Ep. 278 Akira Kurosawa’s Sanjuro (1962)
And we are live. So, uh, welcome to episode 278 of An American Werewolf, uh, in New Jersey. I am Michael Martin, aka the American Werewolf. Uh, in the house tonight, we’ve got the samurai with no name returning once again, but you can call him John. Uh, and he his eye he goes, “My eye has the glint of an unshathed sword.” So bear that in mind and tread carefully. Nice to see you again, man. Nice to see you, good sir. Happy Labor Day. Believe it. Yeah, indeed. Indeed. The summer is or at least the summer season is officially over and now we’ll be moving into fall really quickly. Uh, it’s been really great and beautiful weather. Um, I’ve been enjoying it so cannot complain. Uh, baseball’s coming to a close. Uh, football is about to kick off on Thursday. Yes, it is. And, uh, I’m looking forward to it. Yeah, here will be. Here will be. That’s right. So, um, I’ve never I I got a chance to finish this a few days ago and it’s maybe the first time I’ve seen it in maybe 20 years. Really? It certainly is the first time I’ve watched it in terms of being backtoback with the Ajimbo and it certainly is the first time I’ve watched it through an entire summer of Kiraasawa movies. Um, I’ve got a lot to say about this year. Uh, and I’m talking about Akira Kurasawa’s Sanura. So, if you’re ready to go, shall we kick it off? Let’s get it on. kicking with lefts and rights. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. [Music] Don’t [Music] be in trouble. [Music] Heat. Heat. Are you going to fear? [Music] I love the subtle intro, Michael. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, so I think it would have been very easy for Kurasawa to remake the same film all over again. Uh, he had a very popular character in Muffuni Sanjurro, which is the name that he sort of goes by. You know that he’s making it up. Uh, he used it in the first one. Um, and it probably would have been popular, but this guy uh came up with the idea to insert this character into a comedy, which I just think is fantastic. A huge shift in the tone. And yet somehow Mafi retaining who he is playing the straight man now. Instead of one among many, now he’s the only straight man. uh in the entire film. Uh it’s very light, it’s comedic, um and there are characters in there. Usually, you know, when you do something like this, you end up making your straight man uh an idiot because everyone else is just making fun of him. He succeeds in just completely kicking it through the goalposts. Um I less it’s about a 90minute movie. uh much shorter and yet somehow uh maybe even more enjoyable than Yimbo. At least that was my initial take. Uh what did you think? Um I’ve always told people when I got to direct Shakespeare that even in in a lot of his dramas and the very serious tragedies, there’s always humor. And in this, I mean, there were some tough scenes in it and everything else, but the humor just came through and it was normal. It was very natural or organic, as they would say. It wasn’t like they were trying to make it funny, but just by the way they did some of the action, it came out hilarious. Yeah. It was like the Marx Brothers meet, you know, Samurai. Yeah. Yeah. Um you had um this story of one corrupt official blaming the innocent official for corruption, accusing him of essentially of the crimes that he’s committing. He’s arrested. Um and you know they’re sort of trying to pressure him into writing a false confession, admitting to these things. Y you’ve got these young kids. They’re not exactly kids, but they’re like, you know, very young uh and inexperienced samurai u who basically have no idea what to do uh how to rescue uh their lord or their uncle. Um there’s about 10 of them and they’re just completely lost trying to figure out what to do when all of a sudden you hear this yawning uh in the background uh you know and out walks the Shiro Mafoodi because he’s been squatting in the back of their house um just sleeping uh like what the hell are you guys doing? And and like I was saying last week, he becomes like a mentor to them with this tough love uh kind of approach, you know, where one second he’s insulting him and whacking him with sticks uh and the next second, you know, he’s like risking his life. Um just to help them in his cause in their cause. probably one of the best entrances I’ve seen because I saw this after I saw The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger as the Joker. When he comes out of that room, I started laughing and almost cheered. Yeah. Because it was like what? And it’s it’s perfect for that entrance and for him and it was believable for that character. Yeah. Yeah. Right. He took a he took a caring to them right away. Yeah. um like he’s listening to their story and I love that he addresses the fact that like the chamberlain is the man who’s been arrested, the superintendent is the man who says he’s going to help. And he instantly figures this out. He’s like, “No, it sounds like the superintendent’s really the bad guy here.” He goes, “Let me guess.” And I love that they put this in there. Let me guess. Uh the Chamberlain’s not really very good-looking. um you know to to to like have that bias that people have towards attractive people you know uh you know you kind of be you know treat them more favorably you know this that and the other and they’re like well yeah how did you like he’s just he’s seen it you know he kind of he knows right away and he’s seen the deal he knows exactly what’s happening here and he’s like yeah you guys have it all backwards yeah I to To me it was kind of just like they weren’t to me weren’t kids. They were just incredibly naive. Yeah. Yeah. And in a good way. It wasn’t like you know they were completely fools but they believed in oh no this is what happens and here comes the worldly figure saying here let me let me let me give you a little knowledge right now. Let me explain this to you. Yeah. Let me walk you through it. Yeah. It’s amazing. It’s funny because I saw that as I was watching this, I saw this video on X um and it’s this woman and it says these women are the backbone of the New York City retail economy and it’s just some really beautiful woman with like huge boobs and a summer dress just moving around New York and like one minute she’s like this is my day today and she’s doing hot yoga and then she’s off drinking lattes somewhere and taking selfies and this guy the the the retweet on it and For 90% of the population, if they could live the life of a woman this beautiful for one single day, see how the world treats them, they would want to die as soon as they went back to their real