Akira Kurosawa is not known for creating sequels but he did created a sequel to his first film “Sanshiro Sugata”. Sanshiro returns with a new nemesis but also learning first-hand of how his fights have affected others, not in a good way. A more action-driven film and grateful this 65-year-old film was included in this Eclipse Series DVD set.
Image courtesy of © 1945 Toho Co., Ltd. © 2010 All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (as part of the Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa)
DURATION: 82 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio, Monaural, Japanese with English subtitles
COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: August 3, 2010
Based on a novel by Tsuneo Tomita
Written and Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Produced by Seiichi Suzuki
Cinematography by Takeo Ito
Edited by Akira Kurosawa
Production Design by Kazuo Kubo
Starring:
Denjiro Okochi as Shogoro Yano
Susumu Fujita as Sanshiro Sugata
Yukiko Todoroki as Sayo Murai
Ryunosuke Tsukigata as Gennosuke Higaki
Akitake Kono as Genzaburo Higaki
Shoji Kiyokawa as Yujiro Toda
Masayuki Mori as Yoshima Dan
Seiji Miyaguchi as Kohei Tsuzaki
Ko Ishida as Daisuburo Hidarimonji
Kazu Hikari as Kihei Sekine
Kokuten Kodo as Buddhist Priest Saiduchi
Ichiro Sugai as Yoshizo Fubiki
Osman Yusuf as American Sailor
Roy James as William Lister
Years before Akira Kurosawa changed the face of cinema with such iconic works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, he made his start in the Japanese film industry with four popular and exceptional works, created as World War II raged. All gripping dramas, those rare first films—Sanshiro Sugata; The Most Beautiful; Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two; and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail—are collected here and include a two-part martial arts saga, a portrait of female volunteers helping the war effort, and a kabuki-derived tale of deception. These captivating films are a glorious introduction to a peerless career.
Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two – Kurosawa’s first film was such a success that the studio leaned on the director to make a sequel. The result is a hugely entertaining adventure, reuniting most of the major players from the original and featuring a two-part narrative in which Sanshiro first fights a pair of Americans and then finds himself the target of a revenge mission undertaken by the brothers of the original film’s villain.
Akira Kurosawa, one of the most highly revered filmmakers of all time.
A career which began in the 1930’s up to his final directorial work in 1993, The Criterion Collection is known for celebrating Kurosawa’s oeuvre through multiple DVD releases including the most recent collection titled “AK100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa”. But if there was one collection that many have clamored for many years, it was his earlier films.
And now the Criterion Collection has presented us with another Kurosawa Eclipse Series set titled “Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa” which includes his first four films: “Sanshiro Sugata” (1943), “The Most Beautiful” (1944), “Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two” (1945) and “The Men Who Tread On the Tiger’s Tail” (1945).
All four films were previously featured in the “AK100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa” DVD set but for those who have been collecting the Akira Kurosawa DVD’s via the Criterion Collection individually and those who previously purchased the “Postwar Kurosawa” Eclipse Series #7 set, this latest DVD Eclipse Series set is a welcomed addition to the Eclipse Series and a must-have for your Akira Kurosawa Criterion collection.
With the success of “Sanshiro Sugata” in 1943, the movie company wanted a sequel. But for Kurosawa, creating sequels had never been part of his equation as a filmmaker and creating new and different films was what he wanted to do. According to Donald Richie’s book “The Films of Akira Kurosawa”, Kurosawa said, “This film did not interest me in the slightest. I had already done it once. This was just warmed-over.”
But he reluctantly accepted to create a sequel and all principal cast members returned in 1945 for the sequel “Zoku Sugata Sanshiro” (續姿三四郎).
Unfortunately, the sequel would not do as well as the first. Primarily because the majority of the theaters in Japan were bombed and only a few theaters were able to show the film.
The story continues two years later as Sanshiro Sugata (played by Susumu Fujita) continues his travels throughout Japan in 1887. He continues to learn more about life around him but also learn about himself. His name has spread throughout Japan as the man who learned the martial art of Judo defeating those who have practiced Jujitsu.
And while traveling, he discovers many Westerners in Japan. Some who are drunken, some who are rude and beat on Japanese. While traveling to one city, he sees an American sailor beating on a Rickshaw runner and in order to protect him, Sanshiro comes to the rescue and easily defeats the sailor. When a Japanese boxing promoter finds out that Sanshiro is in the area, he offers him a chance to be part of a match to take on a champion American boxer named William Lister.
