Sanjuro
| Sanjuro | |
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Japanese theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Produced by | |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on |
Hibi Heian by Shugoro Yamamoto |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Masaru Sato |
| Cinematography | |
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Production
companies |
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| Distributed by | Toho |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Sanjuro (椿三十郎 Tsubaki Sanjūrō?) is a 1962 black-and-white Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. It is a sequel to Kurosawa's 1961 Yojimbo.
Originally an adaptation of the Shūgorō Yamamoto novel Hibi Heian, the script was altered with the success of Kurosawa's 1961 Yojimbo to incorporate the lead character of that film.
Nine young samurai, including his nephew, believe that the lord chamberlain, Mutsuta, is corrupt after he tore up their petition against organised crime and argued that maybe he himself was behind the crimes. One of them tells the superintendent of this and he agrees to intervene. As the nine meet secretly at a shrine and discuss their problem, a ronin (Mifune) emerges from another room where he has been resting. The ronin has overheard their plans, and suggests that the superintendent is in fact the real corrupt official. While at first the samurai are insulted by his claims, they soon find themselves surrounded by the superintendent's men, proving that he was correct. Initially, the samurai want to fight, but the odds are overwhelming, so the ronin hides the samurai, confronts and hits a few of the attackers and bluffs their leader into leaving. The grateful samurai ask what they can do for the ronin and he asks for only a small amount of money to buy food because he is starving; however, after realizing that Mutsuta and his family must now be in danger, he decides to help the samurai bring down the corrupt officials.
When the samurai go to Mutsuta's house, they find that he has been abducted and his wife (played by Takako Irie) and daughter (Reiko Dan) are imprisoned in the house. Following the ronin's suggestion, a servant from the house gets the guards drunk, allowing the samurai to free the women. The group hide in a house next door to the superintendent's compound, which contains a large number of (camellia) trees. Mutsuta's wife asks the ronin's name; looking out of the window at the 椿 tsubaki (camellia) trees, which he can see over the fence separating the two properties, he declares his name to be 椿三十郎 Tsubaki Sanjūrō, adopting (just as he had done in Yojimbo) something he sees close by as a pseudonymous surname. The lady chastises Sanjuro for using his sword too frequently and insists that he refrain from unnecessary killing, noting that the best swordsmen keep their weapons in their sheaths.
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Wikipedia