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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
10/10
