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When an actor appears in many films of a particular director it becomes a sort of short-hand subject to define either’s work. Sometimes it feels as if one influenced the other, or vice versa, but these collaborations end up becoming a large portion of the public’s knowledge about their prowess. One of the most emblematic of those collaborations is the Akira Kurosawa-Toshiro Mifune combo, maybe only rivaled by John Ford and John Wayne—probably not a coincidence.

But what lies beyond the confines of those classic Kurosawas? The Film Forum retrospective, now underway through March 10 and co-presented by Japan Foundation, brings 33 films showcasing the wide acting range of Toshiro Mifune. While it does contain the now-classic collaborations, it gives an opportunity to look beyond. Below, five of the least-known films from their series.

Snow Trail (Senkichi Taniguchi), 1947)

Toshiro Mifune’s first film has him top-billed alongside Takashi Nimura,...

Yasuzo Masumura takes horror into kinky territory in an Edogawa Ranpo shocker about obsession, namely, mixing sex and death. Michio is the tactile-fixated blind sculptor who imprisons model Aki to serve as an ultimate objectified ‘body’ — but she eventually joins him, taking the lead on a delirious suicidal journey of discovery. Probably once considered pornographic, the 1969 show is fairly tame by today’s Nc-17 standards, and not as radically violent or abhorrent as one might expect — but it’s still loaded with weird, Dangerous Ideas. The sets are not to be believed — the unhinged artist lives in a surreal workspace surrounded by hundreds of oversized sculptures of body parts.

The Blind Beast (Moju)

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date August 24, 2021 / Moju; Warehouse / 39.95

Starring: Eiji Funakoshi, Mako Midori, Noriko Sengoku.

Cinematography: Setsuo Kobayashi

Art Director: Shigeo Muno

Original Music: Hikaru Hayashi

Written by Yoshio Shirasaka from a novel...