Sanjuro Redux

I recently re-watched Akira Kurosawa's sequel to Yojimbo, Sanjuro (1962), because so many of my Japanese Cinema students saws it as the out-of-class viewing assignment and I realized that I couldn't remember the film well, unlike Yojimbo. Tsubuki Sanjuro (the man with no name's alias in this film) is an interesting character: savvy, uncouth, and a killing machine with the sword. He mentors and helps a group of samurai bring down corrupt officials who have kidnapped their magistrate. One of the leaders of the group is a sinister Tatsuya Nakadai who ends the film having a sword fighting duel with Sanjuro and loses spectacularly in spurt of blood. There is some comedic relief from the rescued magistrate's wife (Takao Irie) and her daughter (Reiko Dan) as well as a captured henchman. There are the usual Kurosawa flourishes and grand moments of cinematography in the fighting scenes. It was nice to revisit a classic Kurosawa samurai film.