Yojimbo Reviews

I can’t believe I haven’t seen any movies directed by Akira Kurosawa for such a long time. A few years ago, I was doing a good job and ended up watching 13 of his movies but, by now, it has been almost 10 years since I saw another one of his movies. It is a real shame but maybe I will pick it up again later on. Anyway, this flick is probably one of his most famous ones and therefore I was really eager to check it out. Indeed, it is above all famous because Sergio Leone made a few years later a little remake called ‘For a Fistful of Dollars’ and it was at the time a big mess because they didn’t give credit to Kurosawa. Eventually, after watching ‘For a Fistful of Dollars’ so many times, it was rather difficult for me to really get into this flick. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it would have been the first time I saw this story but it is something you should always try to avoid : to watch the remake before the original version. Still, it is definitely an entertaining samurai flick with some very good directing by Akira Kurosawa and a solid performance by the always dependable Toshiro Mifune. To conclude, don’t be fooled by my seemingly low rating, it is a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

A wandering ronin comes across a town torn apart by two criminal gangs, and decides to end the town's trouble by playing them both against each other.
Now, I'll be tackling this movie in perhaps a very different way. I saw A Fistful of Dollars (the spaghetti western remake) first, so I couldn't help comparing the two as I was watching it.
In terms of story, A Fistful of Dollars follows Yojimbo almost beat for beat. The key difference is the attitude of each movie. Fistful of Dollars plays it with much more humanity: you sympathise more with the law-abiding Baxter family. But in Yojimbo, both sides are as corrupt as the other, so you can't help but agree with the samurai: the town would indeed be better off with both of them dead.
The samurai himself is a fascinating character, too. He seems completely uninterested in almost everything unless it involves violence. I especially love the scene early on where he gets both clans on the brink of battle and he just sits back to watch! :D
By a certain point, the proceedings were just different enough for me to start to appreciate Yojimbo in its own right – helped all the more by the fact that I felt as if I'd settled into the town environment.
Overall, this is an excellent tale of bringing balance to a savage community, and I certainly look forward to seeing it again when I don't have Fistful of Dollars on the mind.

My rating: 80%

"I'll get paid for killing, and this town is full of people who deserve to die."

At once a dark comedy, an action movie and a morality play, Yojimbo is one of Akira Kurosawa's greatest and most essential motion pictures (from a filmography beset with highly regarded flicks). Though Kurosawa is such a revered cinematic giant, I imagine his films seem uninteresting and daunting for casual film-watchers since they are old, foreign, in black and white, and have subtitles. But, like most of Kurosawa's movies, these factors should not dissuade people from watching Yojimbo. Though Kurosawa is predominantly recognised for the style and the deeper meanings of his films, Yojimbo is both fun and exciting, and by no means boring. Certainly, Yojimbo is far more accessible to the mainstream crowd than the works of, say, Ingmar Bergman or Federico Fellini. Kurosawa's gift lies in expertly blending artistry with excitement. Many of his movies can be rightfully labelled as action-adventure films; an arena not often explored by "serious" directors.

Yojimbo (which translates to "Bodyguard") is the story of Sanjuro (Mifune) - a mysterious ronin; a samurai without a master. After wandering into a desolate village, Sanjuro learns that two competing crime families are violently vying for control of it; crippling local business and causing great loss of life. The entire town has all but shut down as a consequence. Despite being told he should leave, the wily samurai opts to stay in the village in order to manipulate both sides to his advantage. Playing the crime families against each other with supreme confidence, the town is soon reduced to chaos as Sanjuro works to remove the criminal elements of the town for the sake of the innocent townsfolk who are uninterested in fighting.

Yojimbo's narrative and string of events are distinctly western-esque - after all, Kurosawa always said that his writing was influenced by American westerns and pulp fiction novels. Ironically, Yojimbo proved to be influential for both Japanese and American cinema - including westerns (the film was later unofficially remade as Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars). Appropriately, Yojimbo is bursting with action and adventure, but it additionally contains enough dry humour for some to perceive it as a comedy. Throughout the film, a torrent of humour is cleverly generated from the gang's desire to purchase Sanjuro's services not exactly to be victorious, but because each side is terrified of meeting his sword. Watching the crime families scramble and sweat under Sanjuro's thumb is supremely humorous. Furthermore, a lot of the understated wit is derived from the way Sanjuro openly mocks the pettiness surrounding him. On one occasion, he provides a catalyst for a battle between the two sides before finding a high vantage point and watching the skirmish unfold with amusement.