life. These day in the life videos approximate that. And that he picked up on these people like figuring that, you know, their own uncle must be corrupt simply because he was, as he calls himself later in the movie, horsefaced. Yeah. You know, it was just I just thought that was great. Yeah. And I loved that because they were like the ones the the the true believers of no, you get elected as this and you’re the good person and he’s no no that that’s really not the way that’s that’s not the way it works. Yeah. Let me bring the news to you. Yeah. I mean, and like, you know, I guess because, you know, he is a man of action, like he instantly puts his neck out on the line for these guys. Um, because the Chamberlain’s uh the superintendent’s people are just going to come to kill all of them, too, or arrest them, right? You know, and so he hides them like like little ducks like up under the floor. And I just thought that that was just such a beautiful shot. Um, oh yeah. Uh, where they like stick their heads up and they just look like like like little children. Like they’re not children. You can see from the these are the people that Mafood is trying to help. They’re young men, but they just look so innocent and naive like they don’t know. They’re babes in the woods when he popped open the floor and walks away and then they pop up one by one by one by one. It’s like the first one come. Okay, it’s okay. Okay. you. Come on. It’s And I’m like, “Oh my god.” And it was funny because you saw him right there and then when he turned around and went and when he did the um the councilman’s men that showed up, he was like, you know, you woke me up. Yeah. You know, don’t make me angry. And just beats the hell out of them. Yeah. Yeah. Like he’s not even trying to kill them. Like he doesn’t even pull the sword out of the sheath. He’s just beating him with the cage, you know, and just sort of whacking the [ __ ] out of everybody, and then when he leave, he’s like, “Come on out.” Yeah, you can come out now. Uh it’s just it’s a completely different tone. You know, we talked about this and you got into it uh last week with Yimbo. It starts off with that dog carrying the human hand and you’re just like, “What the hell?” And you know, this guy is telling his father to piss off. you know, you don’t know anything. I’m gonna live my life the way I want to live it. You know, he meets that guy in the end and he’s like, “Go back to your father.” Like, go eat porridge. Yeah. You know, and live, you know, but this is just completely different. And I just think it’s fantastic. It’s fantastic. He’s like, he’s the gruff character. I don’t want to say has a heart of gold, but he genuinely cares. He He will protect somebody who’s innocent type. We hold on a second. We got a comment here. Hey, we got Eric from Hey, Internet Eric. Here he goes. Good evening, gentlemen. Just stopping by and saying hello before I start my homework for tomorrow night. Oh, hope you’re well. Yes, go and watch the uh Eric will be joining us tomorrow uh for Kurissawa’s The Hidden Fortress. So, uh yeah, I’m looking forward to getting into that. That’s called a plug for those of you who don’t know. Yes. Yes. Plug in the show for tomorrow. So, I I’m definitely looking forward to getting into that. But, um, wait, where were we? Where were we just what were we just talking about about him being the the tough character, but genuinely caring. Well, we talked about that last week. like he definitely has a code, you know, he could save your life, he could spare your life, he could take your life, you know, and depending on what the circumstances are, you know, he’s just kind of this guy wandering around getting himself into different adventures. And right again, you know, you could see where Kurasawa, you know, sort of kicks off the genre or is the inspir these movies are the inspiration for the spaghetti western. um right you know where you know you got the gruff stoic kind of guy you don’t know who he is you know there’s no real romantic angle in this or anything like that uh he’s just kind of on his own doing his own thing he’s not looking for friends you know he’s not looking to get married or anything like you know there’s no you know romantic resolution at the end or anything like that and at the end he just kind of walks off off into the next thing you know and That’s exactly what the spaghetti western, especially when we started to get into it with Eastwood, uh, typifies. Exactly. It was like the only thing that was missing more in this one than in, uh, Yojimbo, I was waiting for him for a horse to walk by and him to jump on it and ride off into sunset type. Yeah. Here, how feel about him? He He just kind of walked off. He just kind of walks off here. Um, now one of the problems of course in the movie is that these naive gentlemen, you know, being naive, want to at least half of them want to argue with him about everything. Exactly. Because it’s like arguing with middle schoolers, you know, they think that they know more than you. They don’t know a [ __ ] thing. Uh, but they’re just going to give you a hard time about it. Well, did you ever hear the the quote from Will Rogers where he turned around and said, “I can’t believe how smart my father became from the time I was 18 to the time I was 21.” Yeah. Yeah. I can’t believe how much the old man learned in such a short period of time. And because the the joke is when I have to explain it to people, it was like the father didn’t change, he did, right? They all felt they knew everything because they were at a certain age or a certain period and this is what the books told them. This is what and he just turned around and went, “No, you know, there’s that’s great. That’s a lovely story. This is the reality.” Yeah. This is what they’re because it was amazing how he was secondguessing everything and he was pretty accurate. He did it in uh you know Yojimbo, but in this one he did it so much I was like wow he’s almost like Svengali here you know and the way that it’s done is I mean they they they show it to you um you know they’re not telling you they just kind of show you like when you see the shot of them coming out of the like you just automatically know that they’re kids, you know, and then there’s the other shot where they go to spy and then Mafoody walks and remember this that scene where they move like a procession of ducks, right? You know, all following the mother duck. And I’m just like, that’s just [ __ ] genius cinematography. I mean, just this small scene that tells you everything you need to know right there without saying a [ __ ] word. It’s great. And weren’t you and