SanjuroSanjuro is another Japanese Samurai film from the 1960’s, and is the sequel the classic Yojimbo.

The main character behind the movie Yojimbo, Sanjuro, is back.  This time he is resting in some shelter when a group of 9 Samurai enter and a have a secret meeting.

The meeting has them discussing the Chamberlain after he tore up a petition against organised crime.  They believe the chamberlain to be corrupt and have gone to the Superintendent to make something happen. The superintendent has agreed to side with their cause.

Then Sanjuro enters and the men are alarmed by his presence.  He steps in and tells them that he believes they are wrong.  As a spectator from the outside he explains that he believes that the superintendent sounds corrupt, while the Chamberlain is the real deal.

As the men start to listen, the building they’re in is surrounded by Samurai.  Sanjuro manages to handle the approaching samurai by outsmarting them and hiding the other 9 men.

The 9 Samurai then have to find a way to prove the Chamberlain is innocent, and with the help offered by Sanjuro they head back.  Using his wits, Sanjuro devises small plans to outsmart and out think the corrupt clan’s men but things get more difficult as the 9 men become divided in their trust of Sanjuro and the situation gets much more difficult.

swordplay

It’s all about Strategy!

This film does an excellent job of showing off Sanjuro’s strategic mindset in not only fooling the clan’s men, but also seeing through their intentions.  He’s always steps ahead as the “bad guys” make their false moves to help make these 10 men vulnerable.

Sanjuro however seems to have this concept picked, and sees each movement as being false, determining their intentions and a better course of action.  It’s mind over sword through most of this movie as the powerful groups of Samurai are moved out of the way to make each attack and movement more precise with less danger, a perfect way of leveraging peoples movements to his advantage.

Much like in Yojimbo, his ability to manipulate people seems to be his prime strength, backed up by his prowess as a swordsman.  This movie brings forward, again, the interesting character that is Sanjuro while presenting a ‘chess’ game between both sides.  It’s incredibly interesting and entertaining.

the samurai

The Martial Arts and Action

Most of the pace and excitement of this movie lies in the strategy mentioned above, but there is a small amount of sword on sword action in this movie also.

From a martial arts perspective this strategic look at how Sanjuro picked apart his enemies shows a great deal of using tactics and understanding of one’s enemy to succeed, as opposed to sheer fighting ability.  But in terms of action, this makes the movie pretty light.

The action is a confined to a few quick fights between different men and Sanjuro.  At the beginning we’re shown his abilities as he manages to handle an group of men attacking him with live blades – without drawing his sword at all! Sanjuro simply disables them and shows he has no intention of killing – you get the idea that he is not a man to be messed with.

Naturally though, he gets messed with and we see the usual assortment of swordplay present in these films.  The movements are performed very well and the scenes quite exciting.

There isn’t a hell of a lot of blood for the sake of realism, but the black and white imagery seems to hide this to a small degree. (spoiler) There is however a great deal of blood in his last encounter when Sanjuro faces off against the head of the opposing Samurai, slicing him through the midsection causing a large burst of blood to come spraying out of his abdomen.

The Verdict?

Classic!  Another great movie which relies less on action and more on strategy and story telling.  So be prepared for less physical confrontation if you intend to watch this one!

On Blu Ray –

Region A (US & Canada)
Sanjuro (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

On DVD –

Region 1 (US & Canada)
Sanjuro: Remastered Edition (The Criterion Collection)

Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Sanjuro [1962] [DVD]

Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)

More info on Movie Regions here.

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