Life of an Expert Swordsman

Life of an Expert Swordsman
Directed by	Hiroshi Inagaki
Based on	Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Starring	Toshirô Mifune
Release date(s)	1959 (1959)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Life of an Expert Swordsman (Japanese: Aru kengo no shogai 或る剣豪の生涯) is a 1959 samurai film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshirô Mifune. Its story is an adaptation of the Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac, and its basic plot faithfully follows that of the play. The film was released in the English-speaking world with the title Samurai Saga.

In the film, Mifune plays a samurai named Heihachiro Komaki, who is analogous to the Cyrano de Bergerac character. Yôko Tsukasa plays Komaki's love interest, Princess Chiyo, who is analogous to Cyrano's love interest, Roxane.

At the end of the film, when the mortally wounded Komaki visits Princess Chiyo at her convent to bring her the latest news of the outside world, one of the news items he mentions is the defeat of Kojirō Sasaki in a duel by the famed samurai Musashi Miyamoto. Prior to filming Life of an Expert Swordsman, Mifune had in fact played Miyamoto in a film trilogy, also directed by Inagaki, which chronicled Miyamoto's life, culminating in his legendary duel with Sasaki.

External links

• Samurai Saga at the Internet Movie Database