Blu-ray Review: Yojimbo and Sanjuro (Criterion Collection)

But it now without a second thought

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Tuesday, March 23rd 2010 at 1:54 AM

I have seen and own only ten of Akira Kurosawa's many films so far, and they are the usual suspects from Seven Samurai to Ran to Ikiru, with a few of the favorites missed and a few of the lesser known titles seen, but of that bunch I would say Yojimbo remains, in my opinion, the most entertaining. You could argue others are "better" films in terms of direction, acting, what have you, but even to that argument, Yojimbo is so clearly known for its influence on cinema, the performance of Toshiro Mifune, Masaru Sato's affecting score and its overall ability to entertain through comedy, action and drama it undoubtedly stands out as a great feature and one of my favorite films. To now have it in pristine Criterion Blu-ray I can't imagine it getting any better.

To that point, as much as I love Yojimbo, it bothers me how so many people refer to the sequel, Sanjuro, as simply being "not as good." It's rather dismissive and this would be all well and good, if we were comparing apples to apples, but we're not. Sanjuro as a complimentary piece is remarkable, while as a standalone film it would be praised the same as Yojimbo had it come before it.

Criterion is now releasing Yojimbo and Sanjuro on Blu-ray, following the 2007 release of both films on DVD. Like the DVD counterparts they are available individually or together as a box set. I was happy to see, when I looked on Amazon, that the box set is outselling both individual films, but it still appears Yojimbo is largely favored over Sanjuro, at least according to Amazon sales rankings. As much as Yojimbo is an influence on the films that proceeded it, Sanjuro's final duel is one of the finest I have ever seen, playing games with a patient audience before ending in a geyser of blood that would then be copied until Kurosawa would no longer use it himself as it had become too commonplace. If you ask me, it's not that one is necessarily better than the other as much as they are two different films, and two films that go together so well I can't imagine owning one and not the other.

I remember back when I interviewed Francis Ford Coppola, at the end of our discussion I asked him what his favorite films were and while The Apartment was what he called his all-time favorite he also said "any number of five or six or seven Kurosawa films." He started that list with Yojimbo and fourth on the list was Sanjuro. Yojimbo was the source of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy beginning with A Fistful of Dollars and Walter Hill remade the film with Bruce Willis in 1996 with Last Man Standing. Both Yojimbo and Sanjuro have gone on to be remembered by many, and for good reason, they are tremendous and with Criterion's Blu-ray treatment they most likely look as good as they ever will.

When compared to the 2007 DVD releases, the Blu-ray editions shine, bringing out detail that was hidden in darkness or just missing due to differences in compression. I have talked to someone already that was complaining about the amount of visible grain, but I found it to be perfect, with Ushitora's smoking out of Seibei and his men as an excellent example of a moment where the grain was put to the test and succeeded with flying colors as the excellent balance of blacks and greys was superb.

The audio is presented in mono or DTS-HD Perspecta 3.0, the latter of which preserves the original simulated stereo effects and presents a noticeable difference to the former adding deeper bass and an overall crisper presentation, but you can hardly go wrong with either and the score rings true on both.

The special features on each disc mimic those that were on the 2007 Criterion DVD editions, which are made up of an audio commentary on each film by Kurosawa film historian Stephen Prince. The commentary is definitely more scholarly than conversational, but it is a good listen and never bores.

Each disc also contains, as does pretty much every Criterion Kurosawa release, the excerpt from the Toho Masterworks series "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create" documentary relating to Yojimbo and Sanjuro. As always they are both excellent with the Yojimbo excerpt going into detail on the outdoor set created for the film recreating an Edo period town at a price tag of 30 million yen and then on Sanjuro getting the blow-by-blow details on how to paint Camellia flowers and how that final duel was accomplished. But those are just footnotes as Yojimbo's runs 45 minutes and the Sanjuro excerpt totals 35 minutes.

Both discs also contain the teaser and theatrical trailers and a booklet with essays and comments from Kurosawa and his cast and crew.

It should go without saying, but this is a must own situation for any serious film fan. I have a hard time believing anyone could pass up this collection and it's one of those rare instances when I would say it's worthy of a blind buy for the uninitiated.