Judo Life (1963)
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.
Director:
Kiyoshi Saeki
Writer:
Toshio Matsuura
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Sonny Chiba as |
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Naoki Sugiura as |
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Takashi Kanda as |
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Hideo Murata as |
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Hisako Tsukuba as |
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Harumi Sone as |
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Yoshiko Sakuma as |
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Fumitake Ōmura as |
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Tokue Hanazawa as |
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Harue Tone as |
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Ken Sudo as |
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Shunji Sayama as |
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Rinichi Yamamoto as |
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Nobuo Yana as |
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Akikane Sawa as |
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Hideo Murota as |
| Directing | Kiyoshi Saeki | Director |
| Sound | Taichiro Kosugi | Music |
| Crew | Shichirō Hayashi | Cinematography |
| Writing | Toshio Matsuura | Screenplay |
| Writing | Ryutaro Kondo | Novel |
