柔道一代
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: Drama
- Land: Japan
- Direktør: 佐伯清
- Aktører: 千葉真一, Naoki Sugiura, 神田隆, Hideo Murata, Hisako Tsukuba, 曽根晴美, 佐久間良子, 大村文武, 花沢徳衛, Harue Tone, 須藤健, Shunji Sayama, 山本麟一, 八名信夫, 沢彰謙, 室田日出男,