weren’t you waiting for him just to look at all of them and go, “You silly bitches.” Yeah. Go hide. Go hide in the bushes. What the hell? He just turns around and he’s like, “This isn’t going to work.” Like you guys like they’re all following him like in a perfect line, you know, like Yeah. ducks following their mother and it’s just it’s a genius. It’s just a genius shot. um telling you twice probably inside of 10 minutes like exactly where everybody stands. There’s not a line of dialogue involved. There’s just absolutely nothing. It’s just these two shots that probably take no more than 20 seconds and it just it lets you know everything right there. Probably the hardest thing to do in that whole shot or those two shots was not to laugh. probably, you know, because I was waiting for I was waiting just to turn around if there’s any Kiraasawa bloopers good money to see it because that had to be just the look that he gave him was like, “Oh, Jesus Christ.” Yeah. Yeah. And like but it was it made his character endearing. Yes. As much as I liked him in the first movie, the sequel I really started liking him more. Yeah. And I think it’s because I was so used to him and got used to him in the first one to see him pick up. It’s kind of like it’s like Clint school with a dog whenever he did like the Dirty Harry movie. Oh, great. Hey, nice talk. You want them? Yeah. Yeah. I was waiting for him to say that. Hey, nice kids. You want them? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Please go right ahead. And he he he shows like for a guy who’s not afraid to like, you know, kill you, he shows amazing patience with them. Like the guy’s arguing with him and he goes, “Don’t you ever say yes once in a while?” Like whatever Muffoney says, he’s got to say the opposite. So it really is like talking to a middle schooler. And Mafoon’s reaction until things start to get really heavy and like lives are on the line. He’s like, “Don’t you ever just say yes once in a while?” You know? Exactly. You know, don’t you ever just, you know, want to agree one time just for, you know, for argument sake, you know? Exactly. What did you think of the Chamberlain’s wife and daughter? I I I honestly thought that they were the best charact for me personally, I thought that they were the best characters in uh in the movie. They were my favorites. Let’s put it that way. outside outside of um you know the Ronin. I think they were too. I love the fact that the mother was being played wise. She was she was more insightful than anybody and in he knew it. He caught it. He was like I’m you know I can’t snow her. I can’t I can’t you know do my usual charm and trick. G was right on the money. I just I I thought that they were great. Um they had a they had this like you could tell Mafoodi was kind of put off by them, you know. Uh he didn’t know quite how to act in that kind of company. Uh because they’re very classy. Uh you know, they’re very uh formal. Uh they’re very ladylike. Uh, and yet at the same time, like, uh, what was the one? Um, he’s like, I’ll go deal with these guys. And she’s like, I don’t want to sound ungrateful because you just rescued us, but like killing people is a bad habit. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. She’s He’s just like, uh, okay, look, I got it. You know, just Right. Well, that’s where the line is. That’s where the line came from. From under my name. She looked at him and said, “You have a glint.” Yeah. And he’s like, “What? You have a glint like an unshathed sword, and that’s not good. A sword. A sword should be sheathed sometime.” Yeah. And I love that because the look that hit his face, it he wasn’t expecting that. And And I I’m sorry, I keep forgetting his name, the actor. Maf Terra Mafoney. Muffi. I don’t know why I keep thinking Muff and I’m like, “No, that’s not it. That doesn’t sound right.” Muffi Muffi has that wonderful way of actually saying more with a look than any bit of dialogue can do. I mean, it’s ironic that he gets compared to Eastwood with the Spaghetti Westerns because Eastwood can do the same thing. That look when she said that to him, he was kind of startled, but then you realized he was saying, “And she’s right.” Yeah. You know, Yeah. you know, he was, you know, without saying a word. Yeah. She keeps offering like the nonviolent alternative and it ends up saving a bunch of lives. Like at one point, I think he plans to like set the whole temple on fire, you know. She’s like, “No, no, like that’s too much.” You know, she gives like the other alternative like of what he could do, you know, like do something else or, you know, this that or the other. She’s like, “No.” Yeah. But it’s just the way that she does it. It’s so calm. Yeah. Yeah. Like, well, she was the ying to his yang. She never loses her poise. The daughter is kind of the same way. Yeah. You know, you could see her becoming that way and working with um the leader of the younger group. Yeah. They got older that I don’t I’m not, like I said, I’m not into sequels, but if Kiraawa did something with those nine getting older, you know, that would have been cool. I would have liked to seen that because they they they got out of they graduated and got out of school and now there’s nine of them with those with those two women. Um I don’t know if you knew this in today’s society. Uh Kershaw gets a lot of heat for being a misogynist. He gets accused of misogyny. Um you know the women that he portrays are sometimes quite you know evil. Um, you know, it’s not it’s not always a flattering interpretation. Uh, I didn’t think that he was a misogynist, though. I just think that sometimes women are [ __ ] evil. Um, but this um portrayal here uh offset a lot of that or does offset a lot of that. Like if you had watched um you weren’t like I you weren’t here for when we did Rand, were you? No, I wasn’t here for a ride. And the lady Kaid and she was just evil to the she was evil, but then once you kind of understood her perspective, you’re like, “Oh, I kind of see why she did what she did.” Again, going back to Shakespeare, some of the more evil characters in Shakespeare’s uh tragedies were the women. You had Lady McBth. You had uh King Leair’s daughters who were fight I mean there’s one scene with one daughter puts the heel of her boots into one guy’s both of his eye sockets because he saw too much. I mean these were evil women who were for were for lack of a better term manipulating but then in the same spin he will draw women that are strong and even in a calm manner. Yeah, Kiraasawa to me does that as well. He plays the women as if they’re human. I mean, I’m not going to say I’ve met a lot of