Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
Kurosawa was pressured by his producers into directing this sequel to Yojimbo, and rose to the occasion by making his funniest and least overtly didactic film
– ,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
fresh:
A surprising, fetching, beautifully made film that fitly propounds the lesson of his own professionalism: 'Never send a boy to do a man's work.'
– Bosley Crowther,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
fresh:
The charm of this fascinating Toho production, stylishly directed by Akira Kurosawa, is the personality of the hero, powerfully played by Toshiro Mifune.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
26 Mar 2009
fresh:
This is fun but, compared with Kurosawa's other 60s efforts, relatively slight.