Roedy Green This movie is in a class by itself. It is it by turns funny and frighteningly violent.It reminded me a bit of Gilbert Grape, since it is a about a man who lovingly cares for his retarded younger brother. The retarded brother Rud looks a bit like a troll. He is repulsive at first and gradually he grows on you as you realise he is not dangerous.The pace in very slow, like a Sunday afternoon picnic in the Danish countryside.Counterposed to this is the frantic life of a prostitute trying to get away from her perverted and violent clients, and the way the hookers band together for mutual protection.One of the charming themes is the way Rud wins over the obnoxious younger brother of the prostitute, and in a way tames him.The title Mifune comes from a game the brothers play, with the older one pretending to be a terrifying samurai who lives in the basement.The pace can be maddenly slow, somewhat like the Unbearable Lightness of Being, with nothing much happening, just like real life, then POUNCE some momentous event lands out of the blue.

starvin4megravy Terrific acting and mesmerising locations make this an easy movie to love. Denmark's hazy, almost dreamy summer light lends a touch of magic to this tale of a prodigal son's enforced return.The main characters are exquisitely drawn. Berthelsen plays newlywed Copenhagen yuppie Kresten, who has denied the very existence of his family in far-off (or so he thought) Lolland. Rud, his retarded brother, is brought to us with great sensitivity and charm in a show-stealing performance by Jesper Asholt. Iben Hjejle sparkles as Liva, a city prostitute with steadily mounting problems, many of which can be traced directly to her brattish younger brother Bjarke, for whom she seems to have assumed parental responsibility.Before long (and to nobody's great surprise), we see these two pairs of siblings brought crashing together by life's twists and turns. Kresten is summoned back to Lolland in the middle of his honeymoon by news of his father's death. He soon sees that Rud is incapable of looking after himself and is forced to stay on temporarily in Lolland. His advertisement for a housekeeper attracts Liva's attention just as she finally wears out her welcome in Copenhagen. Bjarke lasts about five minutes in the big city without her, and soon follows her to Lolland.The interplay between these makeshift cohabitees is wonderful, particularly Rud's relationships with Kresten and Bjarke. Endless summer evenings spent in Lolland's rural idyll with these four for company will soon have you believing in crop circles and cellar-dwelling samurai heroes.On the back of some audacious tricks to get us this far, Kragh-Jacobsen delivers a transcendent hour or so in the middle of this film that reminds me of just why I love the cinema so much. Having created this beautiful, shimmering landscape (both emotional and physical), and reminded us that love for your family - and perhaps, in a special way, your siblings - is its own reward, the movie finds it has nowhere particular left to go. There are supporting characters - some of them reasonably well-formed, others not - but once our quartet is established and the relationships between them start to blossom, any involvement from outsiders is unwelcome, unfulfilling and only likely to bring trouble.It's no spoiler, for I mean it purely in structural terms, when I say that we are brought to a bumpy and unsatisfying ending to this ride through the lives of four people we soon grow to care a great deal about.For me, though, despite its shortcomings, Mifune was a beautiful movie that I'm sure I'll watch again, many times.

Edu-16 ...and I suppose so did I - a little.The first thing to say is that Mifune is not a comedy. Maybe it hits the Scandinavian funny bone, but if you are from just about any where else, you wont be amused by this one.....at all. (A criticism of the billing as much as anything.)The acting is by and large v. good - especially the female lead. (It was with great relief that I found out from a fellow reviewer that I had seen her before - in High Fidelity. This had been bugging me something rotten......I really must pay more attention to the credits). Anyway - she is going to big one day. (Maybe the retarded Rud was a tad OTT - verging on Benny Hill at times...and not just because he looked like him)The story has been told before - but perhaps not with as much honesty. (I suspect that honesty is probably at the core of the Dogma film making principles.) It makes for an uncomfortable watch at times - visually and character-wise. The two brothers are particularly nasty pieces of work. One gets redeemed somewhat - the other appears to get away with it.... I guess they both nicely contrast their respective siblings. There are plot issues - a constant nag of mine. I often wonder if there is ever a stage in the film making process when a bunch of people review the whole thing end to end for plot consistencies. For obvious reasons this should happen 'after' the editing process. The evidence is that if it does occur - it happens before anyone actually starts making the damn thing.But I can forgive Mifune for any discrepancies since it doesnt claim to be a 'plotty' movie - it's strength lies in the growth of the characters through interaction with each other and with their new environment.Strange but not bad.

jacksflicks Despite the Dogme trappings, there is a story here. It is about lying and its consequences.Kresten, a young go-go company man is marrying the boss's daughter, but hides, then fabricates his country past. He doesn't get away with it for long and ends up shamed and divorced. Likewise, a young prostitute, Liva, tries to flee her surroundings, but they follow her and in the end visit - literally - wrath on her new home.The only spiritually pure character, content in his surroundings, too innocent of wit to lie, is Kresten's retarded brother Rud. It seems that everything he says, no matter how far-fetched, turns out to be true. He is also the teacher of kindness who, since he is inarticulate, can only teach by example.Actually, I think the most unambiguously satisfying relationship here is between Rud and Liva's beastly little brother Bjarke. It is Bjarke who can't handle the truth about himself and his sister. Quickly, the stereotypes he has learned to brutalize in the social Darwinian hell of boarding school confront him with their humanity and teach him that life doesn't have to be the daily exercise in cynicism that he and his sister suppose.There is atonement for all three, visited in different forms, but ultimately redeeming and providing a hopeful ending to the story.Unfortunately, there are a few problems in Mifune which marred my viewing. A major one is the text, which is badly abused in translation to English. For some reason, the translator has seen fit to turn words which in Danish mean "damn" or "hell" into "f**k". Perhaps he or she thought it would give the dialog more impact. He or she was wrong. Another problem is the unresolved and perhaps unnecessary character of the ugly and despicable Gerner, whose purpose I'm not exactly sure of, other than as a kind of agent of punishment - perhaps a devil - descending on the hapless Kresten. In any case, we need at least to know more about him, or perhaps even have him whacked or otherwise disposed of for dramatic purposes.Anyway, as with most European movies, "Mifune" is more about character than story. I strongly recommend that you meet Kresten, Rud, Liva and Bjarke. I think you'll like them in the end.