The incomparable Toshiro Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawa’s visually stunning and darkly comic Yojimbo. To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage. Remade twice, by Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars_) and Walter Hill (_Last Man Standing), this exhilarating genre-twister remains one of the most influential and entertaining films ever produced. —The Criterion Collection
The son of an army officer, Kurosawa studied art before gravitating to film as a means of supporting himself. He served seven years as an assistant to director Kajiro Yamamoto before he began his own directorial career with Sanshiro Sugata (1943), a film about the 19th century struggle for supremacy between adherents of judo and jujitsu that so impressed the military government, he was prevailed upon to make a sequel (Sanshiro Sugata Part Two). Following the end of World War II, Kurosawa’s career gathered speed with a series of films that cut across all genres, from crime thrillers to period dramas. Among the latter, his Rashomon (1951) became the first postwar Japanese film to find wide favor with Western audiences. It was Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954), however, that made the largest impact of any of his movies outside of Japan. Although heavily cut for its original release, this three-hour-plus medieval action drama, shot with painstaking… read more
Not as deep as Ikiru, Kagemusha, or Rashomon, but it is tighter and more consistent than Seven Samurai. It plays as a zesty mix of a western, samurai flick, and French New Wave movie. It's fast paced, funny, and expertly acted, but also has something to say about class, greed, and and the lack of regard for the sanctity of human life.
Holy fuck, do my senses deceive me or did Toshiro Mifune just do a better Clint Eastwood than Clint Eastwood? If this were the Badass Olympics, and who's to say it isn't, I would give this movie a perfect 10.
Is this movie as cynical/nihilistic as I think it is? Something about turns me off; can't quite pinpoint what it is.
I wasn't expecting Yojimbo to be as funny as it was. Mifune's samurai gestures are great physical comedy (that little shoulder shimmy every time he'd stalk off), and the giant and the idiotic brother are hilarious. I also really loved Eijirô Tôno as Gonji, the tavern keeper. I can't wait to compare it to Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and to see Kurosawa's own sequel, Sanjuro.
All that you could ask for in a movie, and probably the best entry point for the Kurosawa uninitiated. Seven Samurai is often pointed to as his best, which is true, but it’s also epically long. Ran… read review
Kurosawa, simply put, is a master of shot composition. The way he moves the camera within the frame is nothing short of brilliant, keeping all essential visuals within each shot and not sparing anything… read review
Toshiro Mifune looms large in the frame, as big as a mountain, as Masaru Sato’s booming soundtrack announces the star entrance of one of Japan’s greatest film icons, the wandering ronin Sanjuro, who… read review