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Japanese. Sanshiro Sugata (Japanese: 姿三四郎, Hepburn: Sugata Sanshirō, a.k.a. Judo Saga) is a 1943 Japanese martial arts drama film and the directorial debut of the Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa. [1] First released in Japan on 25 March 1943 by Toho film studios, the film was eventually released in the United States on 28 April 1974.
Feb 17, 2023 · Madadayo (1993) Those swirling skies are a hallmark of a new phase in Kurosawa’s filmmaking, which had begun with the release of his first colour film, Dodes’ka-den, in 1970. After the success of Sanshiro Sugata, Kurosawa produced a series of world-renowned masterpieces, but his career began to flounder in the mid-1960s, in part because his ...
Akira Kurosawa[note 1] (黒澤 明 or 黒沢 明, Kurosawa Akira, March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed 30 films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dynamic style ...
“Sanshiro is ultimately after spiritual gain — to achieve the purity he found in the moonlit flower.” By the time Akira Kurosawa made his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943) for the Toho film studios at the age of 33 (seven years after joining the company as an apprentice), the film’s themes of sacrifice, spirituality and a warrior’s coming-of-age were already well ...
- Plot Summary
- Background and Production
- Reception
- Critical Responses
- Availability
- Source Text
- Remakes and Related Works
The film is set in the 1880s and tells the story of the titular Sanshiro Sugata, a young judo apprentice who has to learn both the physical and mental aspects of the then-new martial art.
After joining Toho Studios in 1935, Kurosawa had spent six years in the company’s assistant director program, learning various aspects of filmmaking. He had also practised his skills as a screenwriter, and between his final assistant director’s assignment in 1941 and his directorial debut two years later with Sanshiro Sugata, Kurosawa completed no ...
Sanshiro Sugata was both a critical and commercial success, even winning a few prizes (Galbraith 44-45), although some “Japanese reviewers found Kurosawa’s adaptation wanting in its portrayal of the spirit of judo.” (Desser 62) The film also helped to make a star out of Susumu Fujita, who played the film’s titular main character. Fujita would go on...
As Sanshiro Sugata was Kurosawa’s first film, it has received relatively much attention from both film critics and biographers. The film was made under military censorship, and as a result some commentators including Sorensen have interpreted it as a rather straightforward propaganda film, while others like Desser suggest that it in fact promotes a...
Sanshiro Sugatais no longer available in its original 97-minute version. What we have is a later 79 minute cut, with most of the missing 18 minutes thought lost. In most prints today, the removed scenes are narrated through the use of explanatory title cards. Some have suggested that the missing footage is due to wartime censorship. Although the fi...
Sanshiro Sugatais based on a novel of the same title written by Tsuneo Tomita (1904-1967) and first published in 1942. It has not been translated into English or, to the best of my understanding, other languages. This is a pity as the novel has inspired not only Kurosawa’s film but a wide range of other adaptations, more about which in the section ...
Sanshiro Sugata‘s history of remakes and remakes’ remakes and other related works is almost as long and winding as is that of Yojimbo‘s. In addition to Kurosawa’s own 1945 sequel Sanshiro Sugata Part II, the film has received a direct remake treatment twice, in 1955 and 1965. Of these two, the latter is the more interesting case. Overseen by Kurosa...
Aug 3, 2010 · Sanshiro Sugata: A Career Blooms Moviegoers the world over know Akira Kurosawa for Rashomon (1950) and the international classics that followed—Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, High and Low. The filmmaker’s dazzling technique made his genre tales about samurai and cops, doctors and gangsters wildly popular and defined his enduring creative profile. In contrast, his career ...
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Sanshiro Sugata needs a big epic finale, and Kurosawa delivers magnificently, at least in the scale of its setting, a broad windswept mountain meadow where Higaki, a priest who serves as referee and mediator, and Sanshiro show up on cue to settle things between them. The fight itself may leave a bit to be desired, with the most acrobatic moves typically interrupted almost as in cartoons where ...
