This sequel to Kurosawa's brilliant Yojimbo is entertaining and amusing, but it's also kinda dumb, something that seems to have been missed by all the user reviews I've read here.
The premise is set up quickly and rather abruptly, as a group of samurai talk about their attempt to find an authority figure to rid their clan of corruption. Toshiro Mifune wanders in from a back room to tell them they are all idiots, then protects them by killing a whole bunch of bad guys.
The group of samurai are a comical bunch, wandering about like a bunch of newborn ducklings, and Mifune takes the role as their protector because that's what heroes do.
But his charges aren't the only idiots. Everyone in the movie is an idiot, except for Mifune and some peripheral women characters. The plot is pushed forward entirely by the stupidity of its characters, to the extent that it's a wonder any of them lived past puberty. While Yojimbo was a movie about a really smart guy tricking less smart people, Sanjuro is about astoundingly gullible people being fooled by the only person in the movie who isn't a half-wit.
Still, it's very likable and often funny, particularly in the case of a mellow prisoner and an unflappable mother.
The movie also has a whole, "it's terrible that so many people are being killed" moral that reminds me of the old TV series Kung Fu, which espoused peace while serving a steady stream of violence. Like everything else in this movie, it's pretty silly.
It's a fun movie, and if you liked Yojimbo and Seven Samurai it's worth checking this out as well. But watch Yojimbo and Seven Samurai first, because they are much better movies.
The premise is set up quickly and rather abruptly, as a group of samurai talk about their attempt to find an authority figure to rid their clan of corruption. Toshiro Mifune wanders in from a back room to tell them they are all idiots, then protects them by killing a whole bunch of bad guys.
The group of samurai are a comical bunch, wandering about like a bunch of newborn ducklings, and Mifune takes the role as their protector because that's what heroes do.
But his charges aren't the only idiots. Everyone in the movie is an idiot, except for Mifune and some peripheral women characters. The plot is pushed forward entirely by the stupidity of its characters, to the extent that it's a wonder any of them lived past puberty. While Yojimbo was a movie about a really smart guy tricking less smart people, Sanjuro is about astoundingly gullible people being fooled by the only person in the movie who isn't a half-wit.
Still, it's very likable and often funny, particularly in the case of a mellow prisoner and an unflappable mother.
The movie also has a whole, "it's terrible that so many people are being killed" moral that reminds me of the old TV series Kung Fu, which espoused peace while serving a steady stream of violence. Like everything else in this movie, it's pretty silly.
It's a fun movie, and if you liked Yojimbo and Seven Samurai it's worth checking this out as well. But watch Yojimbo and Seven Samurai first, because they are much better movies.