Sanjuro (DVD) BFI

$29.95

In response to the huge critical and commercial success of YojimboAkira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune teamed up a year later to make this comedy of manners, altogether more light-hearted than its predecessor.

Sanjuro (Mifune) runs rings around nine nave and clean-cut samurai and two genteel ladies while cleaning up a spot of corruption in local government. Kurosawa plays most of it for laughs by expertly parodying the conventions of Japanese period action movies. Most of the action is relatively bloodless, but in the very last scene he stages a startling switch of mood with an intense finale which may well be the briefest, and most breathtaking, duel in all cinema.

1 in stock

Special Features

Digitally remastered in High Definition
Introduction to Sanjuro by filmmaker Alex Cox (2003, 5 mins)
Interview with Alex Cox (2003, 9 mins): the director discusses the life and work of Akira Kurosawa
Original Japanese theatrical trailer
Essay by film historian and critic Philip Kemp

Format

DVD

Label

BFI