FAMILIAR FILM, ORIGINAL SETTING: SANJURO

Some might point out at this point that, if we are talking about Akira Kurosawa, Sanjuro isn’t exactly his most famous work, even as far as samurai films are concerned. I will answer, I know. I was lucky enough to acquire a goodly number of the master’s works and I will be scattering them in my reviews of the coming weeks (so as not to inundated you in samurais. Mom and I seem to be OK with doing that, you may not be though… =)) I think we need to review this film here, at this point because it actually went on to influence a lot of spaghetti westerns in its day. And western lovers will find the theme eerily familiar. It is definately a slightly more “light hearted” side to Akira Kurosawa’s work. We will be reviewing “Throne Of Blood” (Kurosawa’s adaptation of Macbeth) and “Ikuru” that has become a modern classic among other things in the weeks to come. For now though, let us concentrate on the further adventures of Sanjuro.
After his first adventure, Sanjuro (again the quite brilliant Toshiro Mifune) goes on travelling. And on his travels he comes across 10 young samurais. Now, these young men are greatly distressed. There is much corruption in the area they live in, especially in the police department, and they want the governor – the uncle of one of the young samurai – to put a stop to it. The governor however, seems to be sitting on his hands, telling them to be patient. But then, partly as a result of their meddling, the governor is kidnapped by the corrupt officials. Sanjuro, who gets embroiled in the proceedings greatly by mistake doesn’t have the heart to leave the 10, well intentioned but very inexperienced young men to their own devices. He will take on the role of older brother and leader to the band. The “band” will not always be content of this, but Sanjuro being the only natural leader among them they can’t really refuse either. So, will they be able to find the governor and save him? Or will the corrupt police chief be able to frame the poor man for his own dastardly crimes?
This film is a completely different kind of film from Yojimbo, despite the many common themes in them. First of all, there are the samurai. The 10 young men mirror the two rival gangs in the previous film in many ways. They do not know how to act, they make often foolish mistakes. This, like the previous film, elicits a lot of laughs (it did from us anyway). But this is attributed largely to the youth of the samurai, not their stupidity or lack of capability like the gangs in Yojimbo. Then of course, there is the fighting. And you can hardly have a samurai film without fighting. But the circumstances are greatly different here. Tactics have to be in the foreground, they are 10 people against the entire police force. Sanjuro must use his wits to the end to help them free the governor. So, even more so than Yojimbo, suspense as to whether the tactic will work enters the play. And I must say some bits of it are nail-biting. And then of course, there is another psychological factor. We know that Sanjuro is a very, VERY good guy beneath his rather rough and ready exterior, but our “gang” don’t know him from Adam, so to speak. Thus the issue of trust and the lack thereof also comes into play.
But of course, there are spectacular fighting scenes, as usual. And as usual it is laced with that sophisticated humor – almost character comedy – I tend to associate with Asian films. Great fun to watch. So much so that I am going to research whether Sanjuro has any more adventures. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything…