Yojimbo & Sanjuro 4K Blu-ray
HomeYojimbo & Sanjuro 4K Blu-ray
Posted February 26, 2025 08:40 PM by Webmaster
The British Film Institute has provided final details for its upcoming 4K Blu-ray release of Yojimbo & Sanjuro (1961-1962). The two-disc set is scheduled to arrive on the market on March 17.
Description: Two Akira Kurosawa samurai classics, Yojimbo (1961) and its sequel Sanjuro (1962), both starring Toshiro Mifune, are released together in new 4K Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray sets. Each set includes a newly filmed discussion by Japanese film expert Jasper Sharp and a 2002 documentary on each film in which they are examined in detail, along with more special features, listed below.
Yojimbo was Akira Kurosawa's tribute to the widescreen action westerns of John Ford (and was itself remade in 1964 by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars). The great Toshiro Mifune plays the film's enigmatic samurai, a scruffy itinerant warrior who wanders into a town and right into the middle of a war between two clans. Showing his skills with a sword within minutes of his arrival, he soon has the rival factions competing for his services. After its huge success, Kurosawa and Mifune teamed up again a year later to make Sanjuro, in which the titular character runs rings around nine naïve, clean-cut samurai and two genteel ladies – while also cleaning up a spot of corruption in local government. It's more light-hearted than its predecessor, but no less entertaining.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Description: Two Akira Kurosawa samurai classics, Yojimbo (1961) and its sequel Sanjuro (1962), both starring Toshiro Mifune, are released together in new 4K Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray sets. Each set includes a newly filmed discussion by Japanese film expert Jasper Sharp and a 2002 documentary on each film in which they are examined in detail, along with more special features, listed below.
Yojimbo was Akira Kurosawa's tribute to the widescreen action westerns of John Ford (and was itself remade in 1964 by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars). The great Toshiro Mifune plays the film's enigmatic samurai, a scruffy itinerant warrior who wanders into a town and right into the middle of a war between two clans. Showing his skills with a sword within minutes of his arrival, he soon has the rival factions competing for his services. After its huge success, Kurosawa and Mifune teamed up again a year later to make Sanjuro, in which the titular character runs rings around nine naïve, clean-cut samurai and two genteel ladies – while also cleaning up a spot of corruption in local government. It's more light-hearted than its predecessor, but no less entertaining.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- 4K RESTORATIONS OF BOTH FILMS
- DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATIONS ON THE 4K BLU-RAYS
- Sword For Hire (2024, 25 mins): Kurosawa scholar Jasper Sharp discusses Yojimbo and Sanjuro in this analytical assessment
- Audio commentary on Yojimbo by film critic Philip Kemp (2000)
- Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create – Yojimbo (2002, 45 mins): a detailed documentary study of the film
- Introduction to Sanjuro (2003, 5 mins): filmmaker Alex Cox introduces Sanjuro
- Newly recorded audio commentary on Sanjuro by Japanese-Australian filmmaker Kenta McGrath
- Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create – Sanjuro (2002, 35 mins): the film is examined in detail in this documentary study
- Out of the Dust Storm and Into the Koi Pond (2025, 18 mins): Nic Wassell considers the role of nature as a background to human machinations in both films
- Alex Cox on Kurosawa (2003, 9 mins): the director discusses the life and work of Akira Kurosawa
- Original trailers
- Image galleries
- First pressing only - Illustrated booklet with new writing on both films by Hayley Scanlon, writing on both films by Akira Kurosawa, originally published in 1964, original reviews and film credits
