Yojimbo & Sanjuro: Two Films by Akira Kurosawa (BFI) (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Todd Doogan and Bill Hunt
Review Date: Jun 18, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Akira Kurosawa

Release Date(s)

1961/1962 (March 17, 2025)

Studio(s)

Toho Co., Ltd. (The British Film Institute)

Film/Program Grade: See Below
Video Grade: See Below
Audio Grade: See Below
Extras Grade: A-
Overall Grade: A

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Review

[Editor’s Note: The film reviews here are by Todd Doogan, from his reviews of Criterion’s AK100 DVDs. The BFI 4K disc comments, including video/audio quality and special features, are by Bill Hunt.]

If you’re looking for the no-fail, crafted-for-the-masses, mainstream Kurosawa film, Yojimbo is your go-to choice. It has all of the necessary ingredients for a thoroughly engaging movie experience. It’s laugh out loud funny, with thrilling action, and it features Toshirô Mifune in what is arguably his signature role. It’s simply impossible not to love Yojimbo if you’re a fan of samurai films, Japanese cinema in general, or Kurosawa in particular.

Yojimbo is Kurosawa’s ode to Dashiell Hammett, with a liberal dash of filmmaker John Ford added for good measure. And yet, the film stands all on its own. This is Kurosawa being Kurosawa, inspired by the things he loved from around the world—in this case, gumshoe detective novels about corrupt politicians and broken men, as well as the good old American Western. And though Yojimbo would soon become the mold for the Italian “spaghetti” Western genre—which would itself inspire later American Westerns—at its core, Yojimbo is a tale that could only exist in Japan.

Mifune stars as a ronin samurai (aka “Sanjuro”)—a man of honor without a master to defend. He’s disheveled, flea-ridden, and hungry. On the road he travels, he comes to a fork and lets fate choose a path for him. This takes him to a village being torn apart by two warring families. One controls the local textile industry, the other controls the saké industry. Seeing that this village needs a good reset, Sanjuro inserts himself into its politics. Essentially, he encourages the families’ war, effectively helping them to destroy themselves. All of this goes well until a young warrior related to one of the families comes home with Western ideas and a gun, thus upsetting the balance. (The story is set towards the end of the Tokugawa period of Japan—right around the time of the American Civil War.) So Sanjuro adjusts his plan, but not without paying a heavy cost.

Yojimbo is awesome in every way. It’s an almost perfect samurai film, from a Western perspective. In fact, this is what the samurai genre would aspire to be from this point forward. The film broke new ground, made Japanese cinema popular the world over, and catapulted Mifune to international stardom. The film even inspired director Sergio Leone to make A Fistful of Dollars. (Mifune’s character was the prototype for the infamous “Man with No Name.” He calls himself “Kuwabatake Sanjuro,” which literally means “Thirty Year-Old Mulberry Field”—the object he was looking at when he made it up, with his age tacked on.) It’s just impossible not to love Yojimbo.

Toshirô Mifune and Akira Kurosawa teamed up once again the following year with Sanjuro, a fast and fun companion piece to Yojimbo. Thanks to the huge box office and international acclaim for Yojimbo, Kurosawa’s financial backers wanted to follow it up as quickly as possible. As luck would have it, Kurosawa already had a script prepared—one he’d written previously, based on Shugoro Yamamoto’s short story Hibi Heian (Peaceful Days). With a quick character change here, a bit of humorous commentary there, and the addition of Mifune’s character of Sanjuro (though as he points out he’s actually closer to forty now), Kurosawa’s sequel was ready to shoot, allowing his audience to laugh and thrill once more at the stylings and skills of film history’s best loved samurai.

Sanjuro begins inside a temple, with a group of nine samurai discussing a difficult situation. It seems they have a corrupt leader in their clan, and they’re not sure which of their two superintendents to trust. Because of society’s predilection to trust something attractive over unattractive, they end up putting their trust in the wrong man and mess up big time. Sanjuro, who’s been lounging in the back of the temple, overhears the whole conversation. He lets the men know how naive they are and scolds them for seeing things only at face value—a theme that runs through the entire film. (It’s an apt one, given that Sanjuro himself is a seemingly scruffy brute who doesn’t follow any of the traditional rules of the samurai, yet has more honor than most men of his time.) Being a fan of the underdog, Sanjuro decides to protect these samurai from being killed. But the only way for him to walk away cleanly is to end the corruption once and for all, and to see the right person put in charge.

Sanjuro is not quite as good as Yojimbo, but then it’s not made in the same style. This is a period comedy as only Kurosawa could tell it. There’s solid action to be sure, and plenty of veiled political commentary as well, but it’s the incredible humor (involving both the film’s characters and Kurosawa’s thumbing his nose at conventional costume dramas) that really stands out. The film also features solid acting by everyone involved. So while it’s not quite up to Yojimbo’s level, Sanjuro remains incredibly enjoyable in its own right. (Mifune would essentially reprise the role once more nearly a decade later in Kihachi Okamoto’s Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, playing opposite Shintaro Katsu’s legendary blind swordsman character).

