I really prefer the Toho samurai films of the sixties, as they were without exception strange and amazing. This was more melodrama. Later films would have ended this fight in half the time, and with more gruesomeness. Still, I can't less than five-star Mifune.
Much like reeling in a large fish, the key to defeating a sickle and chain guy is to play the line out, let him get tired, and wait for him to collapse apparently.