柔道一代

Bande annonce

Sonny Chiba's first martial arts film, a partially fictionalized judo biopic based on prominent judoka Shiro Saigo (Chiba), the second student of judo founder Jigoro Kano (Naoki Sugiura). Akira Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata is based on the same character and shares some scenes, but Judo for Life focuses more on the martial arts philosophy and training, including scenes depicting how the protagonist learned his famous cat-like landing, coined the term judo, and trained with Tsunejiro Tomita (Hideo Murata). There’s also a slight yakuza film influence. The port street ambush scene is found in both films, but in Judo for Life it’s not Kano but a travelling yakuza that jumps out of the rickshaw. Entertaining and beautifully old fashioned, one does however with there were more shades of gray between good and evil, and a stronger ninkyo-like moral / honour conflict.

Genre: Drame

Jeter: Sonny Chiba, 杉浦直樹, 神田隆, 村田英雄, 筑波久子, 曽根晴美, 佐久間良子, 大村文武, Tokue Hanasawa, 利根はる恵, 須藤健, 佐山俊二, Rin'ichi Yamamoto