A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Release Date:
April 21, 1963
Original Title:
柔道一代
Alternate Titles:
Judo Ichidai
Judo for Life
Genres:
Drama
Production Companies:
Toei Company
Production Countries:
Japan
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 94
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.
Cinematography:
Shichirō Hayashi
Director:
Kiyoshi Saeki
Music:
Taichiro Kosugi
Novel:
Ryutaro Kondo
Screenplay:
Toshio Matsuura
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Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.