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Plot Summary
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Akira Kurosawas tightly paced, beautifully composed Sanjuro. In this sly companion piece to Yojimbo, jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clans evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear. Less brazen in tone than its predecessor but equally entertaining, this classic characters return is a masterpiece in its own right.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
100%- Reviews Counted: 21
- Fresh: 21
- Rotten: 0
- Average Rating: 8.4/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: A surprising, fetching, beautifully made film that fitly propounds the lesson of his own professionalism: 'Never send a boy to do a man's work.'
Fresh: The charm of this fascinating Toho production, stylishly directed by Akira Kurosawa, is the personality of the hero, powerfully played by Toshiro Mifune.
Fresh: This is fun but, compared with Kurosawa's other 60s efforts, relatively slight.
Fresh: Satirical Samurai action of the highest order.
Customer Reviews
"He was exactly like me. A naked sword. He didn't stay in his sheath."- Sanjuro
This is one of those movies that manages to attain the same thunder as the original. This movie provided a comedic edge that was not apparent in Yojimbo, which makes this a different movie. Toshiro Mifune was again great in this movie. The story was also great. I highly recommend this movie and Yojimbo. Check them both out.
Why are these movies so good?
Answer this question and tell Hollywood please.
The source for a lot of hollywood's remakes. Beyond expectation .
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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