women in my life who are conniving, but I’ve met a few. Sure. And I met a lot of women in my life who were very demure. And I let them a lot of women who when I’m saying, “All right, I’m going one way or if I have a head full of steam,” my one sister literally puts her hand on my chest and says, “No. stop. Why don’t you try that or think this way? Sure. You know, but they only remember the negative when you represent something. I think you know there are different ways I mean in the world uh that women that women can employ their femininity. Um right you know they can use it you know not I wouldn’t so far I wouldn’t make it so black and white as to say for good and evil. Um, but they can use it to maneuver in different ways and sometimes it’s yeah, it’s quite manipulative and sometimes, you know, depending on what you’re seeing on your social media timeline, it’s it’s quite awful. Um, you know, and that’s a fact as well. These characters, uh, unlike some of the others that we’ve seen, I I like when we saw Yujimboa, um, and the one mob plus his wife is like, uh, trafficking all those women. Yeah. You know, I’m sorry. When every when the whole place is burning down, she’s still feeding the woman to get the money. Yeah. Before they leave and save their lives, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Before you leave, give up that last [ __ ] Give up that last coin. Yeah. That’s it. And one of the thing I liked about the older woman, when she wouldn’t climb the wall and he drops on his knees and says, “Go ahead. Go ahead.” The first thing she said was, “I’m sorry.” Yeah. Yeah. And he steps on his back to climb up. I love that because she was she was serious. I’m really sorry, you know, and you just turn. I Yeah, they were the perfect foils for the Sanjurro character. They were the perfect foils for him. I mean, like I said, he just made a completely different movie with the same character and it’s just it’s a hit. It’s a hit. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’m trying to think of in another one two punch in films because like you can get a movie where the second film is better than the first one. Maybe you want to argue aliens, Terminator 2 or Godfather 2 or something. Can you think of another movie where they the second movie is just a completely different movie though? You know what? I was thinking of it or I was trying to think of it because I keep going back to the Clint Eastwood but not even not even the count not even a man with no name like I was thinking dirty Harry in some cases even though he does the shooting at the end he’ll find a character that will challenge him but even that no this is this is completely because you’re seeing him he’s the same but changing you know or I should say maturing in it in his decisions in in this movie and even in the comedy him being the straight man was perfect. Oh yeah. Like if if he did a if he all of a sudden got silly I’d be mad. Yeah. Or or if they made him look bad. Yeah. Exactly. That’s what happens to the straight man most of the time in in comedies. You know, he gets made a fool out of and it never happens here. Yeah. Not at all. No. He’s still he’s still ahead of them. They’re just playing they’re just the the humorous relief, the comic relief, so to speak. Yeah. I mean, like we were talking about that a couple of like two years ago when the last Indiana Jones film came out. Oh god. I don’t know if you remember that when we turned around and said how they took this character and at the last one they were belittling the character. They made a fool out of him. They made a fool out of him. They didn’t do that with this. No. And they could and they could have, but I don’t think that’s Kira Sawa’s way. I think it was just as I read on some of my and I’m assuming you may have saw it too on some of the things I was reading. Carousel said he wasn’t intentioned this being a sequel, but he just said, “I just wanted to make another movie.” Yeah. That was simple with this character. He never approached it as a sequel. And I think that also what makes it work. He just said, “Okay, same characters, new story.” Yeah. And it worked. Yeah. Which is a good point. He wanted to repeat the same formula. That That’s an excellent point when you talk about that last Indiana Jones movie where they they just made a full like every he needed to be helped or corrected like at every [ __ ] turn. And you’re like, “This isn’t Indiana Jones.” Like, “What have you done to that man?” You know, and then at the end that woman punches him in the face and knocks and you’re like, “What is this?” Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That’s the point. You still loved, like I said, when he woke up and walked in and said, “You woke me up with your talking and everything else.” And I smiled. Yeah. Because I’m like the c it’s the same. It’s the character. It’s like seeing an old friend walk through the door. One of one of the other characters I loved here was the guy that they kidnapped uh who ends up sort of becoming like an ally like yeah he’s just you know when they come back from that one adventure and the lady lets she the lady lets him go they’re like what the hell are you doing out here? He’s like eating and she’s like the lady heard me sneeze she cut me loose and he’s like wearing his best kimono. He’s wearing my brisket and he’s and he’s helping them. Yeah. At one point in time and then later on when they all celebrate and start dancing, he’s like, “Oh, yeah.” And he goes back into the closet. Yeah. That that’s like one of the greatest that’s one of the best scenes in the whole movie. They’re all celebrating and eating and he’s like, “Oh, yeah. Sorry. I’m on the other side. Sorry.” But I mean I did I I I I started to like him because it was like as he said I started listening to you and thinking about my life. Yeah. And he realized he’s he’s the bad guy, you know. Yeah. He said, you know, what I was told turned out not to be true. You know, I talked to the lady and I heard you guys talking. He goes, nothing I told nothing I was told was correct, you know. So, you know, it’s and it wor I was like I really started to like him. Yeah. You know, he was one of my favorite characters. Yeah. And again, all these changes that happened. I mean, I used the term before it was organic. It didn’t feel fake or it didn’t feel you just the story made them change or made them do their actions or reactions. It wasn’t like I never felt anything was forced. No, no, it had really liked about that. It had a great pace. Uh, you know, it wasn’t anything that lingered. Uh, if it did get serious, it got broken up with some