From director Akira Kurosawa (Ran, Yojimbo, Seven Samurai) and starring Toshiro Mifune as a ronin running rings around nine young, clean-cut samurai while cleaning up a spot of corruption in local government.
Mention Sanjuro to film lovers and they will tell you about the famous bloody spray scene; this follow up to Yojimbo however, is primarily a comedy of manners, altogether more light-hearted than its predecessor.
Kurosawa plays most of the film for laughs by expertly parodying the conventions of Japanese period action movies, most of the action is relatively bloodless, but in the very last scene he stages a startling switch of mood with an intense finale which may well be the briefest, and most breath-taking, duel in all cinema.