SANJURO Movie Review

Tsubaki Sanjuro

In Akira Kurosawa's witty, jaunty, satiric sequel to his samurai classic Yojimbo, a talented but lazy samurai (Toshiro Mifune) comes to the aid of a well-meaning group of naive, bumbling young would-be warriors. Much more of a lark than the director's previous, darkly cynical samurai epics (particularly the pitch-black, hilariously bitter Yojimbo), Sanjuro nevertheless packs its share of surprises, most notably an unexpected, perfectly timed, outrageously exaggerated gusher of blood signaling the spectacular demise of a key villain. The image is a signature Kurosawa moment—a warning against becoming too complacent or letting our guard down too completely, even in a comic adventure as light as this one. As with the dog carrying the severed hand in Yojimbo, Sanjuro’s climactic red gusher ups the ante of movie violence, and would not go unnoticed by such upcoming filmmakers as Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, Robert Altman, and Brian de Palma. With Takashi Shimura and Tatsuya Nakadai, and a score by Yojimbo’s Masaru Sato.

NEXT STOP … The Hidden Fortress, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Little Big Man

1962 96m/B JP Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai; D: Akira Kurosawa. VHS,LV NOS, HHT, HEG