Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two

Kurosawa’s first film was such a success that the studio leaned on the director to make a sequel. The result is a hugely entertaining adventure, reuniting most of the major players from the original and featuring a two-part narrative in which Sanshiro first fights a pair of Americans and then finds himself the target of a revenge mission undertaken by the brothers of the original film’s villain.

Japan
1945
83 minutes
Black & White
1.37:1
Japanese

Available In

Collector's Set

The First Films of Akira Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

4 Discs

$47.96

Collector's Set

AK 100: 25 Films by Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

25 Discs

$319.00

Out Of Print

Cast & Credits

Cast

Denjiro Ookouchi: Shogoro Yano
Susumu Fujita: Sanshiro Sugata
Ryunosuke Tsukigata: Gennosuke Higaki/Tesshin Higaki
Akitake Kono: Genzaburo Higaki
Yukiko Todoroki: Sayo Murai

Credits

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: Motohiko Ito
Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa
Original novel by: Tsuneo Tomita
Cinematography: Takeo Ito
Music: Seiichi Suzuki
Production design: Kazuo Kubo

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Current

Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa

Sanshiro Sugata: A Career Blooms Moviegoers the world over know Akira Kurosawa for Rashomon (1950) and the international classics that followed—Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, High and Low. The filmmaker’s dazzling technique made …

By Stephen Prince

Essays — Aug 3, 2010

Explore

Akira Kurosawa

Writer, Director

Arguably the most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa had a career that spanned from the Second World War to the early nineties and that stands as a monument of artistic, entertainment, and personal achievement. His best-known films remain his samurai epics Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, but his intimate dramas, such as Ikiru and High and Low, are just as searing. The first serious phase of Kurosawa’s career came during the postwar era, with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, gritty dramas about people on the margins of society that featured the first notable appearances by Toshiro Mifune, the director’s longtime leading man. Kurosawa would subsequently gain international fame with Rashomon, a breakthrough in nonlinear narrative and sumptuous visuals. Following a personal breakdown in the late sixties, Kurosawa rebounded by expanding his dark brand of humanism into new stylistic territory, with films such as Kagemusha and Ran, visionary, color, epic ruminations on modern man and nature.