SANJURO (The Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)

Based on Shugoro Yamamoto's Peaceful Days, Sanjuro was originally intended to be a straightforward adaptation from a screenplay Akira Kurosawa wrote before he made Yojimbo. However, the success of the latter film, which used Days' idea of two gangs tricked into disposing of each other, caused the studio to want another film in the same vein. Kurosawa rewrote his script, inserted Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) into the story, and signed on as the director.

Sanjuro opens with nine young samurai at a temple discussing local, corrupt officials. One of them is the chamberlain's nephew Iori (Yuzo Kayama). He sought his uncle's help but was turned away. He recites their conversation, which provides key information ("people aren't what they seem to be.") yet none in attendance notice. Iori turned to Superintendent Kikui (Masao Shimizu) who suggested they all gather for a meeting. Sanjuro comes out of the temple's shadows and points out Kikui is the real villain and the meeting is a way to gather and get rid of them.

After saving them from the superintendent's men, Sanjuro joins up with the young men and helps them rescue the chamberlain and his family. First, they rescue the chamberlain's wife and daughter. During their escape to safety, the wife appears to not grasp the danger of the situation, and though she appreciates Sanjuro's help, she's doesn't appreciate the actions he took. She refers to him as "a sword without a scabbard". He politely dismisses her but comes around to her way of thinking by the end of the movie, which concludes with a brief yet stunning sword fight.

What is intriguing about this sequel is the differences from the first film. Sanjuro is the same character, although when asked his name he again uses the landscape for his surname. Kuwabatake, meaning "mulberry yield," in Yojimbo; Tsubaki, meaning "camellia tree," here. In Yojimbo, the film opens with Sanjuro walking into town after a random decision made by the flip of a branch. He appears majestic against the mountains. Here, fate finds him and he enters the story by coming in out of the shadows after the young samurai have set up the situation. In Yojimbo he worked alone with some assistance from the tavern owner. In Sanjuro he has to deal with a group of nine younger samurai to complete his mission, which brought to mind John Wayne's The Cowboys (1972). Sanjuro contains more comedy and less violence, reflecting a change in Sanjuro's perspective. The growth in the character and placing him within a different type of story contributes to the creation of a complimentary sequel.

The video is has been given a 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode and is presented at a 2.35:1 ratio. The black and white photography looks sharp with strong contrast and clear details. A healthy amount of grain is evident and the image appears artifact free. On occasion some frames exhibit a soft focus and a flickering of light levels occurs, for instance when the palanquins leave the superintendent's. These may be issues with the source. The audio comes in DTS-HD Master Audio Perspecta 3.0 and Linear PCM Mono (uncompressed) arte in Japanese. Dialogue is clear, and combined with Masaru Sato's score, the audio is well balanced and dynamic.

Film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince delivers another engaging audio commentary as he speaks about the film. From the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, there is a 35-minute feature about the making of Sanjuro. There is also a theatrical trailer, and teaser trailer, a stills gallery of set photos, and liner notes with an essay by Michael Sragow as well as notes by Kurosawa and his collaborators.

Although overshadow by its predecessor, Sanjuro deserves to be explored to see the growth of the main character. It's unfortunate Kurosawa and Mifune didn't find more adventures for the character. Criterion has made Sanjuro available separately and in a set paired with Yojimbo. I suggest picking up the combo pack.

YOJIMBO (The Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)

Coinciding with what would have been director Akira Kurosawa's 100th birthday, the Criterion Collection presents Yojimbo on Blu-ray.

By the flip of a branch, a samurai (Toshiro Mifune), who gives his name as Sanjuro, comes to a town ravaged by two warring gangs, evidenced by the slightly comical image of a dog scurrying away with a severed hand in its mouth. Brothel owner Seibei Manome (Seizaburo Kawazu) is on one side. His former right-hand man Ushitora Shinden (Kyu Sazanka) on the other. Ushitora left when he learned Seibei was leaving everything to his son. Criminals and fugitives fill both their ranks, leaving the casket maker the only person in town making money.

Sanjuro shows himself to be a masterful swordsman and plays both sides by constantly outwitting them. At first, it looks like he is doing this to double his income, but the audience is frequently shown money has no bearing on Sanjuro's actions. He has a higher purpose and everything else is subterfuge.

A truce is called but Sanjuro knows it means a bigger, bloodier fight is coming. The idea came from Ushitora's youngest brother, Unosuke (Tatsuya Nakadai), who has just returned from his travels. Unosuke is a match for Sanjuro's cunning and is emboldened because he owns the only pistol in town. Unosuke catches Sanjuro's double dealing and takes him prisoner. Sanjuro is beaten but eventually outsmarts his captors, setting up an eventual showdown.

Yojimbo is vastly entertaining. Kurosawa's entertaining samurai tale is influenced by Hollywood westerns, like those of John Ford, and is staged marvelously. His use of wind down the town's lone street augments the visuals as dust and leaves blow around. They also hint at Sanjuro's goodness as a force of nature. Mifune is an engaging leading man, captivating every moment he is on screen. Through the character he exudes power and intelligence. The two men working together are arguably the greatest actor/director combos in the history of cinema.

