Miyamoto Musashi (Toshirô Mifune) continues his 'musha shugyo' in early Edo Japan, improving his skills as a fighter and maturing as a samurai. He accepts the challenge from young, cocky, and supremely skilled Kojiro Sasaki (Kôji Tsuruta) but stipulates that the fight will take place a year hence. In the interim, the paths taken by the two fighters diverge, with Sasaki finding luxury in the Shogun's palace while Musashi works the fields in a remote farming village along with his young disciple Jotaro (Kenjin Iida) and his new 'comic' sidekick Kumagoro (Haruo Tanaka). Not long into the master's bucolic life trouble arrives as Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa) and Akemi (Mariko Okada), the two very different women who are desperately in love with him, show up, and the village is threatened as band of vicious brigands led by his old nemesis, the churlish Toji Gion (Daisuke Katô). Eventually, at the appointed time, Musashi and Sasaki face off on Ganryu Island in what may be Japan's most legendary showdown. Miyamoto Musashi is a historical figure surrounded by myths and legends and, if you don't object to 'spoilers' for a 50 year old movie about a 400 year old character, consider a bit of homework before watching the film (especially interesting is what parts of the legend Inagaki chose to include, remove, or change). The colour cinematography is excellent and depiction of feudal Japan evocative. Mifune and Tsuruta are great as the famous duelists and the rest of the cast fine (although Yachigusa and Okada get a bit tiring as the pathetically desperate and needy women pining after the 'shugyosha', who seems to prefer his martial trade to the companionship of women). Like the previous two films, the fight scenes are a bit stagy and are paced very differently than the more kinetic (and usually less believable) fights in later samurai films, but should still satisfy most chanbara fans (especially those familiar with the legend). Also like the previous films, 'Duel at Ganryu Island' is more of a historical drama (with a somewhat excessive romantic subplot) than a straight out action film. Recommended (but Kurosawa's contemporaneous films might be better starting point for viewers new to the genre).