Film Review: Sanjuro (dir. A. Kurosawa, 1962)

And you thought I was done with Kurosawa movies? Not likely. Last weekend we went to "Samurai Cinema" at the AFI Silver and saw Hidden Fortress (1958). As some may know, George Lucas borrowed very liberally from Hidden Fortress. If you think about it, Star Wars is all about the location of a hidden fortress. Plus, there's a princess and a brave samurai protecting her . . . but most importantly, there's the idea of telling the story from the point of view of two bickering secondary players (think R2-D2 and C3PO).

Well, the elements of Star Wars not "borrowed" from Hidden Fortress are "borrowed" from Sanjuro, which is kind of a sequel of Yojimbo. The masterless samurai ("ronin") depicted here is clearly the model for the Jedi, at least in the original trilogy. "Sanjuro" (the samurai is really "The Man with No Name," but here he calls himself "Sanjuro") is a sword-master (why do the Jedi use light sabers? because samurai use swords) who throws his lot in with a rather hapless bunch of young men fighting corruption in their prefecture. There are plots within plots, counter-plots, and a lot of deception. Think how Obi-Wan Kenobi disguises himself and moves with stealth; how he and Darth Vader play cat and mouse, and then . . . there's even a final swordfight.

There's even one shot--of those young men being helped by Sanjuro, hiding from the bad guys under the floor boards of a house--that Lucas just stole. (Millenium Falcon!)

This movie is faster-paced than many Kurosawa films, with a running time of 96 minutes. It has plenty of action and lots of plot. Fun, but not one of Kurosawa's more serious efforts. I would recommend it, however, to Star Wars fans, interested in the origins of the Jedi.