Yojimbo / Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Todd Doogan
Review Date: Jan 22, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Akira Kurosawa

Release Date(s)

1961/1962 (January 7, 2025)

Studio(s)

Toho (The Criterion Collection – Spine #52 and #53)

Film/Program Grade: See Below
Video Grade: See Below
Audio Grade: See Below
Extras Grade: A
Overall Grade: A

Review

[Editor’s Note: The majority of this review was originally written by Todd Doogan. Tim Salmons has updated it and added details about the new 4K transfers and extras.]

If you’re looking for the no-fail, crafted-for-the-masses, mainstream Kurosawa film, Yojimbo is your go-to choice. It has all of the necessary ingredients for a thoroughly engaging movie experience. It’s laugh out loud funny, with thrilling action and features Toshirô Mifune in what is arguably his signature role. It’s simply impossible not to love Yojimbo if you’re a fan of samurai films, Japanese cinema in general or Kurosawa in particular.

Yojimbo is Kurosawa’s ode to Dashiell Hammett, with a liberal dash of filmmaker John Ford added for good measure. And yet, the film stands all on its own. This is Kurosawa being Kurosawa, inspired by the things he loved from around the world—in this case, gumshoe detective novels about corrupt politicians and broken men, as well as the good old American Western. And though Yojimbo would become the mold for the Italian “spaghetti Western” genre—which would itself inspire later American Westerns—at its core, Yojimbo is a tale that could only exist in Japan.

Mifune stars as a ronin samurai (a.k.a. “Sanjuro”)—a man of honor without a master to defend. He’s disheveled, flea-ridden and hungry. On the road he travels, he comes to a fork and lets fate choose a path for him. This takes him to a village being torn apart by two warring families. One controls the local textile industry, the other controls the saké industry. Sanjuro sees that this village needs a good reset and inserts himself into the politics. Essentially, he furthers along the families’ war, effectively helping them destroy themselves. All of this goes well until a young warrior related to one of the families comes home with Western ideas and a gun, upsetting the balance. (The story is set towards the end of the Tokugawa period of Japan—right around the time of the American Civil War.) Sanjuro adjusts his plan, but not without a heavy cost.

Yojimbo is an awesome film in every way. It’s an almost perfect samurai film, from a Western perspective. In fact, this is what the samurai genre would aspire to be from this point forward. The film broke new ground, made Japanese cinema popular the world over, and catapulted Mifune to international stardom. The film even inspired director Sergio Leone to make A Fistful of Dollars. (Mifune’s character was the prototype for the infamous “Man with No Name.” He calls himself “Kuwabatake Sanjuro,” which literally means “Thirty Year-Old Mulberry Field”—the object he was looking at when he made it up, with his age tacked on.) It’s just impossible not to love Yojimbo.

Toshirô Mifune and Akira Kurosawa teamed up once again with Sanjuro, a fast and fun companion piece to 1961’s Yojimbo. Thanks to the huge box office and international acclaim for Yojimbo, Kurosawa’s financial backers wanted to follow it up as quickly as possible. As luck would have it, Kurosawa already had a script prepared—one he’d written previously, based on Shugoro Yamamoto’s short story Hibi Heian (Peaceful Days). With a quick character change here, a bit of humorous commentary there, and the addition of Mifune’s character of Sanjuro (though as he points out he’s actually closer to forty now), Kurosawa’s sequel was ready to shoot, allowing his audience to laugh and thrill once more at the stylings and skills of film history’s best loved samurai.

Sanjuro begins inside a temple, with a group of nine samurai discussing a difficult situation. It seems they have a corrupt leader in their clan, and they’re not sure which of their two superintendents to trust. Because of society’s predilection to trust something attractive over unattractive, they end up putting their trust in the wrong man and mess up big. Sanjuro, who has been lounging in the back of the temple, overhears the whole conversation. He lets them know how naive they are and scolds them for seeing things only at face value—a theme that runs through this whole film. (It’s an apt one, given that Sanjuro himself is a seemingly scruffy brute who doesn’t follow any of the traditional rules of the samurai, yet has more honor than most men of his time.) Being a fan of the underdog, Sanjuro decides to protect the samurai from being killed. But the only way he’ll be able to walk away cleanly is to end the corruption once and for all, and see the right person put in charge.