The Blu-ray is given a 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer and is presented with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The black and white cinematography looks exquisite offering strong contrast and sharp details. Shadow delineation earns high marks as well. The main flaw is a minor one. More film grain than the rest of the film can be seen in the smoke during a fire at Seibei's. Likely very difficult to clean up. The audio comes in two options: DTS-HD Master Audio Perspecta 3.0 and Linear PCM Mono. I prefer the authenticity of the mono track but the 3.0 track allows Masaru Sato's score to be fully appreciated.

Film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince delivers the audio commentary. He gives an insightful dissertation not just on the film and Kurosawa's techniques but also the historical context of the story. Criterion presents yet another installment from the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create. Coming in at 45 minutes, it naturally focuses on the making of Yojimbo and features interviews with cast and crew. There is also a theatrical trailer, and teaser trailer, a stills gallery of set photos, and liner notes with an essay by Alexander Sesonske as well as notes by Kurosawa and his collaborators.

Yojimbo is a classic and has been imitated many times, including Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, which Kurosawa filed a lawsuit over to receive credit and compensation. If you don't own it, you owe it to yourself to see it. Criterion has made it available separately and in a set paired with Sanjuro.

KAGEMUSHA - The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

From his debut as a director with Sanshiro Sugata (1943) through to Red Beard (1965), director Akira Kurosawa averaged releasing one film a year. That’s an impressive run even before taking into account how many were widely acclaimed the world over. However, Kurosawa began to have trouble raising money for projects with Japanese studios. He headed to the United States but didn’t complete a film. The winter weather derailed his attempt to shoot The Runaway Train and then, according to Donald Richie’s account in The Films of Akira Kurosawa, he got himself fired from Tora! Tora! Tora! likely due to clashes with 20th Century Fox executives.

Kurosawa returned to Japan and formed a production company with directors Kon Ichikawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, and Masaki Kobayashi. Each member was supposed to make a film, but the first, Kurosawa’s Dodesukaden (1970), failed at the box office and the group ultimately disbanded. Kurosawa then made Dersu Uzala (1975), mostly financed by the Soviet Union. In 1978, Kurosawa returned to America and with the help of filmmakers George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola got 20th Century Fox to co-finance Kagemusha (1980), now released on Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection.

The film, whose title translates as “Shadow Warrior,” is similar to a Shakespearean historical play as it presents the downfall of the Takeda clan, which culminated at the Battle of Nagashino in April 1975. Kagemusha opens two years earlier with three identical-looking men seated in a low-lit room. Takeda Nobukado introduces his brother Takeda Shingen, a powerful warlord, to a thief spared from execution because of his likeness to Shingen. Both men agree the thief would make a good double with training. Shortly after being wounded by an enemy sniper, Shingen dies, but he left two standing orders: the news of his death must be kept for three years and his men should guard their domain and never move from it.

Keeping up the ruse proves very difficult. The patience of Shingen’s counselors is tested by the thief’s behavior; enemy warlords Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga have sent spies to learn of Shingen’s fate; and Shingen’s son, Katsuyori, is severely disappointed he was passed over as heir to the Takeda clan for his young son Takemaru. The sin of pride becomes a common theme with many of the characters.

Particularly on Blu-ray, Kagemusha looks outstanding in 1080p with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in part because Kurosawa is such a master at creating images. The film has many vivid, memorable scenes, like the dream sequence, and the battle sequences are brilliantly choreographed. With so many extras used as soldiers, the scope of the epic has authenticity. There’s a lot of grain in the image, but thankfully no DNR was used, allowing the ornate details of the costumes to be clearly seen. I saw no flaws in the picture.

The cinematography is exquisite, likely due in part to the paintings Kurosawa created for the film as he awaited the green light. Although only his third color film, he makes great use of it. Filled with a lot of pageantry, Shingen’s armies outfitted in reds, greens, and purples standout amongst the blue sky and green fields, and a different hue of red is used for blood. The blacks come up slightly short.

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0. Shinichiro Ikebe’s score pumps out the speakers subwoofer right as the film begins. It sounds good but too clean, as if it was remastered at a louder level, causing it not to blend well in the mix with the softer Japanese dialogue. The effects are strong from the gunfire to flags rippling so hard in wind they sound like roaring fire.

As with many Criterion discs, it is packed with special features. “Lucas, Coppola & Kurosawa” contain separate interviews from 2004 where the American directors discuss their involvement in the Kagemusha’s creation. Forty minutes of the film’s making is presented from the Toho miniseries Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful To Create. “Image: Kurosawa’s Continuity” shows the work of Masayuki Yui (Ieyasu) who took Kurosawa’s storyboard drawings and painting and matched them with audio to create an abridged version of the story. “A Vision Realized” is a gallery that compares over 20 storyboards with scenes from the film. Five Suntory Whiskey commercials, ranging from 30 second to a minute, show Kurosawa on the Kagemusha set. Coppola appears in two of them.

