I was just flipping through channels on TV last night and ran into “Hell in the Pacific.” I thought I’d watch just a few minutes, but I got sucked into it and watched the whole thing. It’s a weird movie. There are really only two characters in it. Toshiro Mifune (widely regarded as the best Japanese film actor ever) was in it, and only spoke Japanese. His counterpart was played by Lee Marvin, who only spoke English. Can you think of any other film with only two characters who speak different languages throughout?
Mifune was such an incredibly amazing actor. You may know he was Akira Kurasawa’s main actor, and he made – according to IMDB – 181 films. He appeared in such classics as “The Hidden Fortress” and “Yojimbo” and “The Seven Samurai.”
hi todd… just stumbled on your blog… excellent…
ghost dog: way of the samurai
forest whitaker plays ghost dog, he’s the main character. he has a good buddy who only speaks french. they don’t understand each other, however we understand them as we have the power of subtitles on our side.
a nicely wrought film with a slow and steady pace.
i’ve never been to casa bonita either…. sounds like a great one to bring the kids too as well
🙂
Hmm, I haven’t seen that one. And “Hell in the Pacific” didn’t have subtitles for the Japanese, so you gotta get all of Mifune through his acting (unless you understand Japanese, of course).
What a coincidence that you commented on this, when I just watched another Lee Marvin anti-war movie last night, “The Dirty Dozen.”