It would be really cool to have, uh, an “artistic partnership” with someone akin to what Kurosawa and Mifune had. They made 16 god darn movies together and they’re brilliant. It was Akira Kurosawa, who was a genius, writing and directing for Toshiro Mifune, who was a different kind of genius. Mifune was how Kurosawa said stuff to us. Mifune delivered Kurosawa the best.

Kurosawa and Mifune later had a falling out over ‘Red Beard,’ and Kurosawa was hesitant to use Mifune in anything after that because he had gone on to star in “lesser” films / TV shows . . . and I guess Kurosawa could never wrap his head around that. Why would Mifune want to be in bad things and not good things? is what he asked himself, I reckon. That is, I reckon also, a question you would ask if you were A True Artist????

(Mifune, of course, made stuff because he Had Bills To Pay, and God bless him for that. He later said the only thing he was proud of was the work he did with Kurosawa, and God bless his little heart for that too.)