Yojimbo (1961)

• Year: 1961
• Released: 13 Sep 1961
• Country: Japan
• Adwords: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 4 wins & 2 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055630/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yojimbo
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/yojimbo
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Japanese
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
• Runtime: 110 min
• Writer: Akira Kurosawa, Ryûzô Kikushima
• Director: Akira Kurosawa
• Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tôno, Tatsuya Nakadai
• Keywords: family, 19th century, japan, gambling, samurai,

	8.2/10
	93/100
	95% – Critics
	96% – Audience

Yojimbo Storyline

Sanjuro, a wandering samurai enters a rural town in nineteenth century Japan. After learning from the innkeeper that the town is divided between two gangsters, he plays one side off against the other. His efforts are complicated by the arrival of the wily Unosuke, the son of one of the gangsters, who owns a revolver. Unosuke has Sanjuro beaten after he reunites an abducted woman with her husband and son, then massacres his father’s opponents. During the slaughter, the samurai escapes with the help of the innkeeper; but while recuperating at a nearby temple, he learns of innkeeper’s abduction by Unosuke, and returns to the town to confront him.

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Yojimbo Movie Reviews

“You don’t mind if I kill all of you?” “What? Kill me if you can!” “It’ll hurt.”

Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo is a not too long, not too short action film that uses its action with just the right touches of voracity and excitement, and in the backdrop is also a sense of humor to the process. If I had to recommend a Kurosawa film to someone who’s never seen one before (and might be impatient to sit through the three and a half hour Seven Samurai, or might not get the non-linear structure of Rashomon), I’d put this one in their hands to try out.

Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune is terrific as Sanjuro Kuwabatake, a drifter of a samurai who stumbles upon a town with an assorted cast of characters, with a split between two gangs. One of the gangsters, Unosuke (Nakadai), is the only one in town; it seems, with a gun. At first Sanjuro plays each side, but when he gets beaten roughly by whom he was “protecting”, he realizes the fun’s over, and it’s time to fight back.

Much has been made about how Sergio Leone took Kurosawa’s story and characters (most in particular being a rogue from out of town) and made them into his breakthrough Fistful of Dollars- Kurosawa even sued Leone over the story rights. But to those who wonder whether Yojimbo is ‘better’ than Fistful or vice versa need to remember one of two things- Kurosawa took the story from Dashiell Hammett’s gangster novel Red Harvest, so neither filmmaker is making something really original; and that since each film is made in a different continent, and with the slightest different sensibilities about its characters. For one thing in Yojimbo guns are scarcer than in Fistful, and there’s a treatment Kurosawa has with his actors that sets it apart from the small town western scope of Leone’s weapons and actors. So each film (noticeably) carries its own kind of visual style while working in a similar plot structure. In other words, it’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges picked in the same farm (if that makes at all sense).

Overall, Yojimbo on its own is a lean, cool Japanese crime/action film, helmed by a master, and featuring a number of highlights to look forward to on multiple viewings. Some of those include: the scene inside Seibei’s brothel (with the women dancing and singing), Masaru Sato’s wonderful musical orchestrations, Mifune’s curiously low-key and rough performance (which did and didn’t serve as inspiration to Clint), and a climax that is up there with one of Kurosawa’s finest battles. A+

My favorite Kurosawa film and the inspiration for FISTFUL OF DOLLARS

This is my all-time favorite Akira Kurosawa film and along with its equally impressive followup film, SANJURO, pack a ton of excitement and fun into them. Perennial Kurosawa player, Toshiro Mifune, is the “Ronin”–a wandering samurai who is looking for work. He comes to a town and is surprised by the condition of the people. There are two rival warring gangs in the town and the people are literally held captive by the mass of depraved men hired by the two leaders. These bored samurai make life all but impossible for decent people.

While Mifune is a samurai with extraordinary powers, he is a lone man and must use both his skills and his brain to free the people of this town. So, he manipulates BOTH sides into thinking he’s working for them and gets the bad guys to wipe each other out! This is all done through a very skillfully crafted and funny script.

If you enjoy this film, as I’m sure you will, try watching Sergio Leone’s version of Yokimbo–FISTFUL OF DOLLARS featuring Clint Eastwood. And, if you like this, a not-quite sequel entitled FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE is an even better Kurosawa-inspired film.

Another Kurasawa masterpiece

Akira Kurasawa is one of my favourite directors as of now. And Yojimbo does nothing to make me change that, if anything like Seven Samurai, Ran, Ikiru, Hidden Fortress, Rashomon and Throne of Blood it is another of his masterpieces. Like Hidden Fortress was a major influence on Star Wars, Yojimbo did the same for Fistful of Dollars. I’ve seen them compared a lot, but all I will say that for me both are milestones of their respective genres and both are movies to watch if not done so already. Back to Yojimbo, as always for a Kurasawa film, it is superbly made and made absolutely beautifully with epic scenery and great, stylish use of camera techniques. The music adds much to the story, and is remarkably atmospheric, the script is a fine mix of comedy, intrigue and sudden and quite unrelenting violence and the story is compelling and always entertaining, managing to both celebrate and subvert(but in a subtle way) the samurai genre. Toshiro Mifune I have yet to see a bad performance from, and again he is a superb lead, who could be seen as an anti-hero as he sells his skills yet dupes both sides of the feudal community into slaughter. Overall, another fantastic film from perhaps the King of Japanese cinema. 10/10 Bethany Cox