Movie Review: Sanshiro Sugata Part 2

Lots of good pieces, but not assembled into a movie I can recommend

This is Part 3 in my project to Review Every Kurosawa Film.

In 1887, two years after the conclusion of Part 1, Sanshiro Sugata navigates his growing fame and infamy, while trying to preserve the integrity of Japanese martial arts (against promoters who wish to use it as a novelty in exhibition matches against American boxers), and defend his dojo from his former rival’s vengeful brothers.

I had been warned that this is possibly Kurosawa’s worst movie, and I gotta say, I wholeheartedly disagree, at least when compared to Part 1 and The Most Beautiful. While I can’t say I’m a fan of Sanshiro Sugata Part 2 as a whole, there’s actually a lot in the individual pieces that I like, and more than either of the other two I’ve reviewed so far, I can see elements of Kurosawa’s later style starting to emerge.

Sanshiro himself is much more of a character this time out. Early on, he encounters a Jujutsu practitioner fighting an American boxer for money. Sanshiro’s style of Judo has been so successful that there are no new students seeking training in Jujutsu, leaving its masters disgraced and seeking employment elsewhere. A former opponent-turned-friend has passed away, and while it’s never openly stated that his injuries from an earlier bout with Sanshiro contributed, it’s clear that he feels responsible. When we’re reintroduced to Gennosuke Higaki, the villainous Jujutsu master that Sanshiro faced in Part 1’s climax, there is no doubt that his declining health is due to injuries sustained in their fight. Sanshiro must come to terms with the fact that his successes are harming others around him both directly and indirectly, and it’s a revelation that he’s clearly struggling with.

Gennosuke Higaki is certainly less of a menacing presence here, but he’s gained character nuance as well. He tells Sanshiro that their fight has destroyed his body, but healed his soul. His brothers seek revenge against Sanshiro for crippling Gennosuke and stealing the love of his life. Gennosuke takes it upon himself to visit Sanshiro, to warn him that one of his brothers is evil, and to ask leniency for the other, who is mentally ill.

There’s also a colorful side character in the form of the boxing promoter, who is exuberant and sleazy in equal measure, and is a welcome forefather of the strikingly quirky, off-kilter, or just plain unexpected side characters that will populate much of Kurosawa’s better work. Finally, a subplot about a new student is briefly engaging, but is abandoned abruptly, and feels like it could have been cut entirely.

Which is a good segue into the problems that hold this back from being an overall successful story. At just under 90 minutes, it’s amazing that Sanshiro Sugata Part 2 has any time for its content to feel superfluous, but much of the movie feels only tangentially related to its core conflicts. In a couple of those cases (which I’ll get to at the end), the results deepen our understanding of the characters or provide a charming diversion. In others, however, the film grinds to a halt. Sanshiro’s teacher in particular has little to do but detail his philosophy on Japanese martial arts, which could have been the groundwork for an interesting element of the conflict but instead just feels like a thin justification for Sanshiro to reconsider his decision to quit. Sayo also returns, and spends much of the movie fretting about her relationship with Sanshiro, but their interpersonal hurdles never feel substantial, and it too seems like it’s simply an easy reason to bring back a familiar character.

And once again, the climactic fight feels more awkward than engaging, and seems to drag on for ages, while several shots of the action look like they might be intended to be dynamic silhouettes of the fighters in action, but instead are poorly lit and murky.

Memorable shots: This one has two as well. In Part 1, after Sanshiro kills an opponent in the ring, the children in town began singing a “watch out for Sanshiro” song, which treated him as a kind of boogeyman, but came across as mostly light-hearted. The song reappears here. At the end of his meeting with Gennosuke, and seeing how the latter struggles to stand, Sanshiro offers to take him home in a rickshaw. We see Sanshiro, the healthy man burdened by his success, lending his strength to pull his broken former enemy. Higata asks that they leave the roof down; it is likely the last time he will see the city. As they set out, the children begin singing, warning of the dangers of angering Sanshiro, and we the audience see the truth of their lighthearted song. While we’re realizing this, the two are approached by Sayo, the woman both of them love. Higata decides he’d rather have the roof up; it’s a cold night after all.

The second is when Sanshiro visits the priest for help. The priest advises him to meditate until the person that troubles him vanishes. We see the two sit side by side in meditation, and Sanshiro himself appears to fade out of existence. However, as he fades completely, we instead realize that what we’re really seeing is a hop forward in time, and Sanshiro is sprawled out on the floor, fast asleep.

I’d probably grade it a B-, but only recommended as an interesting piece of the director’s body of work. As a self-contained film, there’s a lot of good pieces, but they aren’t put together into something I could recommend.