Akira Kurosawa

Sanjuro

Sanjuro

Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Akira Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed Sanjuro. In this sly companion piece to Yojimbo, jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a "proper" samurai on its ear. Less brazen in tone than its predecessor but equally entertaining, this classic character's return is a masterpiece in its own right.

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Film Info

  • Japan
  • 1962
  • 96 minutes
  • 2.35:1
  • Japanese
  • Spine #53

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Optional Dolby Digital 3.0 soundtrack, preserving the original Perspecta simulated-stereo effects (DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition)
  • Audio commentary by film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
  • A 35-minute documentary on the making of Sanjuro, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, featuring Kurosawa, actor Tatsuya Nakadai, production designer Yoshiro Muraki, and longtime Kurosawa collaborator Teruyo Nogami
  • Theatrical teaser and trailer
  • Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Michael Sragow and comments from Kurosawa and his cast and crew
    New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Yojimbo/Sanjuro

Yojimbo/Sanjuro

Blu-ray Box Set

2 Discs

$55.96

Collector's Set

AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa

AK 100: 25 Films by Kurosawa

DVD Box Set

25 Discs

$319.00

Out Of Print

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Optional Dolby Digital 3.0 soundtrack, preserving the original Perspecta simulated-stereo effects (DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition)
  • Audio commentary by film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
  • A 35-minute documentary on the making of Sanjuro, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, featuring Kurosawa, actor Tatsuya Nakadai, production designer Yoshiro Muraki, and longtime Kurosawa collaborator Teruyo Nogami
  • Theatrical teaser and trailer
  • Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Michael Sragow and comments from Kurosawa and his cast and crew
    New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang
Sanjuro
Cast
Toshiro Mifune
Sanjuro
Tatsuya Nakadai
Hanbei Moroto
Keiju Kobayashi
Kimura the Spy
Yuzo Kayama
Iiro Izaka
Reiko Dan
Chidori
Takashi Shimura
Kurofuji
Kamatari Fujiwara
Takebayashi
Takako Irie
Mutsuta’s wife
Yunosuke Ito
Mutsuta
Masao Shimizu
Kikui
Credits
Director
Akira Kurosawa
Producer
Tomoyuki Tanaka
Producer
Ryuzo Kikushima
Screenplay
Ryuzo Kikushima
Screenplay
Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay
Hideo Oguni
From the novel by
Shugoro Yamamoto
Cinematography
Fukuzo Koizumi
Cinematography
Takao Saito
Production design
Yoshiro Muraki
Music
Masaru Sato

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Explore

Akira Kurosawa

Writer, Director

Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa

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.

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