Japanese

DVD JAPANESE MOVIE : Yojimbo Sanjuro / 用心棒 by Ryuzo Kikushima , Akira Kurosawa (JM40)

Code : BD9696

It is 1860, and the era of the Tokugawa shogunate is coming to a close.^[3] A rōnin, or masterless samurai, wanders into a small town divided by a gang war between two gangsters, Seibei and Ushitora. Ushitora used to be Seibei's right-hand man, until Seibei decided that his son Yoichiro would succeed him. Tazaemon, the silk merchant and mayor, backs Seibei, while Tokuemon the sake brewer is allied with Ushitora. Gonji, the owner of an inn, advises the stranger to leave while he can, but after sizing up the situation, the rōnin tells Gonji that the town would be better off with both sides dead, and that he intends to stay.

Upon being asked his name, the rōnin looks out a window and sees a mulberry field (which in Japanese is 桑畑 Kuwabatake), and replies that his name is Kuwabatake Sanjuro (桑畑三十郎). Although 三十郎 Sanjuro is a proper given name (and therefore could very well be the rōnin's true name), when spoken out loud it can also be interpreted as 三十老 Sanjuro (note the different last kanji 老), which means "thirty years old" (三十 sanju = thirty, 老 ro = years-old). Keenly aware of this double meaning (and that those he's speaking to know that he used Kuwabatake as a pseudo-surname), he slyly quips: "Though I'm closer to forty, actually". He first convinces the weaker Seibei to hire him as a swordsman by demonstrating his skill, killing three of Ushitora's men. He then eavesdrops on Seibei's wife Orin ordering their son to stab him in the back after the upcoming raid so that they will not have to pay him. Sanjuro then leads his faction to attack the other, but "resigns" and decides to watch the two groups fight it out from the belltower. The untimely arrival of an official spoils the plan before any blood is shed, and an uneasy peace ensues to avoid attracting government notice.

When the official is called away, Sanjuro stirs things up again. Learning that Ushitora hired two assassins to kill an officer 24 miles away to get the official to leave, Sanjuro captures and sells the pair to Seibei. Then he tells Ushitora that Seibei's men have caught them. Alarmed, Ushitora rewards him for his help. Ushitora then has Yoichiro kidnapped and offers an exchange of prisoners at 3:00 a.m., but double crosses Seibei when his brother Unosuke shoots the pair with the only firearm in town, his beloved pistol. The wily Seibei is unfazed, however, since he has taken a beautiful woman that Tokuemon is infatuated with. The woman is swapped for Yoichiro in the morning.

Gonji informs Sanjuro that the woman is the wife of a farmer named Kohei. Ushitora seized her and Kohei's home as payment for a gambling debt. He then gave her to Tokuemon to gain his support. Sanjuro, under the guise of securing the woman from Seibei, kills all six guards assigned to her and reunites her with her husband and young son. He gives them the 30 ryo Ushitora paid him, tells them to leave town, and ransacks the building. However, Unosuke becomes suspicious of the claim that Seibei's men were responsible and uncovers Sanjuro's double dealing. Sanjuro is then beaten in an attempt to find out where the woman is hiding.