Sanjuro

Toshiro Mifune reprises his famous role from Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO (1961) in the entertaining sequel SANJURO, in which the renegade samurai becomes involved with a group of young idealists determined to end the graft and corruption overrunning their land. Along with its successful predecessor, SANJURO represents Kurosawa at his commercial best, with both films revolving around the marvelously eccentric mannerisms of Mifune's performance, who swaggers through the entire film with a bemused expression--grimacing, scratching, yawning, and stretching in an ironic counterpoint to his character's phenomenal skill as a swordsman. The film's humor arises from Sanjuro's ...