SANSHIRO SUGATA Movie Review

Akira Kurosawa's assured and entertaining 1943 debut film as a director—based on a popular story about the rivalry between judo and jujitsu—chronicles an eager young student's education and training at the hands of a martial arts master. Kurosawa was 33 when he made Sanshiro Sugata, and since it was made during World War II, he wasn't allowed to tackle any story that contained big, possibly controversial moral issues (which would be the only type of film he would make after the war). Nevertheless, the action sequences that Kurosawa has staged here are stunningly controlled, and the very human, personal relationship between the young student Sugata and his sensei is both charming and affecting. A simultaneously funny and poignant sequence in which Sugata clings tenuously to a post protruding from a pond while all the teachings of his sensei come together in his head is one the most memorable and moving scenes in all of Kurosawa's films. (The picture was such a hit that Kurosawa was talked into doing a sequel the following year, but Sanshiro Sugata Part Two was a disaster for a number of reasons, and has been happily forgotten.)

NEXT STOP … Stray Dog, Sanjuro, A Touch of Zen

1943 82m/B JP Denjiro Okochi, Yukiko Todoroki, Ranko Hanai, Ryonosuke Tsukigata, Sugisaku Aoyama, Kokuten Kodo, Susumo Fusuita, Takashi Shimura; D: Akira Kurosawa. VHS HMV, FCT, COL