Judo Life (1963)

ALL 04/21/1963 (ja) Drama 94 Min
  • Release
    04/21/1963
  • Production
    Toei Company
  • Rotten tomato
    0%
  • Original title
    柔道一代
  • Original language
    ja
  • Production Cost
  • 0.00
    -

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.

  1. Kiyoshi Saeki

    Director

  2. Story

  3. Editor

  4. Producer



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Casts

Full Cast & Crew

Casts : 16 , Crews : 5

Keyword

Judo Life (1963) 94 Min

ALL 04/21/1963 (ja)
Drama
  • Release 04/21/1963
  • Production
    Toei Company
  • Original title 柔道一代
  • ja
  • Revenue0.00

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.

  1. Kiyoshi Saeki

    Director

  2. Story

  3. Editor

  4. Producer