After the movie's completion, director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen made the following statement: "As one of the DOGME 95 brethren and co-signatory of the Vow of Chastity, I feel moved to confess to the following transgressions of the aforesaid Vow during the production of Dogme 3 - Mifune. Please note that the film has been approved as a Dogme work, as only one genuine breach of the rules has actually taken place. The rest may be regarded as moral breaches: (1) I confess to having made one take with a black drape covering a window. This is not only the addition of a property, but must also be regarded as a kind of lighting arrangement. (2) I confess to moving furniture and fittings around the house. (3) I confess to having taken with me a number of albums of my favorite comic book series as a youth, Linda & Valentin (Valérian and Laureline). (4) I confess to helping to chase the neighbor's free-range hens across our location and including them in the film. (5) I confess that I brought a photographic image from an old lady from the area and hung it in a prominent position in one scene: not as part of the plot, but more as a selfish, spontaneous, pleasurable whim. (6) I confess to borrowing a hydraulic platform from a painter, which we used for the only two bird's-eye overview shots in the film.
(7) I do solemnly declare that in my presence the remainder of Dogme 3 - Mifune was produced in accordance with the vow of chastity. (8) I also point out that the film has been approved by DOGME 95 as a Dogme film, as in real terms no more than a single breach of the rules has been committed. The rest may be regarded as moral transgressions."
This is the third film to be made according to the Dogme 95 rules.
The title of the film is a reference to recently deceased Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997), prolific Japanese film actor whose roles included that of Kikuchiyo, one of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Mifune's look and demeanor is imitated by Kirsten in a terrifying and/or delighting entertainment for his brother Rud. It also refers to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's poem "Sidste Sang" (1870), in English a.k.a "Good Cheer". The poem describes a fight between a horse and a tiger; the tiger representing the dangerous city and the horse the safe countryside.
Lolland is the fourth largest island of Denmark. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of Region Sjaelland (Region Zealand). As of 1 January 2013, it has 62,578 inhabitants. Historically, sugar beet has been grown in Lolland. Sugar is still a major industry, visible from the large number of sugar beet fields.
The film was a great success in Denmark and an international blockbuster, ranked among the ten best-selling Danish films worldwide.