Japan Synopsis
椿三十郎
“Akira Kurosawa's Powerful and Newest Japanese Masterpiece”
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
Audience Engagement
535 audience reviews — more than 94% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (94th percentile) outruns trending popularity (67th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Sanjuro. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From TOHO
Drama + Action in Japan
444 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Drama and Action genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Sanjuro itself).
The 1961–1963 Japan Window
Among 44 Japan films we catalog from this window, Sanjuro places #5 — near the top of its class.
The 1960s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1960s in Japan, 202 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Sanjuro premiered alongside 18 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 18 other Japan films in 1962.
The 152nd Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Sanjuro, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- criterion · 3
- corruption · 29
- feudal japan · 26
- fighter · 25
- black and white · 10
- temple · 9
- japan · 454
- samurai · 128
- jidaigeki · 61
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #643 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (86th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +1.0 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #267 of 1,933 (top 14%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | TOHO |
| Runtime | 1h 36m |
| Release Date | January 1, 1962 |
| IMDb | tt0056443 |