Sanjuro
By January 22, 2007
In the Kurosawa movie family tree, Sanjuro (1962) is the sassy kid brother to Yojimbo, and like many light-hearted younger siblings, it’s underrated. After Yojimbo achieved blockbuster Read more »
- Japan
- 1962
- 96 minutes
- 2.35:1
- Japanese
SYNOPSIS: Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Akira Kurosawa’s 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 clan’s 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 character’s return is a masterpiece in its own right.
Cast & CreditsOpen
Cast
| Sanjuro | Toshiro Mifune |
| Hanbei Moroto | Tatsuya Nakadai |
| Kimura the Spy | Keiju Kobayashi |
| Iiro Izaka | Yuzo Kayama |
| Chidori | Reiko Dan |
| Kurofuji | Takashi Shimura |
| Takebayashi | Kamatari Fujiwara |
| Mutsuta’s wife | Takako Irie |
| Mutsuta | Yunosuke Ito |
| Kikui | Masao Shimizu |
Credits
| Director | Akira Kurosawa |
| Producer | Tomoyuki Tanaka and Ryuzo Kikushima |
| Screenplay | Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa and Hideo Oguni |
| From the novel by | Shugoro Yamamoto |
| Cinematography | Fukuzo Koizumi and Takao Saitô |
| Production design | Yoshiro Muraki |
| Music | Masaru Sato |
Disc Features
- Restored high-definition digital transfer
- Optional Dolby Digital 3.0 soundtrack, preserving the original Perspecta simulated-stereo effects (DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary by film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
- A 35-minute documentary on the making of Sanjuro, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, featuring Kurosawa, actor Tatsuya Nakadai, production designer Yoshiro Muraki, and longtime Kurosawa collaborator Teruyo Nogami
- Theatrical teaser and trailer
- Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Sragow and comments from Kurosawa and his cast and crew
