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Tsubaki Sanjûrô (1962) More at IMDbPro »

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38 comments in total

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22 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent - Superb - A Masterpiece, 30 September 1998

Author: Dan Marcus (zetawaves9@hotmail.com)

Akira Kurosawa is probably the best Director in the entire History of film-making. He has not been that prolific given the amount of time he has spent making films, but many of these have subsequently been remade - Seven Samurai became the magnificent seven. Yoijimbo (the prequel to this one) became A fistful of dollars - and more recently last man standing. The hidden Fortress became Star Wars. Sanjuro marked the return of Toshiro Mifune as the Sardonic Ronin from Yoijimbo. Yet again, the photography is excellent - the period costumes and buildings beautiful to look at even in black and white. From one of the first scenes, in the grounds outside the Shrine, Mifune shows a 500% improvement in the art of Kenjutso - he must have been practicing night and day! But it is the character of Sanjuro itself that makes the film so absorbing. He is on the surface, a dirty, disrespectful abrasive man - but his deeds portray him as a hero - someone who once was a shining example of a Samurai and despite being put through the ringer still holds to a deeply rooted code of honor. When this shows however, he is most anxious to cover it up again..... The film involves a power struggle within a small city in Japan between the old faction and the new power-hungry one. It deals with false perceptions and truth. Two of the tenets that are at the heart of Kurosawa's films. This is a Gem - rent it - if you can, Buy it!

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24 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Kurosowa goes into blockbuster mode!, 21 June 2002

Author: OttoVonB from Switzerland

That must be what this film was when it came out. Yet comparisons between it and Yojimbo (Sanjuro being the sequel) often get it a bit wrong and tend to regard Sanjuro as better. Yes and no. It's a bit like comparing Die Hard and Die Hard with Avengeance, the third film is bigger, funnier, faster... but the first installment is darker and more original. Same with these two: Kurosowa's Yojimbo is dark and has a message and some depth (more than Sanjuro), but Sanjuro is more fun and has a faster pace. It isn't Kurosowa's finest hour, but may be one of his best attempts at lightweight crowd-pleasing (though still bearing lots of quality!) and much closer to great Hollywood capers that inspired him (John Ford was his idol!). Mifune is on top form, yet again, as the reluctant nonchalant samurai/manipulator Sanjuro, and layers his performance with a subtly comical aspect. Probably the best film of Kurosowa's oeuvre to watch first if you've never seen any of his films with Mifune (it has a short running time [96min] and flows smoothly). See what I mean? Yeah you! Well then get moving: go out there and see what all the fuss is about!!!

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14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
One of Kurosawa's most polished movies, 23 May 2006

Author: aliaselias from Germany

Tsubaki Sanjuro is, unfortunately, not so widely seen abroad (= outside Japan) as Yojinbo, probably because it was not copied as a western. In Japan, however, Tsubaki Sanjuro is not less popular than Yojinbo. Not a few Japanese actually prefer the former to the latter, and it's easy to see why: It is stylistically more polished and smarter than Yojimbo and Mifune is 'cooler' as well - he shows a brilliant leadership and every Mifune fan would be really delighted to see how his young, naive disciples run after him like chicks following the mother duck.

And while Yojinbo's female main character, Orin, is an evil and crafty woman, Lady Mutsuta in Tsubaki Sanjuro is 'irritatingly light-hearted'. But she has a deep insight into Sanjuro's personality and understands him far better than his male disciples. An excellent character, and, in fact, she is the only person in Tsubaki Sanjuro AND Yojinbo to whom Sanjuro/Mifune speaks in a polite form (in Japanese).

Tsubaki Sanjuro is, so to speak, a 'concentrate' of Kurosawa's cinematography and one sees in it every aspect of his greatness in a very compact form. Therefore no one could remake this movie.

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17 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
it's by Kurosawa--what else do you want?, 17 October 1998

Author: Justin Ruiz (justin.t.ruiz@dartmouth.edu)

Sanjuro is another in a long line of purely classic films by Akira Kurosawa. This movie was made on a whim on the heels of the wildly successful Yojimbo, but Kurosawa doesn't simply whip out a movie to satisfy the audience; he creates another film masterpiece. This is a farcical comedy shot with the same brilliance as Ran--take a minute and notice how perfectly the image on the screen portrays what Kurosawa wants us to see. Nothing about this film is a mistake, something that he would want to do over. Watch this film!

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15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
The master in a lighter mode, 21 September 2000
Author: gcameron from Los Angeles

Sanjuro is not one of Kurosawa's great films, but it shows him relaxed and having fun, deconstructing the jidai-geki (samurai film) genre with tongue firmly in cheek.

The film lacks the meticulous visual style of Yojimbo, but it is very well photographed, with some extremely fluid cinematography and those effortlessly artful group compositions that only Kurosawa seems to be able to do. The plot is a little exposition-heavy, but it's always swift-moving and never comes close to taking itself seriously.

Watching Toshiro slice apart all those enemies in the various battle scenes with nary a bloodstain in sight, I did find myself wishing the folks at Toho had sprung for a few squibs. But all is set right in the brilliant final swordfight, which is worth the price of admission.

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21 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
Physchology of leadership, the senselessness of war, 27 August 2002
Author: David Krasik (krasik@brandeis.edu) from Boston, USA

Leadership. Sanjuro is able to lead men because he appears confident, and is confident. His presence subjugates men, as a man's presence subjugates boys. We see here how a group comes to have a leader. First one man stands out against him, the competitor for leadership, but Sanjuro's intuition and actions put him ahead. There is a beautiful marked difference between Sanjuro and the men. He is the lazy quiet tiger, seemingly passive yet containing an immense power - a tightly drawn bow. The men are barking puppies, energy spilling over, but to no good end.