really light-hearted comedy that like made you laugh out loud. Yeah, I like I said, I just I I I I’ve never watched this back to back, excuse me, with the Jimbo. Uh I certainly have never watched it over the span of, you know, an entire summer of these films. And you realize, of course, that by the time 1962 has gone around, we’re not talking about the war anymore, you know, right? We’re we’re just we’re making movies now. We’re having fun. Uh you know, it’s time to get back on the horse. You know, we’re having a good time here. I got my go-to guy Muffi here and yeah, there was a lot more tradition to it. You know, there was a lot more tradition, you know, that that that whole culture. Yeah. Even even with the naive and the humor, there’s just some of the way he was acting and the other people were responding and I’m like, you know, this was a I couldn’t get over how much I liked it. I really was. I was expecting to like it. I fell in love with it by hand. you they had they’ve gotten over that feeling of self-loathing. Yeah. You know that that that’s done with. You know, the war has been over with now for 17 years. You know, we just want we want to celebrate our heritage and the good parts of it. Uh and there are many good parts of it. There’s plenty of heroism in Japan. You know, we can pick our heads up and Yeah. I mean, you got one of the best filmmakers of all time, uh, just out there hitting it out of the park. Um, and he had the baddest man in the land. Yeah. In a comedy. The the Yeah. The original man with no name. And like you realize Eastwood later on maybe was making movies like that when he was doing like two mules for Sister Sarah when he was doing like Charlie Mlan, you know, and these sorts of things. So he was playing like that same He always because Eastwood always plays Clint Eastwood, you know. He does and he plays him well. Yeah. And he plays him extremely well. Um but you could see later in the late 60s, early 70s, he was starting to roll a little bit into comedy. You know, you’re getting every which way but loose uh you know, kind of stuff coming along. But you see what sets the tone for these things, man. And like it’s like Muffi is the precursor to Eastwood. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I I agree. I think he’s more I would love to see one more movie with this character because he’s to me becoming the epitome of the badass. Yeah. You know, type deal. He’s the right and I could kick myself for waiting this long to see it. You know, that was that’s foolishness on my part because I always seen other movies, but I’m like, why did I skip over these movies? These two, you know, I I could shoot myself with for that. Well, I mean, you know, that we get around to it now. Um, you know, that that’s been good for me. Some of these carousel movies like Drunken Angel, uh, like I like High and Low, I’m seeing them for the first time myself. You know, I saw the seven samurai and I saw your Jimbo and Sanjurro, but you know, the samurai kind, but these other ones, I hadn’t seen those before. Um, you know, I remember the first 20 minutes, like we talked about watching drunken angel and it’s like the three stooges, it’s him and that doctor just slapping each other around and you’re like, “What the hell is this?” And then it settles into what it’s going to become and you’re like, “Oh, this is fantastic.” Like I saw Ron when it was in the movie theater. Okay, that was 85. Funny when I was when I was talking to somebody about it, uh, one of the acting teachers at Stockton, they said, “Oh, you started off with the wrong one.” And I looked at him, he said, “No, it’s a great movie. Don’t get me wrong, but there are so many other movies. If you go back and try to watch them and then go watch it again, you know, you’ll appreciate it more.” And he was right. Yeah. When I started catching some of Kiraasawa older movies and then I got to Ron again, I was like, “Wow.” I mean, I I got more out of it. I could see what he was doing. Yeah. You could see the progression. Yeah. You can see the progress as he developed as a filmmaker. And then getting towards the end of it with, like you said, with Ron in 85. I mean, we started in 48 with Drunken Angel. So by the time you get to Ryan, you’re looking at almost 40 years later, you know, and he’s just, you know, he’s doing things that are just off the charts. You’re like, “Holy, like this guy’s doing King Lear, you know, in Samurai film, you know, you’re like, “Holy shit,” you know, like this is this is so bold. And he reminded me like when I started seeing that and seeing went back and then got back to Ron again, I started he’s John Houston. He’s, you know, Yeah. those you you know he the way he tells a story you know you start looking for it you start you know and there’s no there’s no risk aversion with this guy. Yeah. Like imagine the chance he he took between one movie in 61 that we covered last week and this movie like this could have just fallen right on its face. But right and we were just talking about this today in in the group chat. You know, producers are driving uh Hollywood today. It’s not the filmmaker, right? You know, and look what happens when you let the cook when you let the chef cook. Yeah. Exactly. Look what happens when you let the chef cook. Just let the guy [ __ ] cook, you know. Get out of the kitchen. Yeah. Exactly. Sit down. Let him bring the meal after the table. He’s taking care of the meal. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But I see I see that with a lot of people and of late. The only one I think who can actually have the like the quote unquote experience and gravitas to fight it is a Nolan. Yeah. You know, because he, you know, because of some of the stuff he’s hit out of the park. Yeah. Um I mean, even Scorsesei, there’s times I’ve seen Scorsesi movies I like, but I’m trying to remember. There was one point I went, “Okay, he’s starting to not Yeah. you know, be the Scorsesei that I knew. The same thing happened. It’s not Yeah. Yeah. You saw that with Copela, too. Yeah. That’s the one thing I like about Spielberg. Spielberg, even if he does a nice movie, it’s him, you know, he he’s But then again, he went through the same thing back in 2012 when um he was trying to get Lincoln. When he was making Lincoln, no studio wanted it. He was ready to take it to HBO. Was that him doing Lincoln? Yeah, I own a copy Lincoln D Lewis. Okay. Yeah, I own a copy. But but he turned around he turned around and he was at some he was talking about the the he was the first one I heard talk about the Marvel movies because the Avengers first Avenger film came out and Spielberg said