11/14/10 - Tsubaki Sanjûrô (Sanjuro)

Tsubaki Sanjûrô (Sanjuro) (1962, 96 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056443/

After taking a short break to grab a snack I pop in Sanjuro. I love double features like this so I was really looking forward to this movie. The last double feature I did was pretty good with Psycho and Vertigo and I had high hopes for this one. Yojimbo seems to get more recognition but Criticker said I would like Sanjuro more.

The movie again follows The Samurai (this time with the name Sanjûrô Tsubaki) and again played by Toshirô Mifune. And again Tatsuya Nakadai plays the "bad guy" of Hanbei Muroto. The plot this time involves The Samurai helping a group of guys as they try to free the Chamberlain from being wrongly framed. Mutsuta, the Chamberlain is played by Yûnosuke Itô and the guy holding him captive until he writes a confession is the superintendent Kikui (Masao Shimizu).

This film takes a much different approach than Yojimbo. There's still a lot of the same elements but there's a noticeable shift in style. For one, Yojimbo comes off as much more an action movie. I felt that Sanjuro was much more cerebral. This is somewhat odd because in Yojimbo there is a noted focus on The Samurai pitting the gangs against each other by using just his wits. Here though, The Samurai is constantly one step ahead of everyone else (again) but this plays a more important role. There's still a few actions scenes (more on them later) but this time I felt like the movie came off with a different vibe that more stressed the times when there wasn't action as opposed to Yojimbo where the tension built until the action scenes and then there was a release. Here, the actions scenes don't really serve to release tension.

First though, there's the same two constants from Yojimbo that shine bright again: the acting of Mifune and the score. Mifune is actually better in this movie than Yojimbo and I think that's because there's more people to take the focus off of him. Like I said in the last movie, I felt that he was at his best when he wasn't the focus of a shot, instead perfectly playing his character even when the focus wasn't on him. As there's nine other samurai sometimes debating issues here, they get a significant amount of focus and Mifune is allowed to be in the background completely dominating the screen even with his limited impact on the shot. It's fantastic and I think this is one of the best performances I've ever seen. Also as I mentioned above there's the great musical score. It's really more of the same from Yojimbo but I loved it there and I love it again here.

Next, I think what really stands out to me about Sanjuro is the plot. It's fantastic through and through. The story twists and turns and meanders for the entire 96 minutes. It's constantly in motion and characters are constantly trying to analyze and figure out the best approach to a situation. Well, really The Samurai is doing that while the other nine guys are frequently bumbling around and messing stuff up. It's a similar cat and mouse game as was in Yojimbo but it's more enjoyable to me for some reason. Maybe it's like I said before - there's not really a sense that the movie is building to an action scene, but instead the movie panders to quick thinking individuals who can keep up with all its twists and turns and I like this style more. I think the best example of all this is the end when The Samurai is held captive and he convinces his captors to throw the camellias into the stream. There's quick cuts back and forth as the group of nine are awaiting what to do and Mifune is held captive. The tension builds and builds until he finally convinces them to dump the flowers and then the group begins their great final attack. Yojimbo is an amazing movie but it didn't have a scene near as great as this one.

The action scenes still deserve some mention, though. There's a couple noted ones. The first one that I felt was thrilling was when The Samurai rescued the group that had gotten captured. He's again lightning quick in his attack on a large number of enemies and then he follows it up by quickly modifying the plan and having himself be captured. The action is fierce and it's followed up with wit - a rare blend that's handled superbly here. The other noteworthy action scene is the final duel between The Samurai and Muroto. This is almost as chilling as the Mexican standoff at the end of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It's just two ultimate warriors facing each other to the death. The Samurai displays calm as he desperately hopes that Muroto will withdraw and not attack. When he's insistent it's only fitting that there's a long and drawn-out stare down before the samurais pull out their swords. It's one long take and Mifune is again lightning quick as he kills Muroto amidst a fountain of blood. This is an action scene that combines tension in a fantastic way and is essentially perfect.

Overall, I gave this film a 10/10. Sanjuro actually lived up to the 100 score it was predicted to receive on Criticker. This is a film that ranks up there as one of the best I've ever seen. The action is basically flawless and the twisting and turning and cerebral plot only adds a layer of tension that shoots this film from "amazing" to "masterpiece." Everything comes together here and it deserves every bit of this score.