Sanjuro Is Both A Sequel To Yojimbo And Yet Another Excellent Akira Kurosawa Movie

Sanjuro marks my sixth foray in the filmography of Akira Kurosawa and each time I view a movie by this guy, it really is an awesome experience. Kurosawa just shows so much skill as a filmmaker, with such great command of his craft, it's just a joy to spend a few hours immersed in something he created. Sanjuro is yet another great example of the kind of high-quality cinema Kurosawa so frequently dabbled in. This feature serves as a sequel to an earlier Kurosawa work Yojimbo, with Sanjuro, like its predecessor, featuring Toshiruo Mifune in a lead role as a heavily experienced samurai. Those expecting simply a retread of Yojimbo, though, will be elated to know there's plenty going on here in Sanjuro to give it its own identity.


A cool breeze dances across the nighttime landscape as nine men, huddled in a small building, discuss how they can stop the evil rulers that have taken over their village and make the various residents live in a constant state of fear. They feel they might finally have a chance to take down their adversaries with the help of the local superintendent...but a man, emerging from the darkness, warns them that they are falling right into a carefully orchestrated trap. Who is this fellow who dares to speak back to the nine individuals trying to save their village? He is none other than Sanjuro Tsubaki (Toshiro Mifune), a Ronin warrior who was just passing by but couldn't help but offer some sage advice.

Sanjuro's suspicions of these nine fellows being lured into a trap are proved correct when they're all ambushed by a number of the superintendent's guards. Sanjuro makes quick work of them though, slicing down these supposed fearsome warriors with his sword like they were entirely comprised of hot butter. From here, Sanjuro becomes a mentor-like figure to this ragtag group of young rebellious men and helps concoct a plan to take down the nefarious superintendent. It's a plan that will require courage, wits and more than a pinch of luck, but with Sanjuro on their side, there may just be hope yet for this village and all that inhabit it.

Like its predecessor Yojimbo, Sanjuro is a movie that relies heavily on cleverly-executed wit to demonstrate the smarts that lurk beneath the surface of its titular main character. Good o'l Sanjuro Tsubaki is very much handy in combat, oh good grief is he ever adept in that particular field, but he's also a guy who's also incredibly cunning and that serves him most well in taking down his foes. The best example of our lead protagonists elaborate shrewdness can be clearly seen in a wonderful climactic sequence wherein Sanjuro is tied up by enemy forces and he's still able to coerce them into inadvertently alerting his allies to attack. The guy doesn't even have to lift a finger to get what he wants!

Placing as great an emphasis on the mind of a warrior as they do on the physical prowess of said warrior is one of the many brilliant traits of the screenplay penned by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni and Ryuzo Kikushima. Another incredibly clever aspect of the movie that emerges from the trio's writing is the fact that the villains of this piece, including the superintendent himself, aren't really overwhelmingly intimidating antagonists. They feel more like realistic depictions of normal corrupt people in power in that they know how to intimidate normal people but a figure like Sanjuro has them trembling in their knees. Our villains get a lot of their strength from the massive army they have by their side but they're just as prone to acts of cowardice as they are to acts of cruelty.

This means a lot of the conflict emerges from the nine men and Sanjuro trying to rebel against the superintendent while coming to terms with their quarreling personalities. The personality of Sanjuro himself is one of amusing everyman characteristics like bouts of laziness and an insatiable appetite mixed in with very unorthodox traits like the aforementioned wit and masterful fighting style. Toshiro Mifune really is just excellent at selling both the mythic nature of Sanjuro and his more amusing normal traits individually and then making the two contrasting sides of his characters persona live in beautiful harmony to create a character that can be amusing, heartbreaking and intimidating all in the span of a single scene.

Where does that intimidating nature come from? Why, it comes from the way Sanjuro handles himself in the action sequences. Though he's been told by an elderly woman he's rescued that he shouldn't resort to violence so much, he just can't help himself from unleashing his sword on some baddies when circumstances call for such actions and one of the best scenes in the entirety of Sanjuro entails Mifune's Ronin character going to town on a whole horde of henchman with precise swordfighting all in the span of a single shot. It's an amazing scene and it's just one of many high-quality and memorable moments to be found in Sanjuro, which serves as yet another extensive example of why Akira Kurosawa is held in such high regard by myself as a filmmaker.