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Tsubaki Sanjûrô
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Tsubaki Sanjûrô (1962) More at IMDbPro »

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Tsubaki Sanjûrô (1962) -- A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent.

Overview

User Rating:
8.0/10   7,232 votes
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Director:
Akira Kurosawa
Writers:
Ryuzo Kikushima (writer)
Akira Kurosawa (writer)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Sanjuro on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
7 May 1963 (USA) more
Plot:
A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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Awards:
1 win more
User Comments:
Physchology of leadership, the senselessness of war more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Toshirô Mifune ... Sanjûrô Tsubaki / The Samurai
Tatsuya Nakadai ... Hanbei Muroto
Keiju Kobayashi ... The Spy
Yuzo Kayama ... Iori Izaka
Reiko Dan ... Chidori, Mutsuta's daughter
Akihiko Hirata ... Samurai
Takashi Shimura ... Kurofuji
Kamatari Fujiwara ... Takebayashi
Takako Irie ... Mutsuta's wife
Masao Shimizu ... Kikui
Yûnosuke Itô ... Mutsuta, the Chamberlain
Akira Kubo ... Samurai
Kenzo Matsui ... Samurai
Hiroshi Tachikawa ... Samurai
Yoshio Tsuchiya ... Samurai
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Sanjuro (USA)
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Runtime:
96 min
Country:
Japan
Language:
Japanese
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Westrex Recording System)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
In the scene where Sanjuro has to kill about a dozen of Kikui's men and then smacks three of the young samurai for forcing him to kill so many, Toshirô Mifune slapped the three young actors for real. As seen in the film, the slaps both surprised the actors and knocked them backwards. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: When the Chamberlain's nephew goes to peek over the wall to check if Kikui's house is full of troops, he supports himself on the wall which bends slightly, belying its supposed sturdiness. more
Quotes:
Mutsuta's wife: You're too sharp. That's your trouble. You're like a drawn sword. Sharp, naked without a sheath. You cut well. But good swords are kept in their sheaths. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences (2006) (V) more

FAQ

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21 out of 32 people found the following comment useful:-
Physchology of leadership, the senselessness of war, 27 August 2002
Author: David Krasik (krasik@brandeis.edu) from Boston, USA

Leadership. Sanjuro is able to lead men because he appears confident, and is confident. His presence subjugates men, as a man's presence subjugates boys. We see here how a group comes to have a leader. First one man stands out against him, the competitor for leadership, but Sanjuro's intuition and actions put him ahead. There is a beautiful marked difference between Sanjuro and the men. He is the lazy quiet tiger, seemingly passive yet containing an immense power - a tightly drawn bow. The men are barking puppies, energy spilling over, but to no good end.

Kurosawa presents a couple challenges to the viewer. THere is a terrible absurdity in the killing of all these men, for it becomes quiet clear with the symbol of the prisoner, that the average soldier is a frightened herd animal, not good or evil, but cowardly. Sanjuro recognizes this but has no choice, for he wants to live, and so must kill. Thus he must even kill the young men who he helps, when they foolishly come after him. The prisoner is won over by the old lady - so we see an almost christian ethic. In the tensions of the film one feels that the people, riled up by lies to fight for the enemy, quickly become targets of the just young men's swords - luckily it does not come to this, but one recognizes the horrible possibility and inevitability of such a struggle. Thus we are faced with a critic of war - men, scared like cattle battle under the flag of corrupt leaders, and those that may love them must kill them, if they are not to die by sword, or become slaves to tyrants.

"stupid friends are worse than enemies" For you know who your enemies are, and that they wish to destroy you.

In Sanjuro we also see the soldier, so long in battle that he is unable to live a normal life. He can not wear the house kimoto, he is to bound up in fighting - he is samuri, warrior, and he cannot escape this, much as Achilles cannot return home to Pthia. And we sense Sanjuro must whilt in the easy domestic life, for his is the road of struggle. The pleasant scent of the straw in the barn, the pretty camillias are still able to touch him, but he cannot enjoy them; he is a soldier, and therefore his sensitivities must yeild to the demands of war.

We see only one man worthy standing with Sanjuro, and that is the uncle, the chamberlain, the horseface. These to stand out as burning stars against a massive black sky - the rest is horrifying; the chaos of tyranical men and the fear crazed soldiers, their supplicants.

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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Tsubaki Sanjûrô (1962)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Where should I start? lileprechaun2
Question about final duel pyroseed13
Continuation of Sanjuro in CGI internet show justinguiles6
A movie to be remade as a western PaulMorel
Koiso; three or four young samurai twob_ornot
Chamberlain/Superin tendant? JohnVFerrigno
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