A wandering 19th-century samurai arrives in a town that is dominated by two rival gangsters. He decides to save the locals from their influence by playing both sides off against each other until they wipe each other out - but his plan is complicated by the arrival of a wily gunslinger. Akira Kurosawa's adventure, starring Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai. In Japanese.

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.