Sanshiro can’t see why the Americans get so excited of people pounding away at each other and also how loud they are when these men compete. As he has enough of what he had seen at a boxing match, he finds out that a Japanese will be taking on the boxer. Sanshiro is shocked and when he tries to stop the Japanese from participating (because it’s not the Japanese way), the competitor tells him that he must fight for the money because of what Sanshiro Sugata did to jujitsu. With him beating the Jujitsu martial artists, it has put them out of a job.
Sanshiro is crushed by this. He never expected that people would hate him for winning in competitions, nor did he think he would crush people’s dreams, let alone seeing them going hungry and having to resort to such activities for money.
So, Sanshiro Sugata returns back home to his dojo and wanting to renounce judo. But his teacher Shogoro Yano (played by Denjiro Okochi) explains to him that their path is not to be fight, nor is it to make sure judo is the best martial art, it’s about continuing and promoting Japanese martial arts and respecting it.
Sanshiro is comforted by this and his return back to the dojo has brought him some sense of peace, that is until the brothers of Gennosuke Higaki (the antagonist of the first film) come to Tokyo and challenge Sanshiro in a duel to the death.
The brothers Tesshin and Genzaburo are people who have no respect for Japanese martial arts but their own Higaki style of karate and are driven by revenge for their brother Gennosuke who is sick and ill and blame Sanshiro for humiliating him. In fact, these brothers are quite insane and crazy, especially Genzaburo who appears to suffer from seizures and afterward can go insanely made.
His teacher tells Sanshiro that he will not fight, nor will anyone from the dojo. But the Higaki brothers are sure to remind Sugata that they will be coming back after him.
As Sanshiro listens to the rules of his teacher of not to fight without his permission or to take part in any competitions that would humiliate Japanese martial arts, Sanshiro becomes deeply burdened as many students from the dojo are attacked and beaten severely by Tesshin and Genzaburo Higaki.
Sanshiro’s heart tells him that he must fight them but he knows that his teacher has set up strict rules that prevent him from doing so and the last thing that Sanshiro wants to do is go against the teachings of his teacher.
Will Sanshiro fight the Higaki brothers and renounce his martial arts school or will he follow his teacher’s strict rules and uphold the tradition of Japanese martial arts?
VIDEO:
“Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two” is presented in black and white (1:33:1 Aspect Ratio) and where the first film had some issues of darkening and of course, was trimmed down by Japanese censors, the second film doesn’t suffer from any censoring but does have quite a bit of print damage compared to the first film.
I also did notice a editing error in which a Rickshaw runner is talking with Sanshiro and the dialogue is repeated twice. Not sure if that was an original splicing error or an oversight.
Similar to the first film where the picture gets dark at the beginning of Yano’s fight, there is a crucial battle in which the fighters look like they are silhouettes fighting in white. It is known that during World War II, resources by the film industry in Japan were a bit scarce and filmmakers had to work with less resources around that time. But I’m not sure if the darkening is due to the film’s degradation or because of the lack of resources during wartime.
Unfortunately, within the last 60 years, there has not been a better print and so what viewers have seen is a film that has a lot of scratches, dust, warping and unfortunately, some major darkening issues. Granted, this is not throughout the whole film. The film is definitely watchable but where the first film, the darkening happens fairly early, this time around it happens at the final battle.
But considering that this is the only print of the film, this is probably the only way we can enjoy “Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two”.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two” is presented in Japanese monaural with English subtitles. Although, dialogue is clear and understandable for the majority of the film, there is sign of dropdown in dialogue and hissing in the background.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Eclipse Series releases do not come with special features but included in the cover insert is information about the making of the film.
I found the first “Sanshiro Sugata” to be quite enjoyable and despite the film created for the purpose of Japanese propaganda, it was created in a manner that didn’t seem like it. It was primarily a battle between dueling Japanese martial arts but also a story about Sanshiro trying to find himself. Sure, there was symbolism in the first film with the antagonist Gennosuke Higaki sporting Western clothes and being the man who would challenge the hero Sanshiro Sugata. But for the sequel, things are much more different this time around.
It is clear from past interviews that Akira Kurosawa did not like making sequels and for “Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two”, it was a sequel he did not want to do. But as a director just starting out, he reluctantly became the director once again.
