Obscure Japanese Film #101
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| Yuzo Kayama |
According to Stuart Galbraith IV in his book The Emperor and the Wolf, this remake of Kurosawa’s debut film (about an early exponent of judo) and its sequel was motivated by the need to turn a quick profit after the inordinately lengthy and expensive production of Red Beard. However, this may not have been the only reason, as Sanshiro Sugata Part Two (1945) not only contained some badly dated anti-Western propaganda, but was actually considered a lost film at the time this remake was produced.*
Toshiro Mifune
In any case, Kurosawa chose to co-produce the film, but not direct it, instead handing the reins over to the 42-year-old Seiichiro Uchikawa, who had been an assistant to an impressive range of directors, including Ozu, Kon Ichikawa, Hiroshi Shimizu and Kenji Mizoguchi. He had found Mizoguchi extremely difficult and eventually been fired by him after a dispute. Nevertheless, Uchikawa became a director himself in 1953. By the time Sanshiro Sugata went into production, he had already directed around 30 films – often also writing the screenplays – and gradually built up a decent reputation without breaking into the A-list. Most of these earlier films are inaccessible, the exceptions being the two immediately preceding this one, namely Tange Sazen (1963) and Samurai from Nowhere (1964). The latter of the two was especially well-received and was likely the reason why Kurosawa chose him as director of this remake. Unfortunately for Uchikawa, Sanshiro Sugata would not be received as positively, at least by the critics, and seems to have damaged his career as he did not direct another feature film until 4 years later; when finally given another chance, he was reduced to making a vehicle for the pop group known as The Tempters. In my opinion, that was unfair – while the remake lacks the panache that Kurosawa himself would no doubt have brought to it, in some ways it improves on the originals, benefitting from the use of widescreen, staging at least some of the fight sequences more effectively, and employing a stronger cast, and it’s certainly far more satisfying than Kihachi Okamoto’s1977 kiddie remake. Uchikawa was also somewhat straitjacketed by the obligation to follow Kurosawa’s blueprint, as Kurosawa made only minor changes to his originals and even had Uchikawa replicate the montage of the abandoned geta.
Yunosuke Ito
Bokuzen Hidari
Tsutomu Yamazaki
Kurosawa further put his stamp on the film by filling the cast with his favourite actors. Yuzo Kayama (son of Ken Uehara) had just co-starred in Red Beard, and makes a good Sanshiro, being both convincing in the fight scenes and likeable in general. Toshiro Mifune is the perfect actor to play his mentor, Shogoro Yano, and it’s great to see him kicking ass at the beginning, hurling multiple assailants into a canal. Also ideal casting is Bokuzen Hidari as the comic priest who gives Sugata a hard time, while Yunosuke Ito and Tsutomu Yamazaki make effective bad guys, and even Takashi Shimura pops up, although his part is so brief it seems a mere token gesture. In the first film, Shimura had played ju-jitsu master Hansuke Murai, the part played here by Daisuke Kato (surprisingly convincing as a formidable martial artist!).
Takashi Shimura
Daisuke Ito and Eiji Okada
Not Robert Shaw, but Eiji Okada
From outside the Kurosawa stable, Eiji Okada is impressive in a dual role as two of the brothers who are Sugata’s most dangerous opponents (as karate master Tesshin, he looks remarkably like Robert Shaw). The female characters are played by less familiar names – Yumiko Konoe is the love interest, while Chisako Hara** plays Yunosuke Ito’s vengeful daughter. Konoe’s main career has been as a singer, while Hara was the wife of director Akio Jissoji, and had a long career, but mainly played supporting roles in movies. Both are fine, but Hara has the more interesting role even though it’s much smaller than Konoe’s.
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| Chisako Hara |
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| Yumiko Konoe |
The high-contrast cinematography looks good throughout, while Yojimbo composer Masaru Sato provides a score which, ironically, seems to be imitating Ennio Morricone’s music for Sergio Leone’s unacknowledged Yojimbo remake, A Fistful of Dollars. The film’s main flaw is that it feels too long at two and a half hours, but otherwise it’s hard to imagine it could have been much improved on by a director other than Uchikawa – unless, of course, it were Kurosawa himself, or perhaps Masaki Kobayashi. On the evidence of the film alone, it’s hard to see why it should have been a career-killer for Uchikawa, although it’s entirely possible there are additional unknown factors which account for the sudden 4-year gap in his film career after this was released. Although this film has been largely ignored by critics, its current of rating of 7.4 on IMDb strongly suggests that most people who have seen it enjoyed it, and I would certainly encourage anyone interested to check it out if you have the chance.
*A print was subsequently discovered in Russia.
**Chisako Hara is listed as two separate people on IMDb.
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