'Sugata Sanshiro Part II' review by MartialHorror.

Source: http://freewebs.com/mhssp2

SUGATA SANSHIRO PART II(1945)
(Directed by Akira Kurosawa)

"Kurosawa's worst? Yet it's still not bad?!"- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: The famous Judo master, Sanshiro Sugata, must fight off a British Boxer and two Karate masters who threaten the legacy of Judo. Also known as “Zoku Sugata Sanshiro” and “Sanshiro Sugata Part Two”.

Review:

This will be one of those reviews where I worry about the response I’ll get, because I may say a few controversial things to say the least. For one, I do believe that cinema has improved since the 1940’s, and in my eyes, anyone who says otherwise is in denial. I won’t pretend like I’ve seen every movie, but I do believe that we remember so many good ones because they were often the only good ones of the era. I won’t deny that these days we’re more interested in style over substance, but when a movie does put more emphasis on substance, it's point is often stronger. Take Kurosawa’s uninspired “Sugata Sanshiro Part II”. It was a movie he didn’t really want to make, correctly believing that just because something worked once, that doesn’t insure that it will work again. But he was a professional and did a solid job on it. Unfortunately, a lot of its impact has been lost on todays audiences for a few reasons. Hopefully this review will explain why.

Sugata Sanshiro(Susumu Fujita) has become a famous Judo fighter after his victory in the previous film. Unfortunately, fame guides enemies towards his path. For one, the Government wants him to challenge an American boxer who is trashing Japan’s experts. Two, the man who he had previously defeated had two ruthless brothers who are experts in karate and are a bit crazy. But most of all, his greatest enemy is himself. He loves fighting, but he hates hurting others. How will he be able to recover from that?

Lauding Kurosawa is a bit redundant by this point. Everyone knows that he’s the best director to come out of Japan and nothing I can say will add to that. However, I will state that old movies are not my cup of tea. Don’t get me wrong, I have liked and loved older movies. But they often felt longer than they needed to be and as I said, I do believe film has improved. Editing, lighting and cinematography are vastly superior these days. Yet “Seven Samurai”, “Stray Dog”, “Throne of Blood”, “Yojimbo” and especially “Rashomon” all blew me away in some way, shape or form. While movies like “Sanjuro” may have ultimately underwhelmed me, they were still stellar films. The first “Sugata Sanshiro” was in that camp. It wasn’t a great movie, but it was a solid little flick that I enjoyed much more than I expected. This sequel just feels pointless for it. It certainly wears its “part two” title proudly because you HAVE to watch its predecessor to know what’s going on. But the movie just feels……pointless, and Kurosawa seemed to agree with me. The critics called the movie self indulgent(Psh, they know nothing about self indulgent. They never saw Kurosawa’s “Dreams”!), but most of the indulgence seems to be from the movies existence in general. Kurosawa’s direction is fine, with another great ‘passage of time’ montage. But otherwise, it’s very workmanlike. I’ll get into the problem with that a bit more later.

When I call this movie pointless, I refer to the fact that nothing in this movie feels relevant. I’m not exaggerating. We see Sugata get a pupil. Will the movie be about that relationship? Nope. We see that Sugata is still pining over his love interest. Does that go anywhere? Not really. We see Sugata being pressured to fight an English champion. Was that necessary other than for propaganda’s sake? Nope. Sugata intentionally breaks the rules so he can be expelled. Did that go anywhere? Nope. Sugata meets again his enemy from the previous film. Did that go anywhere? Nope. Also, for some reason, they say that his previous enemy was in love with Sugata’s love interest(who presumably stole her from him). I don’t recall that from its predecessor. Did that have anything to do with anything else? Not at all. The only relevant issue is his struggle with the two karate masters, which might’ve been Kurosawa’s biggest mistake in his career. The point is, nothing really feels necessary here. The entire movie is padding, padding for a sequel that artistically, served no purpose. For those who say that the movie was about his internal struggle, I'll comment about that in the end of this review.

But where Kurosawa really lost it for me was with the Higaki brothers. I found those guys to be hilarious. If it wasn’t Teshins(Ryunosuke Tsukigata; who played Gennosuke, the previous enemy) evil laugh, it was mostly Genzaburo’s(Akitake Kono)…..well, just Genzaburo. The guy’s supposed to be insane and he had me in stitches. Just watch the guy as he moves towards Sugata, looking as if he’s going to plant a big smooch on him and how he keeps trying to charge him only to be stopped by his brother multiple times. When he squeals and does some damage, I couldn’t even contain my laughter anymore. This movie would’ve been much more charming if it were the adventures of the lesser Higaki Brothers. Don’t even get me started in how hilarious Teshins karate looks. His moves look so amateurish, that I’d say he should probably take lessons from Ralph Macchio, and if you’ve seen “The Karate Kid”, you know how believable Macchio was at karate. His squealing during the finale almost made me pee myself. The sad thing is…I don’t think these guys were supposed to be funny. I think they were supposed to be creepy……that is why old movies don’t usually work for me. Their original impact has been lost and it becomes unintentionally amusing. The film is full of moments of questionable comedy, like when Sugata is fighting a sailor early on. Just watch the sailors punches. It’s like he’s a cartoon character! But what isn’t funny is that despite Genzaburo being hyped up, he never actually fights. LAME!

So I’m slamming this movie pretty hard. But the fact is, I kind of like it. I’m not entirely sure, because everything just seems ‘competent’. I’m sure back in the 1940’s, the movie would be fine for it. But what was competent then looks kind of shoddy now. This isn’t helped that the video and audio both feel off(not sure if the print was damaged or if my transfer was bad though). I guess I liked the movie because it does have heart. It is about the battle of oneself. Gennosuke may have lost to Sugata in the previous film, but he ‘won’ because he grew in spirit, while Sugata continues to wallow in his depression. But I thought Sugata went through all of this in the previous films(hence, its pointless). Luckily, the film survives with its handful of good scenes. For a film that was ultimately unnecessary, it affected me on a level that I’m not sure I understand. So realize this, I’m going to be harsh with my rating because I do believe it’s a mess. Yet I feel affection for it anyway. A rating is only a number, after all.

Violence: None…..really.

Nudity: None.

Overall: If you liked the first film, you might as well watch “Sugata Sanshiro Part II”.

2/4 Stars


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