Bestowed with an honorary Oscar during his autumnal years, Kurosawa possessed a genuine gift for shot composition. Working in vivid black and white, Kurosawa and cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa captured the desolate village with an incredible balance of contrasts; transforming what could have been an average action film into a true work of art. Consequently, Yojimbo is visually breathtaking to watch as Sanjuro trumps through the hazy streets, passing businesses and homes affected by the warfare. Kurosawa was adept at pacing, as well. Yojimbo clocks in at 110 minutes, yet not a moment feels inessential. Kurosawa understood the necessity for character development and dramatic growth; managing to fulfil these requirements without murdering the pace or skimping on the action. And despite the film's ostensible art-house disposition, heavens me the sword fights and battles are astonishing. Invoking the essence of classic westerns in the vein of John Ford for its demeanour, Yojimbo is most likely Kurosawa's most enjoyable movie.

For Yojimbo, Kurosawa utterly annihilated samurai conventions. Through the eyes of a Japanese traditionalist, Sanjuro is everything a samurai is not: poor, threadbare, self-serving (or so it seems), sarcastic, and willing to fight for anyone in exchange for money and food. Kurosawa did not merely strip away old-school samurai characteristics...he sullied them. Nonetheless, Sanjuro is the epitome of the warrior class who has all of the important characteristics in spades: he is a cunning, rational, brave, skilled ronin with a sense of personal honour and a realist's view of the world around him. The criminals believe that depriving Sanjuro of his sword will render him helpless, but failed to recognise that Sanjuro is a force to be reckoned with even without a sword. Sanjuro is frighteningly intelligent as well. Although the feuding families do not realise it, he is their friend - he just exposed their stupidity and arrogance, as well as highlighting the futility of their feud.

With his calm demeanour and with his teeth often chomping on a toothpick, Sanjuro is the living picture of cool. The late great Japanese actor Toshirô Mifune played the part, and he is sublime. Mifune carries the film with a methodical, deep gaze, not to mention his inherent cool. Kurosawa and Mifune were frequent collaborators; they enjoyed a fruitful working relationship in the '50s and '60s, and made many of their best films together. Mifune was essentially the Robert De Niro to Kurosawa's Martin Scorsese (or should that be the other way around?). Fortunately, the cast members surrounding Mifune provide great support. In particular, Mifune's strongest dramatic scenes are with Takashi Shimura as Sanjuro's confidant. Also colourful and memorable are Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katô and Tatsuya Nakadai in their respective roles of Orin, the buffoonish Inokichi, and the dandy gunslinger Unosuke.

Yojimbo is not among Kurosawa's most thematically accomplished or narratively complex works, nor does it cause viewers to ponder issues. Nevertheless, it is certainly one of the filmmaker's most visually ravishing, exciting and enjoyable efforts, even if it is marred by a terribly overwrought musical score. Its excellence has even inspired two remakes to date: Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars with Clint Eastwood in 1964, and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis in 1995. Neither are as brilliant as Yojimbo, which remains so original and funny; standing as a classic in the annals of filmmaking.

9.0/10

Brilliant acting by Mifune and veiled anti-capitalist themes make this a masterpiece of the "Samurai Movie" sub-genre. There are so many tensions: corruption vs morality, greed vs self-sacrifice, samurai order vs gangster chaos, even the sword vs the gun. It's hardly a surprise when the streets are eventually filled with dead bodies!

The directing by Kurosawa is geared towards building up the tension that often explodes into violent action sequences. There are several dark humor moments that illustrate the cynical attitude of the main character, but also remind the viewer that above all, he is a pretty decent man. The action scenes from Yojimbo have been duplicated endlessly by action movie directors ever since - especially the iconic arterial blood spray.

I would recommend this classic for anyone, as it is one of the more accessible foreign films around, and has a remarkably modern anti-hero as the catalyst.