Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Leofwine_draca SANSHIRO SUGATA, PART II is Akira Kurosawa's slightly weaker follow-up to the original movie, continuing the adventures of the martial arts expert. This one starts in an arresting fashion, featuring a bout between Sugata and an American sailor on the docks, and it goes on from there. I found the film to be slightly disappointing in the way it drags between the staged action bits, despite the short running time. However, the big set-pieces still continue to impress, with the big ring bout influencing the likes of FEARLESS and IP MAN 2 while the final snow-bound battle is classically staged and seems to have influenced the likes of THE Chinese BOXER and LADY SNOWBLOOD. Watch out for the wild-haired opponent, whose whoops and yells make him an early precursor to Bruce Lee.

Hitchcoc The martial arts are so dominant in Asian cultures. Kurosawa uses them in most of his films. This is the sequel to his first film, starring the same actor and character. It is rather talky. For some reason there are American sailors all over the place (I haven't had the time to investigate why so many were there in the time period shown). They have brought their great boxer, I suppose, to make them look idiotic, using fighting for profit rather than as a spiritual endeavor. Sugata is a folk hero and carries a lot of weight. When he sees a fellow martial arts expert beaten to a pulp, he feels he must do something to bring respect. Along the way, he becomes so famous (like a successful gunfighter) that the negative element wants a piece of him. There is just something lacking in this and is not the best Kurosawa (although he certainly was learning).

lastliberal Sugata and Yano have established the dominance of Judo over jujitsu by defeating all comers, but Sugata is not satisfied. Yes, he is the best Judo practitioner in the land, but he is plagued by his victories and is not sleeping.Judo is also facing competition from boxing and karate. Yes, boxing has come to Japan with the occupation. The anti-American sentiment is strong in this film as the top boxer is a drunken sailor who pick on poor rickshaw drivers until Sugata manages to cool him off - laterally. They will meet again.Sugata finally comes to terms with who he is and dispatches the boxer in the first round. Now, the karate thugs have been injuring many to get Sugata to fight.The actual fight is a letdown. It is staged to look almost like those shadow puppets. The calm and cool Sugata is facing a grimacing overly loud competitor.It should not be a surprise who wins, but there are more demons on the horizon. Five years after this film, I will have arrived. What will happen then? The only distraction was the poor quality of the film. One would hope that a better copy would have survived. Of course, we have to wait until the arrival of Toshiro Mifune before Akira Kurosawa perfects his Samurai films and becomes the great master that he was.

Matt I searched for this film for many years after having seen and loved the original. After living in Japan for a while I came across a Japanese language version.This movie was a great disappointment to me and I'm sorry to say that Donald Ritchie's observation that Akira did not seem to take this project seriously seems to hold true. It has none of the visual or dramatic impact of the first Sanshiro film leaving only a standard Japanese propaganda film with little in the way of new scenarios,characterization or concepts.Unfortunately, even for fans like myself of Kurosawa this film is hardly worth watching.