Word: sanjuro
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...person's vision through another's physical force--was primal in the work of Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, whose lithe, feral magnetism animated the great Japanese director's most vigorous parables. The titles in this Criterion package are legendary: The Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. These ferocious epics were often adapted into better-known films in the West--The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, Star Wars--none of which matched the artistry and machismo of the originals...
Samural Trilogy pt. 3 at 7:50; Sanjuro...
Sheer exaggeration provides both the humor and the violence of Sanjuro. You see nine-men-plus-Mifune against a body of God-knows-how-many evil men. Mifune's swordplay in the slaughter scenes is so fake it's scarcely worth suspending your disbelief. Yet you don't think about that when he's slicing through whole screensful of villains. Unfortunately exaggeration is lacking where it most belongs, in the character of "Sanjuro," played by Mifune. He is good chiefly at two things: swaggering around scratching his neck, and jumping up and down hurling insults at his antagonists. Kurosawa doesn...
...Sanjuro, no such rapport develops. As a result of Kurosawa's more superficial treatment of his story, Mifune's exertions remain extraneous, and no real moral conflict is ever engaged...
...these objections will not keep you away from Sanjuro, if you are a Kurosawa fan. (If you aren't a Kurosawa fan, it's probably because you haven't seen any of his movies yet. If Sanjuro is your first, these objections can remind you that even better Kurosawa films exist.) Like all of Kurosawa's movies, Sanjuro is worth seeing and re-seeing...