Life of an Expert Swordsman

Life of an Expert Swordsman (Japanese: 或る剣豪の生涯, Hepburn: Aru kengo no shōgai) is a 1959 samurai film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshiro Mifune. Its story is an adaptation of the 1897 Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac. The film was released in the English-speaking world with the title Samurai Saga.

For the 1963 film, see Bushido, Samurai Saga.
Life of an Expert Swordsman
Directed byHiroshi Inagaki
Produced byTomoyuki Tanaka
Written byHiroshi Inagaki
Edmond Rostand (play)
Based onCyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
StarringToshiro Mifune
Music byAkira Ifukube
Release date
  • 1959 (1959)
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

In the film, Mifune plays a samurai named Heihachiro Komaki, who is analogous to the Cyrano character. Yoko 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, he mentions the defeat of Kojirō Sasaki in a duel by the famed samurai Musashi Miyamoto. Prior to filming Life of an Expert Swordsman, Mifune had played Miyamoto in Samurai Trilogy, also directed by Inagaki, which chronicled Miyamoto's life, culminating in his legendary duel with Sasaki.

  • Samurai Saga at IMDb
  • "Life of an Expert Swordsman". CinemaScape (in Japanese).


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