Sanshiro Sugata

Sanshiro Sugata
Directed by	Akira Kurosawa
Produced by	Keiji Matsuzaki
Written by	Akira Kurosawa Tomita Tsuneo
Based on	Sanshiro Sugata by Tsuneo Tomita
Starring	Denjirō Ōkōchi Susumu Fujita Yukiko Todoroki Takashi Shimura
Music by	Seiichi Suzuki
Cinematography	Akira Mimura
Edited by	Toshio Gotō Akira Kurosawa
Production company	Toho Studios
Distributed by	Toho Company Ltd.
Release date	March 25, 1943 (1943-03-25)
Running time	79 / 97 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Sanshiro Sugata (姿三四郎, Sugata Sanshirō^?, aka Judo Saga) is the directorial debut of the Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa. First released in Japan on 25 March 1943 by Toho film studios, the film was eventually released in the United States on 28 April 1974. The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Tsuneo Tomita, the son of prominent judoka Tsunejirō Tomita. It follows the story of Sanshiro, a strong stubborn youth, who travels into the city in order to learn Jujutsu. However, upon his arrival he discovers a new form of self-defence: Judo. The main character is based on Saigō Shirō.

The film is seen as an early example of Kurosawa's immediate grasp of the film-making process, and includes many of his directorial trademarks, such as the use of wipes, weather patterns as reflections of character moods, and abruptly changing camera speeds. The film itself was quite influential at the time, and has been remade on no fewer than five occasions. It spawned a sequel, Sanshiro Sugata Part II, which was released in 1945 and also directed by Kurosawa.

Following five years of second unit director work on films such as Uma and Roppa's Honeymoon, Kurosawa was finally given the go-ahead to direct his first film, even though he himself claimed that, in films like Uma, "I had been so much in charge of production I had felt like the director". After hearing of a new novel from the writer Tomita Tsuneo, Kurosawa decided the project was for him and asked film producer Iwao Mori to buy the rights for him.