Santaro Marune

Two brothers, Takamaru and Kikumaru, are living with their father, Hakuraku-Ou, until one day Hakuraku-Ou is killed by "Death's-Head" Ginnosuke, a villain skilled in the art of sorcery. Hakuraku-Ou had long been seeking a Tiger Seal which, together with the Dragon Seal in his possession, would reveal the location of a huge ancestral fortune. But on the very night that the Tiger Seal was found, it was stolen by Tomomitsu, Ginnosuke's chief. When the two brothers receive the Dragon Seal from their father just before his death they determine to go to Death's-Head Castle, in order to recover the Tiger Seal.

1956 Japanese film, originally released in two parts.

Jida-geki by Santaro Marune.

Jida-geki by Santaro Marune.

A lowly drunken samurai finds an abandoned baby in the woods and takes it home. A gift from a fox. But there's something special about the boy.

A lowly drunken samurai finds an abandoned baby in the woods and takes it home. A gift from a fox. But there's something special about the boy.

A lowly drunken samurai finds an abandoned baby in the woods and takes it home. A gift from a fox. But there's something special about the boy.

Set in the late thirteenth century, this film depicts the defense of southern Japan led by the Kono clan against the Mongol invasion in 1281.

According to Donal Richie in The Japanese Film it was meant to do for sumo wrestling what Kurosawa had done for judo in Sanshiro sugata, and that Kurosawa wrote it for Daiei after "drinking up all [his] money" (from his autobiography).