*WATCHED AS A DOUBLE FEATURE WITH YOJIMBO. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT, NOT JUST A RECOMMENDATION*

I think this is the superior film to Yojimbo. Now I know, I’m in the vast minority on that opinion, but I think, maybe the most major factor to this intense love, is the fact I watched them back-to-back. Yojimbo definitely feels like a stand alone film; that could have been the entirety of the tale and it’d be a sound filmic experience, but lucky enough for all of us, this isn’t the case. Sanjuro forces the recontextualization of Yojimbo, which to me became a set-up film. It gets you familiar with our protagonist, showing you what he’s capable of, and this essentially becomes the backstory. Anything that happened before Yojimbo is irrelevant, but everything in Yojimbo is crucial to the crux of the story of Sanjuro.

Sanjuro has one of the greatest openings of all time, in any story-form medium. It literally is like a race, and the revolver was just fired as the first scene takes off, and never stops until it’s equally mind-blowing finale. We are quickly catapulted into the situation of Nine Samurai who are meeting in secret at a shrine to discuss who they can trust. There is a war of corruption going on between one of the samurai’s uncles and the superintendent. They discuss some necessary plot information as they try and decide how to proceed forward. Then out of the shadows in another room Sanjuro emerges. Instantly in this moment the stage is set. We the audience have all the background info we need; we trust him, we know he’s quick on his feet, a literal genius who can come up with plans on the fly, is extremely deadly with a sword, and an all around trustworthy badass, who follows his own code of ethics before anything else. You know who has none of that information? The nine samurai who need it. Sanjuro goes on to explain he’s heard everything they’ve said, and can provide an outside opinion, where he can weigh the information impartially. Of course the Samurai don’t trust him like we the audience do, but he quickly proves he was right (he asserts they should trust the Uncle and not the Superintendent (which was the opposite of their original claims)), how does he prove he’s right? In one of the most terrifying and wild shots in history; there’s a dolly zoom as an uncountable number of the Superintendent’s men run through the trees straight for the shrine the Samurai and Sanjuro reside inside - it was a trap. Sanjuro though, always quick on his feet, manages to save the nine samurai’s lives, and prove his worth to them, all while sparing any bloodshed. And thus is the introduction to our tale, which proves to be a familiar one.

I won’t beat around the bush any longer. Early in this opening scene I made a proclamation that only turned out to be more true as the story continued to unfold; This is essentially the story of Jesus. The movie continues to be trials and tribulations as Sanjuro recognizes this is where he’s destined to be, and plans to see this the whole way through (very similar to what he did in Yojimbo). He continues to try and prove his worth to the samurai, almost immediately gaining trust from some, and constantly having to prove himself to the others. But in the end, Sanjuro is always right, he possess an almost superhuman quality of knowledge. For all intents and purposes, he’s pretty similar to a God, or maybe more specifically Jesus. A man who showed up seeming to have more wisdom and heart than everyone around, and could perform miracles basically out of thin air - not too different from our friend Sanjuro. I just latched on to this concept, and every scene only helped to prove to myself that it was a legitimate take on the film. I found this to be comical. I am so far from being a religious person, but found myself smiling ear to ear, and laughing, at how unequivocally great of a story it is, which made me have a big moment, of recognizing, for I believe the first time, that the Bible probably is the greatest story ever told. But it’s just that… a story. I couldn’t help but toy with the idea in my head, that one day all of our recognizable civilization is wiped away, and somehow a future race of humans, whatever variant it may be, discovers Sanjuro and thinks that he was Jesus, and that these two films become the new Bible. Sounds crazy right? Well. Think about all that one more time. We don’t know anything about the Bible actually, just what’s been passed down for generations. So who’s to say this would be any different.

So that was my mindset for the entirety of the film, and it never disappointed. Because where Sanjuro improves upon greatly is it’s pacing and it’s focus. It's a burst of energy from beginning to end, never wasting time on anything that isn’t furthering the plot. We have all the background we need for Sanjuro, and the samurai don’t need deep character development, even though characterization is unmistakably present. Yojimbo relies a lot on the building of tension, letting suspense mount until it had to explode in violence. Sanjuro is essentially the polar opposite; it’s very plot oriented, moving from point A to B at a brisk pace, and is constantly trying to avoid violence. There’s the two female allies of samurai, who impose their wisdom on the bunch and Sanjuro. Sanjuro is always frustrated around them because he knows they’re right. They always say use words instead of swords, which Sanjuro can do, but these samurai always put Sanjuro in a situation where he must use violence, creating a conflict from inside himself.

Toshiro Mifune took this character to the next level, which is appropriate considering this one is named after him. We actually get some character development here because the Sanjuro at the start of the film is completely different from the Sanjuro at the end of the film. In Yojimbo no arc took place; another reason I’m sure I enjoyed this one more. They’re extremely similar films, in structure, but it’s the way they handle the structure that makes me enjoy this one more.

So much of the pleasure I had watching this was being ahead of the characters In the film. We get to be in the know with Sanjuro, whereas in Yojimbo we were always following behind. This film does a magnificent job of placing you inside Sanjuro as he works as a catalyst for the audience, opposed to Yojimbo where you just watch a story unfold.

Ultimately I just felt more in tune thematically, philosophically, and on an entertainment level with Sanjuro. I do believe violence isn’t the answer, but in times of true necessity, it becomes the only answer. A great human burden. Also the plight of what it means to be a Samurai, a yojimbo, that Sanjuro has to carry on his back everywhere he goes. His whole identity revolves around being a killer, usually for good, but still a killer. He is pained by his own existence, and that’s something endlessly fascinating. And to play into the Jesus parable even more, he takes sacrifices and this moralistic pain, in hopes that the other samurai won’t have to. And he gained more followers and believers as the film progressed, and presumably he continued to another town doing something similar.

All-in-all, I just had a really fun time, like one of the most fun times I’ve ever had watching a film. I don’t know if Sanjuro works as a stand-alone film, and maybe that’ll hurt my affection for it in the future, but for now, I’m deeply in love. And hope you’ll all be too. So smoke a bowl, and watch these bad ass samurai flicks back-to-back. Akira would’ve wanted it this way.

Read the Yojimbo review Here