I have nothing against it actually. I really like the movie. It was a blast but it was like a carnival ride and that’s exactly what you wanted to feel. It was great. Yeah. He said Lincoln’s gonna be He was predicting the fact that movies like this are going to go to Netflix in the future. Yeah. And that was back in 2012, 2013. But he said, “I had Lincoln, which won an Academy Award for this and Academy Award, and I’m trying to send it to a studio and nobody won it. HBO said, give it to give it to us. We’ll show it.” Yeah. You know, but it was because they were looking at it going and it’s it’s the the tone has changed. You made a hell of a meal. Sit down and eat. Yeah. Just sit down and, you know, eat your food. Um guy just cooked you a seven course meal. Um and you’re looking for a burger. Yeah, exactly. You’re looking for a burger and fries. I think we’re going I hope um that that sort of wave has broken and that you know eventually actual cinema uh finds its way back onto the big screens again. Uh that it’s not you know because you can’t just wait once every three years for a Nolan movie or every five years right or for you know every six years or whatever for a James Cameron movie you know or something or Niger. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was actually very happy when I heard a 12-year-old that’s a a child of um um um of somebody who works at the village where I work turn. He was 12 years old going, “I can’t wait for Del Toro’s Frankenstein.” Yeah. Because he had just seen Pinocchio at like nine and loved it. Yeah. I’m like, “Good. You’re on the right path, kid.” Yeah, you are. You know, you know, good for you. Yeah. Yeah. And so this is why when I’m I’m so glad you were doing this summer at Kiraasawa because I got to see movies I haven’t seen. Yeah. It makes me reappreciate him. And as much as we worked in this channel to cover horror or sci-fi or thrillers that um were better than average. Um they don’t compare to this kind of stuff. You’re just in a completely different category. And every once in a while we touch on something that, you know, fell into this category like The Exorcist or something like that, but I’d say seven out of 10 times they did not. Um, and maybe they were fun to talk about, you know, this that or the other, but it’s just it’s not the same thing. It’s not the same thing. You’re in a you’re in a different you’re there are levels to this stuff as cliche goes. As as much as I like The Witch, there’s very few of that type of movie being made, you know, too. Yeah. You wait until the next you know. Yeah. Yeah. We wait till that’s when the next week. Yeah. You know, but it’s it’s nice to have have a place to talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, once again, let me say thank you, Michael. Oh, well, thank you for joining me. I appreciate you. So, um there was another scene in there that uh cur the one with the um chameleas. Yeah. Um and this was the alternative to burning the temple down. He wanted to burn the house down. Muffi wanted to burn the house down and like no no that’s too much. Like how about some flowers? Yeah. Which is just as a contrast. But C wanted the technology at the time, they didn’t have it, uh to do this in such a way that the the flowers, the reds and the whites because if you remember, there’s two different colors of chameleas that they wanted to put into the stream. Uh he wanted to show those in color, but they didn’t have the technology. I think they were like a year away from it. So, you can’t really see the which ones are the reds and which ones are the whites. You know, it sort of defeats the purpose of mentioning them that way. You know, you you can’t But when he was holding when he was holding the ones that looked darker, I’ll give it that. You know, it wasn’t there. I I could Okay. I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t tell. All right. So, I mean, eventually they they free the Chamberlain and I love the Chamberlain. He’s only the guy that they’re trying to rescue is only in it for five minutes like at the end, right? You know, and he’s just he’s so you could see he’s the perfect match for that woman. Yeah. you know, they’re like two peas in a pot. You know, he’s self-deprecating and he doesn’t take himself seriously at all and you know, he’s funny and Yeah. I mean, they’re just he’s an old politician. Yeah. Kind of sort of, but he’s honest. You know, he’s an honest man. Oh, no. I’ve seen I’ve seen some old honest politicians like uh when I’m trying to remember his name. um the Republican who ran in ‘ 64 and lost uh against to um um LBJ. Yeah. No, LBJ won in 64. Gold somebody. Oh, Barry Goldwater. Yeah, thank you. I couldn’t remember his name. I was thinking Goldberg and I’m like, “No, that’s the rest.” No. Yeah. No, not Goldberg. Not Goldberg. after he lost. I read I read quotes after he lost in ‘ 64 and he was funnier than the hell because he was honest. It was kind of like I’m never going to be president. What do I got to lose? And this guy reminded me of that person when he got to the point going what are you going to do? Fire me? He’s also glad that Muffi has left. He’s like I don’t do well with those kind of guys. They kind of run you over. you know, I’m just, you know, I’m at this point in life where I’m not really, you know, looking for a challenge, you know, or anything like that. You know, I’m glad that he’s gone. Um, and there’s also, and I don’t know if you knew this, that, there’s, of course, there’s the the final scene uh where he has the duel uh with that guy uh at the end and it produces the first of its kind, and it’s called the geyser effect. Yeah. Um because when the cut happens, the blood just like flows out like a river, right? And I don’t know if you caught this, but that was a that was a mistake. That was a mistake. There was a special effects error uh where the I guess the bladder of blood just kind of ruptured and spilled out and uh Kurasawa decided to keep it anyway. And it was funny because out of When it got to that moment in the movie and I saw it, I’m said it had to be this way because then, you know, Neuron went back to the path. Yeah. You know, leave me, you know, he was going back to that life like from the first movie. Yeah. You know, and it to me it had to be that way because even when the kid yelled, “Yeah.” And he went, “You don’t know what the You really don’t know what you’re talking about.” And walked away. Yeah. I love that. I really did. And it was sad. I actually There was the only time in the movie I actually genuinely felt sad because I’m like, “Man, he’s just going to be alone again.” Yeah. Because he’s