IMDb > Sugata Sanshiro (1943)

Sugata Sanshiro (1943) More at IMDbPro »


IMDb Holiday Movie Guide

Overview

User Rating:
6.9/10   837 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 16% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Akira Kurosawa (writer)
Tsuneo Tomita (novel)
Contact:
View company contact information for Sugata Sanshiro on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
28 April 1974 (USA) more
Genre:
Plot:
Sugata, a young man, struggles to learn the nuance and meaning of judo, and in doing so comes to learn something of the meaning of life. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
NewsDesk:
User Comments:

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Denjirô Ôkôchi ... Shogoro Yano
Susumu Fujita ... Sanshiro Sugata
Yukiko Todoroki ... Sayo Murai
Ryunosuke Tsukigata ... Gennosuke Higaki
Takashi Shimura ... Hansuke Murai, Sayo's father
Ranko Hanai ... Osumi Kodana
Sugisaku Aoyama ... Tsunetami Iimura
Ichirô Sugai ... Police Chief Mishima
Yoshio Kosugi ... Master Saburo Kodama
Kokuten Kodo ... Buddhist Priest
Michisaburo Segawa ... Wada
Akitake Kôno ... Yoshima Dan
Shôji Kiyokawa ... Yujiro Toda
Kunio Mita ... Kohei Tsuzaki
Akira Nakamura ... Toranosuki Niiseki
more
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Also Known As:
Judo Saga
Judo Story
Kurosawa's Judo Saga
Sanshiro Sugata (USA) (informal English title)
more
Runtime:
80 min | Japan:97 min (original version)
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Filming Locations:
Company:

Fun Stuff

Movie Connections:
Referenced in Yau doh lung fu bong (2004) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
13 out of 13 people found the following comment useful.
Depth, 17 June 2007
Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach

Before you seek this out, know that it is an incomplete restoration. Bits are missing. Some edits are inexplicable and some scenes are muddy.

Having said that, you will find this to be one of Kurasawa's most interesting projects. Two things...

One is that this was made by the bad guys during the war. Incredible atrocities were being committed in the name of racial superiority and the supposition of a refined nobility. Japanese, German and American films (even Italian ones) turned to reinforcing the national character. In the Japanese case, that was linked to matters of honor refracted through Shinto spirituality, honor of a past ideal that never really existed, which in US terms means what "conservatives" tout.

It was a terrible exercise, more obvious in looking at it from the outside and knowing the context. Kurosawa's story was every bit as engineered for this purpose as any Reifenstahl project. Oddly, this film is fragmented because the sensors thought it not ennobling enough. One presumes that Kurosawa's moments of reflection, and possibly a whole love story, were among the half of the movie that was removed. So just on the level of the story itself (a modernized samurai tale), its of interest.

But it IS Kurasawa, so we have to pay attention to the way the camera engages with the space. This is his very first film as director, though he had written before. In all his films he registers the camera first in a space and then allows action to happen in that space. He has three periods of different types of spatial identity, each illuminating, each inventing new language. But this is before all that and what we have is clear, overt experimentation with space. Some of it is quite thrilling, quite independent of the fascist movement of the story proper.

Even here, he is breaking the rules of flat Japanese composition from eons of painting. He was considered unJapanese in his native country and never very popular. So at the same time that those censors were chopping story and posture they must have been shaking their heads at this three dimensional art, and wondering if they had already lost the war — and if they won, what for?

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Was the above comment useful to you?
more (15 total)

Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Sugata Sanshiro (1943)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Criterion Release on the way. Dec 8 2009 chupon
half an hour in and I just don't know whether to bother going on cherold
I need an english translation. curlyconnor
more

Recommendations

If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends:
- - - - -
Zoku Sugata Sanshiro Deadly Is the Female Tôkyô monogatari The Karate Kid Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
Show more recommendations

Related Links

Full cast and crew Company credits External reviews
News articles IMDb Action section IMDb Japan section
Add this title to MyMovies

You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.