Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
Toshirō Mifune
Sanjûrô Tsubaki / The ronin
Tatsuya Nakadai
Hanbei Muroto
Keiju Kobayashi
The Spy
Yūzō Kayama
Iori Izaka
Reiko Dan
Chidori, Mutsuta's daughter
Takashi Shimura
Kurofuji
Kamatari Fujiwara
Takebayashi
Takako Irie
Mutsuta's wife
Masao Shimizu
Kikui
Yūnosuke Itō
Mutsuta, the Chamberlain
Akira Kubo
Samurai
Hiroshi Tachikawa
Samurai
Yoshio Tsuchiya
Samurai
Kunie Tanaka
Samurai
Tatsuyoshi Ehara
Samurai
Akihiko Hirata
Samurai
Toranosuke Ogawa
Sachio Sakai
Samurai
Kenzô Matsui
Samurai
Toshiko Higuchi
Maid Koyso
Tatsuhiko Namisato
Samurai
Yutaka Sada
Murota samurai
Gen Shimizu
Shin Ōtomo
Shōichi Hirose
Minoru Itō
Kōji Uruki
Hiroyoshi Yamaguchi
Fuminori Ōhashi
Director, Screenplay
Akira Kurosawa
Novel
Shūgorō Yamamoto
Screenplay
Hideo Oguni
Screenplay
Ryūzō Kikushima
August 14, 2023
7
This is a superb adventure story with Toshirô Mifune reprising his role from "Yojimbo" as the wandering samurai warrior. This time he arrives in a village facing some local corruption. The "Chamberlain" has been framed by the superintendent of a clan, who tries to secure his tenuous position by killing off any detractors. "Sanjûrô" decides to help protect them, and is soon drawn into the battle that requires all of his skills and know-how (of course, they are completely outnumbered). The plot interveaves a story of local politics nicely with a lust for power, and a coming of age for many of the locals who are in awe of their warrior leader. Takako Irie is quite interesting as the wife of the arrested Chamberlain; she looks every inch the prim and proper Japanese wife, but is frequently (and to Mifune's chagrin, on occasion) the character delivering some quite insightful and learned comment; she seems to have the measure of the Samurai! I found Mifune's performance to be engaging and charming - he deals with his men as a teacher might his pupils, sometimes with humour, other times with discipline - but always with care; and that speaks more to the way Kurosawa develops the characterisations - with integrity and class. It's still got it's fair share of action and there are loads of sword-fights to keep the plot moving along until it all comes to an head. It's odd that almost 60 years later, this has never been given the Hollywood treatment - perhaps that's a good thing?
Status:
Released
Original Language:
Japanese
Budget:
$0.00
Revenue:
$0.00