just like that guy that I just killed was me. Yeah. Like he was just, you know, he could have knew it. Yeah. He’s like, “I don’t know what you’re selling.” He gets really angry with them, you know? Uh like this isn’t funny. Like, you know, that could have just as easily be me. Um Yeah. Not It’s a new, you know, to me it was like it’s a new world and I’m not part of it, you know, like Yeah. You know, that’s his world with the blood and whatever. Yeah. And and uh I did I felt for I I felt really sad for him. That and the wait for the strike between the two of them. Very tense. Very tense. It got to the point that when the blood came, I actually I flinched. Yeah. Well, and when I saw it again, I’m going Yeah. It was kind of I don’t want to say comicish, but you know, didn’t look realistic, but when the first time it came Yeah. I scr my head. It’s stunning. Yeah. It’s stunning the first time you see it. And that set the tone for a lot of other directors. A lot of the directors have stolen that. Um Sam Ramy stole it uh for the Evil Dead. He’s that you know Corawa and what he did in the Evil Dead, you know, with the the excess of blood and gore uh comes from from that scene. Uh Tarantino obviously got it for Kill Bill. Um the Johnny Depp scene Wes Craven stole it. Uh and Johnny Depp’s death in Nightmare the original Nightmare on Elm Street. wood flying. It’s just all over the ceiling and this that the other. Um Peter Jackson uh when he did Dead Alive uh that Gorefest, dude, the original alien when the body when the blood starts spewing first and everything else. It’s they did that twice. the there’s another scene where the alien kills uh one of the engineers and it and it’s blood is spewing and I was like you know because when I saw that I was like oh that’s where this came from you know yeah I mean this guy was just and it was an accident he estabs You know, it’s almost like just unders under un underdiscovered moments of brilliance. Yeah. I mean, it just like there’s just this flow happening and things are happening and you don’t question it, you know? You’re just in that flow state and things just aren’t, you know. Yeah. We’re just going to keep rolling. Because, you know, he looked at it and went, “Yeah, let’s keep it.” Yeah. I could work with that. Yeah. He’s the one that had to make the decision. Yeah. You know, see that’s the one I would love to hear what the producer said. Yeah. Right. Right. You know, oh, you have to cut that. No, I’m not cutting it. Yeah. No, we’re not cutting that. We’re not although at this point I think Kurasawa could have done pretty much anything he wanted. All right. Yeah, pretty much. You know, he’s he’s the probably the premier filmmaker in uh in Japan at the time or at least one of them. Yeah. So, I mean, the film ends, you know, the the I loved that at the end they all go back to being children again. Uh they just bow like little children to him, you know, and because they’re just like like that’s the that’s the real physicality that he shows. Like he’s just like so much so so much higher above them in terms of the the skill set. Um and yeah, I mean then he just kind of walks off and that’s it. Um, yeah, fantastic. We didn’t I don’t know if you mentioned this last week when we did um um Yojimbo, but the walk that he does where he like takes his one shoulder and rolls it. I didn’t know this because when I was doing research for this movie, somebody was talking about that that Kira Sauer told him that he was a wolf in Neo Jimbo. Okay. Everybody had a and he said find a movement like a wolf. And he said he saw a wolf move like that in the zoo and that’s why he does it. H he said and I went and I was like but it was like he did and that’s because he I noticed in the beginning of the movie when he woke up they woke him up right he did the shoulder and then he never did it again throughout the whole movie till the end. I liked that there was a scene where you know where most samurai are like stuck on honor and he’s just you know like we don’t know how to thank you. He’s like just give me some money. He’s like, “Yeah, you know, I I haven’t eaten in a couple of days. I want to buy some sake and get some food and things.” And they just give him the whole bag, but he only takes out a couple like he takes out just he’s like, “This is enough.” You know, like he could have just as easily grabbed the whole thing. And you wouldn’t have thought any less of him because of it. Yeah. But now this is it. It’s all I need. Yeah. This is all I need to get. You know, this is exactly what I said I needed. This is, you know, like I said, he has a code, you know. You know, fantastic character. Fantastic. Absolutely. Absolutely. I I um I’m glad you said, “Hey, do you want to check this movie out?” I’m like, “Sure.” You know, because both of them are worth watching. Yeah. Absolutely. Fantastic. All right. Um is there anything in this film, any scene or any part or segment of this film that you would like to discuss that we have not? No, we pretty much hit everything I wanted to cover and it really got me to again talk about the movie. Yeah. Yeah. Same. Yeah. And um All right, that works. Works for me. All right, then. Um let’s get to the part in the scene where we rate the film. Uh this uh channel has a rating system that goes to zero to five up by halves. So zero 0.5 one 1.5 all the way to five. So zero for example would be I’d rather have bad gas for a week uh rather than watch this movie again uh all the way to five which is this journey this is the destination this is why I watch films in the first place what would you give Akira Kurasawa’s Sanuro you know what I was I was again I was debating it I was like I’ll give it a four or five the more and more I talk about it I’m going five only because even with the humor which like took me off balance in the story when it came to that moment at the end and I’m like oh and life is not always funny and and it got me. Um this is a movie that if I saw it on a television somewhere I’m sitting down and watching it no matter you know where it’s at. Yeah. Picking it up. Yeah. And that’s the funny thing is that you never really see these movies on like American television right? you know, this this is not part of your cable. Yeah. Yeah. You kind of have to seek these things out. Um, and it’s worthwhile when you do. Uh, for me, I’m going with a five. I like this more. I like this more than I enjoyed Yjimboa. Although Yimboa I enjoyed more than I thought I was going to. Um. Right. Again, the risk that Kurasawa took to insert the same character into a comedy uh not make him into a fool. um you know and just uh deliver an