Kurosawa presents a couple challenges to the viewer. THere is a terrible absurdity in the killing of all these men, for it becomes quiet clear with the symbol of the prisoner, that the average soldier is a frightened herd animal, not good or evil, but cowardly. Sanjuro recognizes this but has no choice, for he wants to live, and so must kill. Thus he must even kill the young men who he helps, when they foolishly come after him. The prisoner is won over by the old lady - so we see an almost christian ethic. In the tensions of the film one feels that the people, riled up by lies to fight for the enemy, quickly become targets of the just young men's swords - luckily it does not come to this, but one recognizes the horrible possibility and inevitability of such a struggle. Thus we are faced with a critic of war - men, scared like cattle battle under the flag of corrupt leaders, and those that may love them must kill them, if they are not to die by sword, or become slaves to tyrants.

"stupid friends are worse than enemies" For you know who your enemies are, and that they wish to destroy you.

In Sanjuro we also see the soldier, so long in battle that he is unable to live a normal life. He can not wear the house kimoto, he is to bound up in fighting - he is samuri, warrior, and he cannot escape this, much as Achilles cannot return home to Pthia. And we sense Sanjuro must whilt in the easy domestic life, for his is the road of struggle. The pleasant scent of the straw in the barn, the pretty camillias are still able to touch him, but he cannot enjoy them; he is a soldier, and therefore his sensitivities must yeild to the demands of war.

We see only one man worthy standing with Sanjuro, and that is the uncle, the chamberlain, the horseface. These to stand out as burning stars against a massive black sky - the rest is horrifying; the chaos of tyranical men and the fear crazed soldiers, their supplicants.

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Among the Most Entertaining of Kurosawa's or Mifune's Movies, 4 April 2005
Author: Snow Leopard from Ohio

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune combined their abilities in numerous fine movies, and while "Sanjuro", for its part, is lighter than most of the others, it is certainly one of the most entertaining of the movies that either of the two has made. Mifune gets a role that allows him to get many good moments, and it's also a role that he must have enjoyed playing.

The story is quite interesting, with many good turns and a way of keeping you guessing as to what will happen next. Mifune plays a samurai who takes it upon himself to try to save a rather hapless but nevertheless worthy clan from government conspiracy and from its own foolishness. It's a role that gives him both plenty of good lines and plenty of good action sequences. Kurosawa, of course, knows just how to get the most out of all of the material, and the story also provides some interesting psychological insights on the characters.

The settings are very good, and they are often used in creative ways in telling the story. Except for Mifune's character, most of the other characters are fairly one-dimensional, but they are believable, and they also allow plenty of room for Mifune to get the most out of each of his scenes. The result is a very enjoyable and well-crafted movie.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Funny Adventure, 15 September 2005

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In Japan circa Eighteenth Century, nine young men decide to present an accusation of corruption in their clan to the local superintendent. However, the group is betrayed, but the ronin Sanjûrô Tsubaki (Toshirô Mifune) saves them from the superintendent's men. The uncle of the leader of the rebel clansmen, the Chamberlain Mutsuta (Yûnosuke Itô), is kidnapped, and his wife and daughter are detained and made prisoner of the superintendent, and he tries to force Mutsuta to write a fake confession letter declaring being corrupt. Sanjûrô helps the group to rescue the Chamberlain and his family.

"Sanjûrô" is a funny adventure of master Akira Kurosawa. The story has great action scenes and jokes, excellent cinematography and performances, I like it but it is not among my favorite movies of Kurosawa. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Sanjuro"

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11 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
A fun movie, 24 November 2003
Author: Dr_Deadhorse from Happy, Happy Movieland

As a sequel to Yojimbo, it doesn't have quite the tense and biting satire as the first movie, but it's still entertaining fun as Mifune's character causes havoc and mayhem among the baddies.

The incessant stupidness of the young samurai did become a tiny tad bit grating after a while as they seemed incapable of learning ANYTHING new. And you could see Mifune's character constantly thinking to himself, "Geez, these dummies are DUMB!" as their stupidness would cause one problem after another.

I sure wish Kurosawa could have made 2 or 3 more movies with this particular character of Mifune's. Kurosawa used Mifune in other movies and Mifune did a fine job, but i like this character of Yojimbo/Sanjuro best of them all as the samurai character is so grungy and cranky all the time without the slightest touch of prettyboyness and always teaches the baddies the errors of their ways in a way they won't soon forget...

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Along with YOJIMBO, Kurosawa's greatest films, 19 July 2006

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

While most Western audiences are reasonably familiar with THE SEVEN SAMURAI and ROSHOMON, this is, in my opinion, the best work of director Akira Kurosawa. But, saying that this film itself is best isn't easy because this is actually a followup to the highly successful film, YOJIMBO that Kurosawa completed the year before. Together, they are just terrific and feature Toshiro Mifune as the amazingly skilled and clever wandering swordsman who is out to right wrongs and make the world a better place (much like the character "Zatoichi" in the long series of samurai films that debuted the same year SANJURO was released).

In this case, there is a corrupt local official and a very naive group of young and energetic but STUPID young men are about to expose his corruption to his boss--expecting the boss to act and restore justice. But, as Mifune is very clever and these guys are dumb but nice, he advises them NOT to go to the boss, as he, too, is probably part of the problem! They cannot accept that the boss is corrupt, but through Mifune's brilliant maneuvers, they realize the truth and assist him to restore peace and justice.

This movie is amazing because although there are some wonderful action scenes, the level of comedy is also pretty high and I loved the tongue-in-cheek aspects of the film. Plus, the ending is one of the strangest yet coolest in film history. You just have to see it to believe it!

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