To learn more about the film, the commentary track by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa is informative, covering themes and ideas in Kurosawa work’s, and the accuracy of the historical events. The most beneficial element is for those who have seen the film before: Prince points out 20 minutes cut from the original Japanese version.

Kagemusha is one of the latter gems from Kurosawa's career and this Blu-ray edition is a great way to appreciate it.

HIGH AND LOW

Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, a poor translation from what should actually be called Heaven and Hell, is loosely adapted from Edward McBain’s 1959 detective novel King’s Ransom. Kurosawa expands and elevates the procedural thriller by weaving in societal issues of then modern-day Japan.

During the opening credits, the film shows scenes from high above the city of Yokohama, which is the view Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) has from his mansion on the hill. He is meeting with fellow executives from National Shoes who want his assistance as a stockholder to force out the company’s founder. This will allow them to create a cheaper product and make more money. Even though Gondo agrees the founder is too conservative with the business, he disagrees with their plan because the new shoes will damage the company’s reputation. After the executives leave angered and disappointed, Gondo reveals his own stock-buying plan to take over the company. He has mortgaged everything owned by he and his wife to begin financing the deal, but still requires money made from his ownership of the company for the back end.

As Gondo prepares to send his assistant with a check for 50 million yen to start the transaction, he receives a phone call that his son has been kidnapped for a ransom of 30 million yen. It is soon discovered that Gondo’s son is safe and instead it is the son of Aoki the chauffeur who has been taken. Gondo assumes the boy will be returned safely since, as a chauffeur, Aoki doesn’t have that amount of money; however, the kidnapper doesn’t care. He still demands Gondo pay for the boy’s safe return and is emboldened because, with the boy not being related, the kidnapper can’t be charged with extortion, resulting in a lesser charge and sentence if caught. Gondo struggles with the decision between going ahead with his plans and calling the kidnapper’s bluff or risking the life he has grown accustomed to by paying the ransom and saving Aoki’s son.

Halfway through the film, Kurosawa changes his direction. The first half of High and Low is staged like a play. There are long takes as a few characters move throughout his spacious living room. Gondo’s moral dilemma is the central focus of the story. In the second half, a different film unfolds as the narrative descends to the streets of Yokohama and Gondo’s role is reduced. Kurosawa uses a lot of locations. Most of the scenes are busy with the frames filled with people and activity. The focus switches to the police working on the identity and arrest of the kidnappers.

The story resolves, making good points about the leniency of kidnapping and the destruction jealously and coveting wreaks, yet many questions are unanswered. Gondo is punished for the wealth he has accumulated, but he has come by it honestly, so why should he have to fall? He doesn’t need the luxuries he had as he starts his life over, but why is he not entitled to spend his money the way he sees fit? The film promotes anti-capitalism and anti-materialism, made clear by its depiction of businessmen, other than Gondo, as ruthless and cutthroat, a theme repeated from The Bad Sleep Well. There is no explanation other than Kurosawa sees a duty to the community overriding lifting oneself, which explains why Gondo chooses the boy’s life over his own financial well-being and why some police empathize with one kidnapper after seeing some conditions that drove him to resent Gondo.

Another societal issue dealt with in the Low/Hell section of the film is a very haunting sequence in place called “Drug Alley” where nameless addicts reside. It looks straight out of a horror film as the zombie-like junkies exist in a secluded part of town. It’s well known by cops ands crooks alike, yet ignored. Places like this exist in most major cities, which is an utter shame.

The Criterion Collection has always set a high bar for the DVD industry, so it should come as no surprise that their re-release of material is much more than what has unfortunately become the customary double-dip the studios have been foisting on the public. After 10 years on DVD, this new version of High and Low vastly improves upon its previous release. The video comes from a new, restored high-definition digital transfer and looks pristine. The audio from the original four-track is now surround sound. A booklet contains an essay about the film by Geoffrey O’Brien and an on-set account/Kurosawa interview by Donald Richie.

There are so many extras included that High and Low is now a two-DVD set to contain them all. Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa and a film professor at Virginia Tech, adds a great deal to the appreciation of the film with an insightful commentary track about its production, its themes, and Japanese society

On the second disc, Criterion continues its presentation of excerpts from Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create with 37 minutes that cover the making of High and Low. There is also a 30-minute interview with Mifune from a 1981 Japanese talk show Tetsuko no heya (Tetsuko’s Room). While the discussion doesn’t relate to High and Low and Kurosawa is rarely mentioned, it is still very interesting to learn about the man behind so many classic performances. A 2008 interview with Tsutomu Yamazaki, who played a kidnapper, was recorded for this release. It’s a much more detailed account of the production.

High and Low is a marvelous film that succeeds on many levels and is another example of Kurosawa’s brilliance as a director. The Criterion Collection presentation is once again a beauty to behold.