Sanjuro

Sanjuro is a 1962 black-and-white Japanese samurai film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. It is a sequel to Kurosawa's previous film Yojimbo, with Mifune reprising his role as a wandering ronin. The film combines action and humour, and is lighter in tone than its predecessor.

According to the documentary Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create, originally Sanjuro was to be a straight adaptation of the story "Peaceful Days". After the success of Yojimbo the studio decided to resurrect its popular antihero, and Kurosawa reimagined the script accordingly.

The scene where a single blossom falls into a rushing stream raised severe problems on how to pull it off. Originally the crew considered using piano wire but were afraid the light glinting on it would show up on film. A female costume designer suggested unraveling a woman's stocking and using the nylon due to its strength and invisibility. When it worked, Kurosawa said the happiness he felt at that moment was "indescribable".

In the same documentary Nakadai and production designer Yoshirô Muraki relate that the notorious "blood explosion" at the film's end was done in one take. At the moment that the compressor hose attached to actor Tatsuya Nakadai was activated it blew a coupling causing a much larger gush of fluid than planned. In fact it was so strong that it nearly lifted him off the ground and it took all his might to finish the scene.

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