When watching “Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two”, you watch a film that has elements of a hero who defends the weak and who does what he can to promote Japanese culture and tradition, most of all, following his teacher in promoting Japanese martial arts. Of course, this time around, things are not as subtle as we see an American sailor bossing around a Japanese rickshaw runner, a boy who can’t even defend himself. But coming to the rescue of the boy is Sanshiro Sugata, a man who has created his own legend, many stories told and of course, like the first film of the children signing a song of “stay away from Sanshiro Sugata”.
Of course, these stories and songs are exaggerations that were created during Sugata’s first battle (seen from the first film) as he underestimated his power and in defense threw his opponent who’s head ended up slamming on the boards and died. But the fact is that people believed those stories and the fact that Sanshiro has come to their village and to see this mysterious Japanese hero beat this rude, mouthy American sailor should have been inspiring to the Japanese viewer at the time. If anything, for us non-Japanese, what an exciting beginning in seeing Sanshiro defeating a mouthy jerk.
As we see Sanshiro disgusted by the loudness and barbarism of American boxing, and as the boxer beating on the Jujitsu challenger. One can expect Sanshiro to come to the rescue once more, but that would be too easy if Kurosawa followed a cliche path. Kurosawa is not that type of director. If anything, he takes the torment that Sanshiro has seen for himself. Defeating opponents but the outcome was not as expected. If anything, he may have popularized judo but for his opponents, they have lost their jobs and now have to take part in such barbarism to put food on the table for their families. Shameful as it may be to the Japanese martial arts, he saw something that his fellow students probably will never see or experience and he is tormented by it.
Since the first film, Sanshiro Sugata has always been a down-to-earth man who has searched in his heart and those around him of the purpose of life. We know he is quick to anger and wants to fight but his teacher has taught him well to know the value of life. The appreciation of Japanese martial arts.
But then we see the broken Gennosuke Higaki. The Japanese martial artist donned in Western garb who was the antagonist from the first film but now as a man who has found the right path once again, who knew he should have furthered Japanese martial arts but instead wanted to exploit it and in the process, lost his match and the disgrace has left him sick and weak. So, now his brothers want revenge.
But these brothers are nothing like Gennosuke. They are unrefined, they are loud and they definitely have no respect for Japanese martial arts. No bowing, no acknowledging the elders, they just want to fight and beat Sanshiro.  The main antagonist is Tesshin, who is mad but at least is able to communicate his desire to fight Sanshiro. While the insane younger brother Genzaburo looks as a possessed spirit ala a Noh drama (or modern Japanese horror films) with the long black hair and menacing face. A man who grows mad after a seizure (which we know that seizure to be epilepsy but no medication of course at the time to prevent it) and also is driven by revenge.
These two look much more menacing than Gennosuke ever was in the first film but nevertheless, characters who have done so much wrong and has brought violence against the students of Sanshiro’s school that he is a man who wants to fight but is bound by the rules of his teacher and the school. Can he continue to fight for the sake of Japanese spirituality? For the sake of Japanese martial arts or will his desire for fighting consume him?
“Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two” is a much more different film as the first. With the first, although created as a propaganda film, the tones of the film were there but quite subtle. This time around, its a little more in your face. Also, while all characters made their return for the sequel, their part in the film is much smaller than before with the exception of the teacher and the priest. Sayo does make an appearance but is limited to a few scenes of a woman who installs her faith in Sanshiro (which does ended up saving his life).
Also, the film also has its share of foreigners playing Americans but during World War II, it’s important to note that these foreigners were not American but legal foreign residents of Japan playing American. Nevertheless, the inclusions of many non-Japanese actors in a Japanese film at during wartime was quite interesting to see in an earlier Kurosawa work.
I would imagine that “Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two” was definitely more commercially driven as the company saw how well the first one did, they wanted to repeat its financial success. Unfortunately, due to a few theaters that were able to play the film, the sequel would never achieve the success of the first.
Overall, “Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two” is an enjoyable and entertaining film. Definitely not a great sequel to the first but because of its share of action, it is easily accessible and if anything, it was great to see the talent from the first film back together once again and to the see characters in another film would definitely make fans of the first film excited. I was definitely excited to see the sequel but admit, like many sequels, this one was not as good as the first film.
As mentioned in my video and audio review of this film, the film does have darkening issues, print damage and some audio issues but considering this is probably the only way to watch this 65-year-old film, similar to silent films or early talkies, you just have to be grateful of what we do have in for these older films and be grateful that we are seeing it at all. The film is still enjoyable despite having some issues with the video but not bad enough to hamper the enjoyment of the film.
Another awesome inclusion to the “Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa” DVD set.