the baths? Or did I just dream that?

Naked asses or not, it’s a really good film. I should watch it again.

There were bare buttocks in the film, but (if I remember correctly) it was an ancillary background character, not Mifune. He did have the thong underwear in one scene.

Another thing that struck me is the strong American Western and Noir influences coming through for the first time in Kurosawa’s work. The use of “My Old Kentucky Home” and “O Susannah!”, and a line about how “people have the same feelings all over the world” are rather telling about what was influencing him and would lead to his Golden Age. Indeed, this film could easily be remade an American Western or a noir thriller. I’m surprised this one has never been remade in the West… or maybe it already was made, but before? It seemed rather reminiscent of Raoul Walsh’s “High Sierra” (1941), which was scripted by John Huston, as this movie was scrpted by Kurosawa. Another parallel with Kurosawa/Mifune is that High Sierra was the film that made Bogart a leading man, and gave Huston a chance to direct, often using Bogart.

To resolve the buttocks discussion, this is the scene: https://www.tumblr.com/ssanityassassin/802696129755103232?source=share
sorry I couldn’t find a higher res version.

I discovered this movie six months ago, without having in mind that it had been written by Kurosawa.
Throughout the viewing, his touch was not striking to me, but… I noted that there was some sort of interesting or strong point about solidarity among mountaineers.
And… solidarity (feelings/efforts people have and do toward others or the group) is something that I almost always see in Kurosawa’s films.

I am not sure whether there is a bluray of this film, but there is a 1080 p. edition from Criterion / Janus.

And in his first appearance, Toshiro is clothed, then, a few moments after, he is only wearing short pants, as he is observed by two peeping toms, detective wannabes.
clothes on
clothes off

I didn’t have an investigation into the state of Toshiro Mifune’s undergarments on my 2026 Bingo card. LOL.