Sugata Sanshiro = Judo Saga

In the late 19th century, Sanshiro becomes the master of the new fighting style of judo, gradually proving its superiority over the more established martial art of jujitsu, and learns to gain spiritual peace at the same time. Sanshiro, a strong and stubborn youth, is determined to conquer the discipline that has impressed him so, but must suppress his impulsive will and learn “satori,” the calm acceptance of Nature’s law. In order to win the hand of a beautiful woman, Sayo, he must impress her father, a teacher in jujitsu. The finest master of jujitsu, the implacable Higaki, also seeks the hand of Sayo and vows to kill Sanshiro in a midnight fight on a windswept mountainside. Made during World War II, ‘Judo Saga’ lacked the propagandist angle found in many Japanese films of that era, and the film was heavily censored with 1,856 feet of film removed. A tale of romance, and martial arts, Kurosawa’s first feature is a strikingly visual film extraordinary for its explosive martial arts choreography.

Credits: Producer, Keiji Matsuzaki ; director, writer, Akira Kurosawa ; photography, Akira Mimura ; music, Seichi Suzuki ; editing, Toshio Goto, Akira Kurosawa.
Cast: Denjiro Okochi, Susumu Fujita, Yukiko Todoroki, Ryunosuke Tsukigata, Takashi Shimura, Ranko Hanai.