lifestyle WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2016 MUSIC & MOVIES Hollywood honors Japanese samurai actor Toshiro Mifune ollywood celebrated the life of legendary Japanese Co. in 1946 after serving six years in an Imperial Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune on Monday, honoring him with Army aerial photography unit during World War II. He Ha star on its iconic Walk of Fame two decades after appeared in around 170 feature films, including such for- his death. Mifune rose to stardom through Akira eign productions as Terence Young’s “Red Sun” (1972) and Kurosawa’s classics, including “Rashomon” (1950) and Steven Spielberg’s “1941” (1979). He also starred in the “Seven Samurai” (1954), with masculine portrayals of pow- 1980 popular US television mini-series “Shogun,” based on erful warlords that earned him a reputation as the world’s James Clavell’s bestselling book. Mifune’s last role on the best samurai actor. He died in Tokyo at that age of 77 in silver screen was in “Fukai Kawa (Deep River)” in 1995, in 1997. He had been mostly confined to his home since suf- which he portrayed a man tortured to the last moment of fering a heart attack five years earlier. His death shocked his life by his experience eating one of his comrades dur- Japan’s cinema industry, which took pride in him as its ing war. most presentable actor in international cinema, fondly call- He left assets of 630 million yen (then $5.4 million), ing him “Mifune of the world.” according to local tax officials. “My grandfather passed Kurosawa cast Mifune in leading roles in all but one of away when I was nine so the memories I have of him are 17 films he made between 1948 and 1965. “Rashomon,” in mainly as a grandfather figure, but I remember him as a which Mifune played a cynical bandit, won the Grand Prix gentleman at home,” said his grandson, the actor Rikiya award at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. Mifune played a Mifune. “He would talk in a gruff and manly manner and peasant-turned samurai leading farmers’ resistance always have perfect posture, like a true samurai, even at Rikiya Mifune, grandson of Toshiro Mifune with father Rikiya Mifune, grandson of Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune against bandits in “Seven Samurai,” which inspired two home.” His life is the subject of documentary “Mifune: The Shiro Mifune attends the posthumous star ceremony for attends the posthumous star ceremony for Toshiro Western remakes, both titled “The Magnificent Seven” Last Samurai,” screened at the American Film Institute’s AFI Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune in Hollywood. — AFP Mifune. (1960 and 2016). Fest this year. It is set to be released in US theaters on Born in Qingdao, China, on April 1, 1920, to a photo- December 2. — AFP graphic studio owner, Mifune joined film company Toho Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson named ‘sexiest man alive’ by People hatever Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is cook- ing these days is piping hot. Or so says People Wmagazine, which yesterday named the wrestler-turned-actor this year’s “sexiest man alive.” Johnson, 44, whose famous catch phrase in the ring is, “Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?”, said learning about his new title put him in a quandary. “What went through my mind was just how cool and exciting it is,” Johnson told People. “And then I thought, ‘Wow, we’ve pretty much reached the pinnacle.’ I’m not quite too This image released by STX Films shows Hailee Steinfeld, left, and Woody Harrelson in a Kelly Fremon Craig, second from right, writer/director of ‘Edge of Seventeen,’ poses with sure where we go from here.” Johnson rose to main- scene from ‘The Edge of Seventeen.’ — AP photos cast members, from left, Blake Jenner, Hailee Steinfeld and Kyra Sedgwick at a special stream fame in the mid-1990s as a contender with screening of the film at the Regal LA LIVE theaters in Los Angeles. World Wrestling Entertainment Inc and later became an actor and Hollywood producer. Johnson, who stands 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 meters) Review and weighs 245 pounds (111 kg), is known for his her- culean appearance. In fact, he played the mythological character in the 2014 feature film “Hercules.” In his latest project, the actor is featured in the upcoming Disney Steinfeld’s angst shines in ‘The Edge of Seventeen’ animated film “Moana” as the voice of demigod Maui. “I’ve made big sweeping changes in my career over the years, which have served me nicely,” he said. “But I feel hen’s the last time you saw a truly fresh talent on sionally blue and perpetually aggrieved young woman who