At first I was surprised by the opening scene in which an American sailor gets thrown into the river by the title character, in that it was just after the war. What follows is fairly pedestrian, the title character agrees to fight the American, who is a champion boxer, There are parts in this film about honor and being true to yourself and, while its a watchable film, it just barely holds up. You do not get hardly any character development, and no buildup that is interesting enough to sustain. Even in the Rocky films (except Rocky 5) Stallone made you anticipate the big event. So, what you have here is passable, but it in no way points to the amazing brilliance of his later films. Check it out without expecting too much.
Review of Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two
