Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune stars as an unfocused ball of furious youthful energy in this first installment of the famed Samurai Trilogy. As Takezo, the adopted black sheep of a small feudal village, Mifune is wild, passionate and unfocused in his quest for adventure and respect. Seeking a romanticized status as samurai, he rushes off to join the losing side of a civil war, enticing his best friend to tag along in search of similar fame and fortune. What follows is a broad adventure across the landscapes of Japan, chance encounters with a colorful batch of faces, and an awful lot of unresolved plot threads.

As can be expected with the first act of any saga, there isn't much finality to be found here; it really seems as though we're only beginning to scratch the surface when the curtain drops, and that compete lack of closure left me feeling a touch jilted, justifiably or not. Later chapters have a wealth of storytelling riches to expand upon, though, with two rebellious youths beginning to come of age in vastly different ways, a fistful of foils closing in on each, an unresolved love triangle muddying the waters and a clear-cut destination on the horizon.

On its own, this is little more than an incomplete tease. In the context of a three-film arc, though, it's much more digestible as a rich, diverse pin-setter. I want more.