age. Sure, she can throw down with her mom, her brother, her that the big sweeping changes that happened in my screen? Someone so charismatic that you couldn’t exists on the peripheries of the high school ecosystem. It’s teacher and her friend, but at a party with peers, she slinks out life, in my relationships, of being a dad, of being a part- Wwait to find out who they are, what they’ve done been this way since childhood for her, and hasn’t been helped to the porch alone where another loner likens her to the ner, and the things that I was and the things that I am, before and why you’ve never noticed? That’s what it feels like by the fact that her brother Darian (Blake Jenner) is at the top Danny DeVito in “Twins.” has really lent itself to a confidence.” to watch Hayden Szeto as the sweetly dorky love interest to of the social ladder. He’s handsome and popular and good at Steinfeld carries the movie effortlessly, walking that fine Johnson has an 11-month old daughter, Jasmine, Hailee Steinfeld’s lead in “The Edge of Seventeen ,” a charming- sports and would probably be real annoying if it weren’t for line of making a somewhat bratty, entitled and self- with his longtime girlfriend Lauren Hashian, and a 15- ly sardonic coming-of-age story from the promising writer- the fact that he’s also a decent, kind person who seems to absorbed character endearing, funny and even empathetic. year-old daughter with ex-wife, producer Dany Garcia. director Kelly Fremon Craig in her feature debut. There are have his head on straight. But he’s the bane of Nadine’s exis- Her comedic timing is first-rate and reminiscent of Emma The entertainer recently said he was poised to make other reasons to go see “The Edge of Seventeen,” of course. tence, and just a consistent reminder how other she is. It cer- Stone’s star-turn in “Easy A” just a few years ago. Sure, some another major change and eventually trade in show Szeto, a relative newcomer, is just one of them. tainly doesn’t help when her best friend Krista (Haley Lu of it is cliche, and Nadine’s troubled relationship with her business to enter the political ring. “The Fast and the He actually has a fairly small part. But it’s the kind of intro- Richardson) takes up with her brother, but that pivotal widowed mother (Kyra Sedgwick) is underdrawn for the Furious” franchise star told Reuters that the excitement duction to a should-be star that’s not to be missed. Also, that moment does send her into a story-propelling spiral of action, amount of emotional depth the movie seems to be wanting surrounding last week’s presidential election had the small “love interest” role had such an impact is a testament screw-ups and self-discovery. the audience to glean from it. Perhaps it should have stayed renewed public interest in his running for office. to the care with which this movie was put together. From the lighter. But “The Edge of Seventeen” also has enough good “Especially now, leadership is so important,” Johnson first shot of a grungy maroon sedan door splattered with mud Reasonable job that it might just become a new classic in the high school said. “Great leadership is so important; respected lead- screeching to a halt outside of a high school where our hero- There is, of course, the perpetual problem in the comedy genre. “The Edge of Seventeen,” a STX ership is so important.”— Reuters ine Nadine (Steinfeld) informs her teacher (a terrific Woody Hollywood treatment of high school outcast stories whereby Entertainment release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Harrelson) that she plans to kill herself, it’s clear that this is no we’re asked to believe that beautiful movie stars are capable Association of America for “sexual content, language and sanitized high school nostalgia trip. It’s a movie with a bite of being invisible, but “The Edge of Seventeen” even does a some drinking - all involving teens.” Running time: 104 min- and one for the people who would never actually want to go reasonable job making us buy into Nadine’s apartness. She utes. Three stars out of four. — AP back to that part of life. had some unfortunate skin and haircuts when she was Nadine (Steinfeld) is a sarcastic, often inappropriate, occa- younger and never quite got comfortable with kids her own DuVernay’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ gets Spring 2018 release date isney has set Ava DuVernay’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Mindy “A Wrinkle in Time” for Kaling. Jennifer Lee, who wrote and Ava DuVernay Drelease on April 6, 2018. co-directed “Frozen” with Chris Buck, DuVernay made the announcement is penning the adaptation of on her Twitter account with the Madeleine L’Engle’s book for Disney.