Not many movie stars merit their own documentary. Of course not many movie stars — all right, not any movie stars — have been like Toshiro Mifune. He was “the Wolf,” as much force of nature as actor. Sixty-nine years after his film debut, and 19 since his death, Mifune remains the most famous Japanese movie star.
The documentary, “Mifune: The Last Samurai,” opens Friday.
Over nearly half a century, Mifune appeared in more than 150 films. Akira Kurosawa directed 16 of them. One of the epic director-actor collaborations, that body of work dominates Mifune’s career — the way, say, that John Wayne’s films with John Ford dominate the Duke’s — but it doesn’t define the career. The greatest film Mifune appeared in, for example, Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” (1954), is by no means his greatest performance.
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So this list of a dozen Mifune roles has several familiar Kurosawa titles, some less-familiar ones, and a few with other directors.
Drunken Angel (1948) In Mifune’s fourth film, and first with Kurosawa, he plays a tubercular gangster in postwar Tokyo. It’s also Mifune’s second time playing alongside Kurosawa’s other favorite actor, Takashi Shimura, who would play the samurai leader in “Seven Samurai.”
Rashomon (1950) The breakout film in Europe and America for Mifune, Kurosawa, and Japanese cinema. Mifune plays a bandit in medieval Japan. As only the greatest stars can do, he seems to step outside of time.
I Live in Fear (1956) Easily, Mifune’s least-characteristic role: an aged businessman whose obsession with nuclear war makes him seem crazy. Or is it society that’s crazy?
Throne of Blood (1957) As the Macbeth equivalent in Kurosawa’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Mifune suffers one of the most spectacular deaths in movie history. He ends up a human pincushion, wearing a very different kind of arrow shirt.
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Samurai Saga (1959) Again Mifune’s role comes from a famous European play, Edmond Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac.” In a nice meta-twist, his character mentions the one Mifune plays in “Samurai Trilogy” (1954-’56). “Saga” and Trilogy” have the same director, Hiroshi Inagaki.
Yojimbo (1961) The ultimate Mifune role? A 19th-century samurai single-handedly wipes out a pair of gangs in a dusty town. His comic swagger is both larger than life and pitch perfect. The character inspired Clint Eastwood’s Man Without a Name.
High and Low (1963) Mifune plays a modern-day business executive who runs afoul of a kidnapping. The kidnapper doesn’t realize what he’s let himself in for. The ransom handoff is one of the all-time pulse-pounding movie train sequences.
Red Beard (1965) Mifune didn’t need to play a man of action — a samurai or soldier or gangster — to convey forcefulness. His 19th-century doctor dominates through force of personality.
Grand Prix (1966) Mifune’s debut in an English-language film. As a Japanese industrialist trying to get his team in gear on the Formula One circuit, he gives disgraced racer James Garner a second chance. Note the suave mustache.
Hell in the Pacific (1968) Both Mifune, an aviation instructor, and costar Lee Marvin, a Marine, served in World War II. That background lends an added dimension to John Boorman’s tale of two enemies marooned on an island during wartime.
1941 (1979) Mifune, as a Japanese submarine commander, has only a small role in Steven Spielberg’s comedy and no scene with John Belushi, as a US aviator. But having the film samurai of samurais and the “Saturday Night Live” samurai just sharing a movie is as it should be.
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Shogun (1980) Mifune’s Lord Toranaga becomes military governor, or shogun, in 17th-century Japan, with the help of Richard Chamberlain’s John Blackthorne. This NBC miniseries, a ratings smash, brought Mifune an Emmy nomination — and more viewers than in any other role.
Mark Feeney can be reached at mfeeney@globe.com.