Movie: Judo Life

Top 10 Billed Cast

Sonny Chiba
Sonny Chiba

Naoki Sugiura
Naoki Sugiura

Takashi Kanda
Takashi Kanda

Hideo Murata
Hideo Murata

Hisako Tsukuba
Hisako Tsukuba

Harumi Sone
Harumi Sone

Yoshiko Sakuma
Yoshiko Sakuma

Fumitake Ōmura
Fumitake Ōmura

Tokue Hanazawa
Tokue Hanazawa

Harue Tone
Harue Tone

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  • Overview

    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.

  • Release Date

    1963-04-21

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  • Languages:

    日本語
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