Yojimbo was photographed by cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Floating Weeds, Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold), while Sanjuro was photographed by Fukuzo Koizumi (Sanshiro Sugata) and Takao Saito (Dodes’ka-den, Ran). Each was shot on 35 mm B&W film in the TohoScope format using Mitchell Mark II cameras with Kowa anamorphic lenses. They were finished photochemically and released in theaters in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The BFI Ultra HD release takes advantage of new 4K scans and digital restorations of the original 35 mm camera negatives done by Toho. The films were then graded for high dynamic range (both Dolby Vision and HDR10 are available) and encoded for release on 66 GB discs (with mastering by Fidelity in Motion in NYC).

Like the BFI’s recent Seven Samurai 4K release (reviewed here), their new UHD editions of Yojimbo and Sanjuro present an interesting point of comparison with Criterion’s recent 4K releases (also reviewed here on The Bits). While the Criterion editions were encoded for 100 GB discs, the BFI discs are only on 66 GB discs. Yet Fidelity in Motion’s encoding is so good, it’s essentially a wash, despite the fact that the BFI’s video data rate averages around 65 Mbps (about 5-10 Mbps less on average than the Criterion discs). On the other hand, while the Criterion discs were graded for standard dynamic range only, the BFI discs include Dolby Vision HDR. And this makes a significant difference; the 4K image here is more bold and striking to the eye, with deeper shadows and more natural highlights. The HDR also grants the image a bit more dimensionality as well. Otherwise, detail here is every bit as good as it was on the Criterion editions, with wonderful clarity and refined texturing. Very light photochemical grain remains in evidence at all times. This is essentially a reference quality B&W 4K image—your preference between this and the Criterion disc is going to come down to whether you prefer HDR or SDR. [Editor’s Note: I definitely prefer the HDR, but your mileage may vary.]

The film’s original monaural audio has also been remastered for this release by Toho Archive Co. Ltd., to reduce unwanted noise and age-related defects. That audio is available here in two lossless options: Japanese 1.0 LPCM mono and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, the latter re-creating the original “Perspecta” theatrical experience (which preserves the original simulated stereo effects). Both are largely clean, with clear dialogue and composer Masaru Sato’s scores presented in excellent fidelity. Of the two tracks, the Perspecta is definitely the more engaging listening experience. Optional subtitles in English are also included.

The BFI’s Ultra HD release is a 2-disc set that includes both remastered films in 4K on separate UHDs (region-free discs, as you’d expect). No movie Blu-rays are included in the package, but they are available separately. The 4K discs include the following special features:

Yojimbo (4K UHD)

Audio Commentary by Philip Kemp
Sword for Hire (HD – 25:14)
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create – Yojimbo (SD – 44:36)
Original Japanese Theatrical Trailer (HD – 2:36)
Image Gallery (HD – 2:42)

Sanjuro (4K UHD)

Audio Commentary by Kenta McGrath
Out of the Dust Storm and Into the Koi Pond (HD – 17:30)
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create – Sanjuro (SD – 34:45)
Introduction to Sanjuro (SD – 15:13)
Alex Cox on Kurosawa (SD – 9:11)
Original Japanese Theatrical Trailer (HD – 2:31)
Image Gallery (HD – 3:12)

The commentaries by Kemp (an author and film critic for Sight and Sound) and McGrath (a Japanese-Australian producer and filmmaker) are excellent, and essentially replace the Stephen Prince tracks on the Criterion editions. The Kemp track was created in 2000 for DVD, while the McGrath commentary is new for this release.

The episodes on the making of these films from the excellent 2002 series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create have carried over from previous Blu-ray and DVD editions. The trailers have also appeared previously. But the remaining features were all created by the BFI, the Introduction to Sanjuro and Alex Cox on Kurosawa pieces in 2003, while Sword for Hire and Out of the Dust Storm and Into the Koi Pond are both new for 4K, the former featuring an analysis of both films by Kurosawa scholar Jasper Sharp and the latter an essay by film critic Nic Wassell. All are thoughtful and informative.

The discs come packaged in a thicker UK-style Amaray case with a cardboard slipcase. Inside, you’ll also find a 28-page booklet, featuring essays by Hayley Scanlon, Akira Kurosawa (excerpted from Sight and Sound magazine’s 1964 Kurosawa on Kurosawa article), John Gillett, and Nigel Andrews.

Once again, if you’re a fan of the work of director Akira Kurosawa and you have 4K Ultra HD capability, absolutely do not sit on the sidelines with regard to these BFI 4K releases—every single one so far has been spectacular in terms of picture and sound quality. Yojimbo and Sanjuro are not only classic jidaigeki films, they’re a showcase for actor Toshirô Mifune in his swaggering prime. BFI’s 4K releases are outstanding and not to be missed.

Yojimbo (Film/Video/Audio): A+/A+/B+
Sanjuro (Film/Video/Audio): A/A+/B+

- Todd Doogan and Bill Hunt

(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)