Details

Release year: 1962

Storyline

A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen trying to save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent.

Top credits

Directors

Akira Kurosawa

Writers

Cast

Toshirô Mifune — Sanjûrô Tsubaki, The Samurai
Tatsuya Nakadai — Hanbei Muroto
Keiju Kobayashi — The Spy
Yūnosuke Itō — Mutsuta, the Chamberlain

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Did you know

• When Sanjûrô has to kill about a dozen of Kikui's men and then smacks three of the young samurai for forcing him to kill so many, Toshirô Mifune slapped the three young actors for real. As seen in the film, the slaps both surprised the actors and knocked them backwards.

• Mutsuta's wife (portrayed by Takako Iris) is shown to have blackened teeth. This was a customary Japanese way of signifying that a woman was married, especially fashionable with courtiers in the Imperial Court. This practice is known as ohaguro.

• All of the camellias used in the film were artificial. The leaves were real and taken from a Sakai plant. Every morning before shooting, the leaves were replaced to prevent them from looking old.