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 anjuro
is the sequel to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo,
and returns star Toshiro Mifune as the title character. In this installment,
sword-for-hire Sanjuro
stumbles into more trouble -- or rather, trouble comes to the shack he's
currently crashing for the night.
As always, Toshiro Mifune delivers an affable, hilarious and endearing performance as a cynical ronin (masterless
samurai) who just happens to be bunking in an abandoned building one night when
9 idealistic young men meets to discuss their problem. Being the nosy kind, and
one always looking for an angle, Sanjuro offers the young men advice and ends up
saving their lives when thugs show up to ambush them.
Hey, someone's got to do it.
Sanjuro
is a good sequel to Yojimbo,
but it lacks somewhat in the action category. The movie itself is almost bloodless, and
Sanjuro rarely draws his sword except for a couple of scenes, including a final
showdown with the movie's main villain, a fellow ronin-for-hire name Muroto
(Tatsuya Nakadai).
The Muroto
character and Sanjuro feels kinship, since both men are surviving on their
skills with a sword and really have no home or destination to speak off. In
another time and place, they would be buddies, and they recognize themselves in
each other. Alas, they are working for different employers, and it's inevitable
that their swords must clash. Such is the life of a sword-for-hire.
Like
all Akira Kurosawa movies centered on the feudal period in Japan, Sanjuro
is heavy on personal and clan politics. Here, the 9 idealistic young men are
seeking to end corruption within their clan, but faces trouble because the
people perpetrating the corruption has a lot more men and a lot more smarts.
That is, until Sanjuro shows up to upset the balance of power, much as he did in Yojimbo.
Sanjuro
clocks in at just under 2 hours. Seven
Samurai, Kurosawa's masterful classic, came in at just under 3 hours, and
many of Akira Kurosawa's other movies are about that same length. Sanjuro's
main draw is its lead. Mifune gives his loner character enough charm, charisma,
and shaman-like wisdom that he defies his character's unkempt appearance. The
man is more than meets the eye, like the situation that he finds himself in.
Even
as Sanjuro struggles to keep the 9 hapless young men from getting themselves
killed, you get the feeling that he's having the time of his life. Sure, the
odds are against him, and he has absolutely no stake in the proceedings, but you
get the feeling that he wouldn't rather be anywhere else, or doing anything
else.
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