Japan Times has a review of Tsubaki Sanjuro by Mark Schilling.

Schilling gives the movie 3 out of 5 stars, summing it up with: ‘A four-word review of “Tsubaki Sanjuro” would be “Kurosawa did it better,” but it’s only fair to add that Morita doesn’t do too badly. And if his film encourages his young target audience, many of whom are only dimly aware of Kurosawa’s existence, to rent the original, he should be forgiven much. But you, being smarter, will see the original first.’

While the review as a whole is therefore similar to what we have read and seen before, Schilling defends the choice of Yuji Oda as Sanjuro. In his view, Oda is not only more “comprehensble” to a younger generation than Mifune, but also manages to stay believable as a character who is bluffing his way through the story.