Sanjuro, the ronin, is awoken by a group of young samurai discussing their troubles. Their uncle, the local Chamberlain, has been kidnapped by a corrupt official who is trying to force him into signing a confession to say that he is the one who is corrupt. Once he has done this he will be forced to commit Seppuku and the clan will be in the hands of the official. Sanjuro is both amused and annoyed by the ineptitude of the young men and when the officials samurai turn up to arrest them he not only saves them but decides to fight on their side.
Toshirô Mifune teams up again with director Akira Kurosawa for the second outing of Sanjuro the Yojimbo (bodyguard) in this action/comedy. Taken from a novel by Shûgorô Yamamoto it was originally meant to be made before Yojimbo. For reasons I don't know it wasn't, but after the first ones commercial success and a couple of re-writes it was made as a sequel. Far more script based than Yojimbo, that is to say with less action and more story, there's more room to focus on Sanjuro's personality, his sardonic nature and his interplay with the people around him including, for the first time, women.
Mifune's method is as always wonderful to watch. His rolling of his shoulders, his scratching (Kurosawa suggested he played him as a wolf), his tough leadership and shyness around women give his character real substance, as does his attitude towards Hanbei Muroto, the main antagonist who is played by Tatsuya Nakadai and who also played Unosuke, the gunslinging bad guy in Yojimbo.
Less well known than it's prequel, probably due to it's not having been remade as a western, this film is both funnier and more thoughtful than Yojimbo and is the equal of any of the great Samurai movies with the possibly exception of Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, a film I shall tell you about another time.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056443/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_113
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