A+ story with these this could have easily been a movie where you said there’s too many people in here and people don’t have enough to do like this person’s here why is this person here everybody that was in there even if they didn’t like have play a major role or have some important thing to do you didn’t seem to notice right exactly you didn’t seem to notice that you know there were 10 of them there you Okay. Well, there could have been five and then the other five weren’t doing it. Like, it didn’t matter. There were 10 there. They were all individual characters that you noticed. Yeah. And I and I love that. It wasn’t a group. No. And it was what was weird because it was the same thing for um Eugimbo or that character, the the SA, the road Ronin. What I think worked in the movie was that they they kept his integrity even in his comedy. Yeah. And I think with each character in whatever level there was a certain integrity to them. Like when you look at the older woman, when you look at the younger woman, when you look at the competing samurai that was against them, right? Even the old man at the end, they all had their own level of integrity, right? And I think that’s what really works in this. There was no there was no two-dimensional character. Each one was flushed out. No, I mean even if you got to like the superintendent, you know, who were like these old craven sort of criminals, you know, now and again, like we said last week, now that the samurai period has ended, everybody’s just kind of scrambling for themselves, right? Uh out of which I guess eventually became a middle class because, you know, the system is over. You don’t have to be a peasant anymore. You can move up if you want to. Um, you know, I mean, even they were just sort of, you know, they were they were good characters and like I’m sorry. No, go ahead. No, I was just saying when they try to get the Chamberlain to write a confession and he writes an indictment of like what what they did instead, he’s like this is an indictment. Yeah. You know, when when the people were reading the one poster, I noticed the fact everyone went back and rewatched it. There wasn’t anybody just like staring blankly into space. Everybody was allowing whatever was being said to affect them differently like they would as a person. I mean, even down to the minor characters, they were involved in telling the story. And that’s what I kind of liked, you know, to get it all the way down to that. I mean, Christ, if they had a horse, they had a horse walk on, he’s going to walk on, right? Yeah. Or killer cell was going to shoot him. Yeah. Exactly. Your your performance came up lame. You All right. Um, do you need anything you want to plug? Actually, two things. One thing, remember last week I told about the um of course person who was doing the end of the road theater. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to try to get done if it wasn’t for Labor Day weekend. Well, the the theater or the uh historic Cold Spring Village, one of the places where we have has a small theater in the second floor of one of these older buildings. I actually stayed some plays there over the years. Okay. the village approached her and said, “Do you want to move it here?” Oh, no kidding. To try to give her a space to keep the live thing going for bringing the films and what have you. We’re trying to work that out. So, I hope so. There still might be hope for the End of the Road Theater. Hey, that’d be fantastic. I’m glad to hear that. That would be that would actually and I was because when I walked in, they turned around, the one historian said, “Well, you gave a hell of a pitch.” And I looked at them and the two main like the husband and wife who were the founders said, “Tell us about this theater again.” Okay? You know, so so I’m like a couple of us who knew it spoke about it. So they were all for it because they were looking for something. Uh number two, uh this weekend and next weekend at that village, we’re doing uh this weekend coming up, we’re doing Revolutionary War and reenactment and encampment there. They’re doing a battle at the village, but next weekend’s the Civil War one. Oh, and that’s when we’re doing Clay and Jackson debate again. Okay. in two weeks. They’re bringing it back and I’m playing Clay arguing with Andrew Jackson. Okay. All right. Type deal. All right. Very nice. Yeah. So, just to let anybody know, if you’re in Southern New Jersey, you’ll see me play you’ll see me play clay and then go to the schoolhouse and teach you something if you uh like in Hold on one second, please. Hold on one second. Hold on. He left me alone. If in adv if in advance, I mean, you know, you have some sort of flyer, give it to me. I will I’ll send it to you. Okay. I will send it to you. I’ll post it up here. Not a problem. You got it. All right. For this channel, um, go ahead. I’m sorry. I was gonna say, what about you? What are you doing? uh for this channel. Um tomorrow we will be here uh with Bill and Eric to cover the last of the Kurtis movies uh post Labor Day but not too far past Labor Day when we’re going to be talking about the hidden fortress uh which is a strong um template uh for what became Star Wars from Lucas. In fact, I’m launching it right now. Uh, Criterion Collection DVD and the one of the first special features on there is called Lucas on Kurasawa. So, I’ll have that uh that feedback tomorrow with everybody else. You and I at least at the very least uh will be back next week. Um, and it looks like we’re going to get into a little bit of noir. Exa. Absolutely. One of the one of the all-time greats. Uh, I’m talking about Carol Reed’s uh the third man. uh with the great Orson Wells um which is available on Tuby. I should mention that this movie uh there’s some copies on YouTube and I’ll put them later on in the description if people you know put people put them up there. So watch them and they’re good versions of it too. Yeah, they’re they’re good uh they’re good restored versions. So So check them out. All right. Uh my thanks to uh the Samurai with no name, but you can call him John. And uh we will see you all tomorrow. We will be here in the next video.
Sanjuro (Japanese: ���三十郎, Hepburn: Tsubaki Sanjūrō) is a 1962 Japanese jidaigeki film directed, co-written and edited by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune. It is a sequel to Kurosawa’s 1961 Yojimbo.[2]
Originally an adaptation of the Shūgorō Yamamoto novel Hibi Heian, the script was altered following the success of the previous year’s Yojimbo to incorporate the lead character of that film.
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