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Rather by coincidence, Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) finds himself in a trap
set by warlord Kikui (Masao Shimizu) for a gang of nine samurai led by
Iori Izaka (Yuzo Kayama), who are out to fight corruption - but are way
too naive to go about it properly. Fortunately for them, Sanjuro is as
street-smart and as quick witht he sword as he is slobbish, and he not
only sees through Kikui's trap, he also has the skills to fight a way
through Kikui's soldiers for him and his samurai ...
Later, Iori Izaka learns that his uncle, the Chamberlain (Yunosuke
Ito), an honourable man immune to corruption, has been abducted by Kikui
to god knows where and his wife (Takako Irie) and daughter (Reiko Dan)
have been detained at their home. Iori Izaka and his men want to jump into
action immmediately and save the chamberlain, but Sanjuuro holds them back
- and essentially keeps them from killing themselves - by teaching them a
few lessons concerning tactics from a practical point of view - even if
his plans don't always exactly follow the samurai code ... so instead of
having them run into the enemies swords blindly and with no proper plan,
he makes up a cunning plan to first free the chamberlain's wife and
daughter and then put up camp right next to the villa of Kurofuji (Takashi
Shimura), a close ally of Kikui, in order to spy on Kikui. And after
Sanjuro and his samurai see that Kikui has indeed set up camp at
Kurofuji's place, Sanjuro even puts himself in his employ, just to spy him
out - a plan that is ruined though when several of Iori Izaka's men begin
to doubt that Sanjuro is on their side and go after him - only to be
captured by Kikui's soldiers ... and Sanjuro has to give up his wonderful
masquerade to free them ... but at least he now knows that the chamberlain
is indeed kept at Kurofuji's place.
Later, Sanjuro comes up with another cunning plan: He will make up a
story about Iori Izaka's men hiding away in a nearby temple, and by vastly
exaggerating their numbers he makes sure that Kikui sends almost all of
his soldiers into battle, only leaving a skeleton crew to guard the
chamberlain, who are easily overcome by Iori Izaka's men. Again, this plan
almost fails when Sanjuro was given false information about the temple,
but when Kikui and his men find out, it's already too late, the
chamberlain has been freed, and since he has in his hands conclusive
evidence against Kikui, Kikui sees no other way out than to kill himself
...
Before he can even be properly thanked, Sanjuro leaves, only to be
stopped on the way by Muroto (Tatsuya Nakadai), Kikui's head warrior, a
man of honour even if his master was corrupt - and to restore his honour,
he wants to fight Sanjuro in a duel - which Sanjuro has no desire to do,
but since Muroto insists, Sanjuro cuts him down in one blow ...
Despite Sanjuro being the (first) official sequel to Yojimbo,
the two films have little to do with each other (apart from, obviously,
the lead character). While Yojimbo
was very gritty in tone, Sanjuro is almost a comedy, pitting not
only good guys versus bad guys, but also the conservative samurai code of
the nine samurai against the street-smart trickery and guerilla-style
actions of Sanjuro. This might not result in one of Akira Kurosawa's best,
most intelligent films as such, but it's a very entertaining and amusing
piece of samurai cinema that's very easy to like.
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