Sanjuro is not as awesome a film as Yojimbo, but it’s also not made in the same style either. This film is period comedy as only Kurosawa could tell it. There’s solid action to be sure, but it’s the incredible humor (involving both the film’s characters and Kurosawa’s thumbing his nose at conventional costume dramas) that really stands out. The film also features very solid acting by everyone involved. So while it’s not as awesome as Yojimbo... Sanjuro remains an incredibly enjoyable film in its own right.

Yojimbo was shot by cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa and Sanjuro was shot by cinematographers Fukuzo Koizumi and Takao Saito, both on 35mm black-and-white film, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (Tohoscope). The Criterion Collection debuts both films on Ultra HD with new 4K digital restorations of their original camera negatives, which have been graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and presented on triple-layered BD-100 discs. It’s also worth noting that the “Tohoscope” opening logo has been restored for both films. The differences between Criterion’s existing Blu-rays, which themselves are excellent restorations from fine grain positives, and their new UHD releases, is vast. These are more stable presentations with more refined grain structures and higher levels of fine detail, especially in the shadows which were slightly crushed on previous releases. Bitrates run between 80 and 100Mbps, often spiking above that, with no digital artifacts left behind. There’s a minor amount of re-framing, most obvious in Sanjuro, but it appears more accurate with the extra unnecessary space now eliminated. Grayscale is perfect with excellent contrast, deep blacks, and very fine nuances in the darkened and shaded environments. These presentations are also much cleaner than previous releases with nary a speck of debris leftover. They’re virtually perfect.

The Japanese audio for both films is presented in two formats: 1.0 mono LPCM and 3.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, the latter re-creating the original “Perspecta” theatrical experience, which preserves the original simulated stereo effects. (These are the same tracks included on Criterion’s previous Blu-rays.) Of these, the 3.0 tracks are definitely the more engaging, though overall fidelity is excellent on all tracks with good support for the various elements. Subtitles in English SDH are provided, which are selected automatically, but can be toggled on and off.

YOJIMBO (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): A+/A+/B
SANJURO (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): A/A+/B

The Criterion Collection’s 2-Disc 4K Ultra HD boxed set Yojimbo / Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa sits in two separate clear Amaray cases, each with an additional 1080p Blu-ray disc that contains their previous restorations, and their own dedicated insert booklets. The 24-page booklet for Yojimbo features cast and crew information; Kurosawa on Yojimbo, an excerpt from the book The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie; the essay West Meet East by Alexander Sesonske; a collection of Kurosawa’s Collaborators in Their Own Words; restoration information; special thanks; a list of acknowledgments; and a set of production credits. The 24-page booklet for Sanjuro features cast and crew information; Kurosawa on Sanjuro, another excerpt from the book The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie; the essay Return of the Ronin by Michael Sragow; another collection of Kurosawa’s Collaborators in Their Own Words; restoration information; special thanks; a list of acknowledgments; and a set of production credits. Everything is housed in a thin slipcase, and all of the artwork is identical to Criterion’s 2010 Blu-ray releases. The following extras are included on each disc:

DISC ONE: YOJIMBO (UHD)

Audio Commentary by Stephen Prince

DISC TWO: YOJIMBO (BD)

Audio Commentary by Stephen Prince
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create! (SD – 44:37)
Theatrical Trailer (SD – 2:38)
Teaser (SD – 1:24)
Stills Gallery (HD – 7 in all)

DISC THREE: SANJURO (UHD)

Audio Commentary by Stephen Prince

DISC FOUR: SANJURO (BD)

Audio Commentary by Stephen Prince
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create! (SD – 34:46)
Theatrical Trailer (SD – 2:33)
Teaser (SD – :26)
Stills Gallery (HD – 10 in all)

Everything has carried over from the previous DVD and Blu-ray releases, including the great commentaries by film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince, and the Masterworks documentaries; as well as each film’s respective teaser and theatrical trailers, and a pair of brief still galleries. Needless to say, this is an essential upgrade with superior picture in the same great packaging with the same great extras. Highly recommended.

- Todd Doogan w/Tim Salmons

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