A Japanese “Sanjuro” remake on its way

The Japan film news blog Ryuganji reported today that a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1962 film Tsubaki Sanjuro (or “Sanjuro” in English) is being prepared in Japan. The film, which will start shooting in September, is helmed by Yoshimitsu Morita, and the role of the samurai is set for Yuji Oda. The film is supposed to be true to the original, but “with a more pronounced comic touch”, as reported by Ryuganji.

Ryuganji also points out that this is the first Japanese remake of a Kurosawa film. This, however, is not entirely accurate, as Sugata Sanshiro (“Judo Saga”, or “Sanshiro Sugata”) was remade in both 1955 (directed by Shigeo Tanaka) and 1965 (directed by Seiichiro Uchikawa). Moreover, a number of anime series have borrowed from Kurosawa, most notably the recent Samurai 7, which is very true to the original Seven Samurai storyline, but the settings has been changed. (And, yes, Tohiro Mifune’s character is a large sword-waving cyborg.)