Movielogr
Judo Life (1963)
Directed by Kiyoshi Saeki
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.
Length 94 minutes
Actors
Sonny Chiba | Naoki Sugiura | Takashi Kanda | Hideo Murata | Hisako Tsukuba | Harumi Sone | Yoshiko Sakuma | Fumitake Ômura | Tokue Hanazawa | Harue Tone | Ken Sudo | Shunji Sayama | Rinichi Yamamoto | Nobuo Yana | Akikane Sawa | Hideo Murota