Akira Kurosawa-Zoku Sugata Sanshiro (’Judo Story II’) (1945)

Published by sybercope | Filed under Video

Akira Kurosawa’s sequel continues the story of Judo creator Shogoro Yano (Denjiro Okochi) and his dedicated student, Sanshiro Sugata (Susumu Fujita). Seeking vengeance for the death of their brother, two young men learn the art of Judo in order to defeat Sugata, whose mastery of the martial art has gone well beyond the physical realm and into the spiritual. Netflix







In this government-suggested sequel, Sugata again grows as a judo master, and demonstrates his (and by extension, all Japanese) superiority to the foreign warrior. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0038268/plotsummary)







Due to its anti-American content, this film was never released in the US. Released in late 1945, in the early days of the American occupation of Japan, the movie has a strong anti-American slant. One of the two parallel plots of the film involves the young judo hero, Chee, and his battle to preserve the sanctity of the Japanese arts against the encroaching, brutish influence of American boxing. Americans are portrayed as a bunch of creeps. Eventually, Chee vanquishes the American champion to the wild cheers of his countrymen. This is by far the most interesting material in the film. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0038268/usercomments)







This sequel is ostensibly about Japanese-American relationships in 1887, when Sugata is finally seduced into a match-up between himself and an American boxing champion. The film was made in 1945, soon after the Japanese surrender. Hence, the reason for that part of the story line is clear: even in the defeat of war, the Japanese martial spirit remains supreme. It is an understandable need on the part of Japan, and Kurosawa, at that time. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0038268/usercomments)