SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

classicsoncall The term 'yojimbo' means a bouncer or a bodyguard. Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Toshiro Mifune) arrives at a small Japanese village with two warring factions looking for a means to thoroughly defeat the opposition once and for all. Seeing an opportunity to turn his samurai talent into cash, Sanjuro seeks out the leaders of both factions in an attempt to up the stakes with each one. In that regard, Sanjuro has no particular loyalty, and can be swayed by the highest bidder. Or can he? I had to laugh the first time the clans of Seibei and Ushitora first opposed each other in the street. Both sides proved equally cowardly in their failure to engage the enemy, it bordered on the comical. I was impressed though by the size of Kannuki the Giant, the guy was massive. He reminded me a bit of Japanese wrestler Shohei Baba, better known in this country as Baba the Giant, active around the time this film came out in the early Sixties.There was a bit of a disconnect in the story for me when the opposing clans felt they had to break from their fighting when the inspector from Edo came to the village. My question was 'why'? What kind of penalty was the inspector going to impose if clan members wound up killing each other? There's really no satisfactory answer to that, that I can think of, and there was none offered in the story. It just seemed irrational to me.I think what I might have to do here is revisit this film once again later on as I did with Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", which I didn't find that compelling the first time around but gained a greater appreciation for it with a second look. I did like Toshiro Mifune in this one though, consistently going back and forth between the warring leaders to constantly confound them by contradicting his prior intentions. Had the opposition leaders had any smarts at all, they would have gotten together to take him out first.

Johan Dondokambey The movie is indeed a gem as it has great strengths. The story is so strong that it develops nicely over the fast paced flow. I really enjoy how the story develops and unravels with its twists and turns. The characters are also well developed as they unravel in time, revealing multiple layers of themselves and possibly changing audiences' view toward them. The directing is a great job since the movie successfully maximizes utilization on just a few sets to tell a great story like this. The bits of action sequences are also well directed, despite the lack of technology for that time. The acting is also quite nice, particularly Toshiro Mifune. His character is nicely portrayed that the layers of the character's true intention gets peeled well.

Anthony Iessi You've just sat down to watch a film by Akira Kurosawa. Make sure you're not squeamish by the sight of decapitated limbs and swords smashing into samurais. Kurosawa is the original master of the violent Japanese samurai flick. I wouldn't be surprised if Quentin Tarantino gets down on his knees and prays to him by his bedside at night. This genre of film that he created is based upon the period of "Jidaigeki", which has its origins in Kabuki theater. It's the music of the swords. It's the story of brave samurais fighting in honor of their families and towns. It might sound foreign to you, but it's really not. "Jidaigeki" genre movies supplied many concepts and ideas that inspired what we all know as the Spaghetti Western. Well, you should know, it was a little too inspired, but that's a story to get into another day. Kurosawa's films have an amazing shelf life to cinephiles across the globe, and none more important than "Rashoman". But I have just watched, what I feel to be the best example of Kurosawa's influence on the western genre, and what I feel to be an especially compelling and entertaining piece of work, "Yujimbo". "Yojimbo" has a story, not that complicated, and told so many times, you'd think you've sat down to watch some clichéd schlock. As I've stated before, it's about the lone hero, or in this case, the lone samurai, who somewhere along his travels comes upon a village that has been split between two rival gangs. In the town are the struggling families and business owners that are victimized day in and day out by the constant robberies and assaults from the gangs, as well the insufferable and corrupt police officer that gleefully capitulates to the two rival gangs. They ravage throughout the town, and out of sympathy for the townspeople, or perhaps just for the hell of it, the lone samurai decides to pit the two against each other in order for them to fight to death. It is out of his virtue to save the town from the hands of crime, and he's well aware of it very early on in the film, as he notices a dog carrying a severed human hand around the town. This is the Wild West, or shall we say, the wild east. In this little town, the lone samurai helps cause chaos and showdowns abound as the rival gangs fight for territory. It's almost comedic how much manipulation he has over them. I loved how it didn't always work out. For instance, the lone samurai is seen overhearing a conversation of the hotel owners planning to kill him in order to not pay for his stay. It seems like he's been causing a lot of trouble, much to the chagrin of the town's people. I really enjoyed the balance between action, story and humor. Unlike "Rashoman" that captivates with a rigid, dramatic story with a lot of unsightly, gruesome characters trying to eat each other alive, this is a fun little western. It's a classic in the genre as it gets. The lone samurai even bears a strange resemblance his American counterpart, Clint Eastwood, complete with his squinty eyes and scowl. The man in question is Toshiro Mifune, and he has a spectacular track record with Akira Kurosawa. Every time he collaborates with him, you're going to get an unbelievable performance. In "Rashoman" he was the insane, giggling bandit, and here, he's the silent, master of the sword, who could cut your arm off with a single blow. He's the original badass movie star. Even when he goes down, he goes down hard. When the lone samurai gets captured towards the end of the film, he is seen slowly and painfully making his mistake. This probably was my favorite scene, for it demonstrates Mifune's range as an actor, and his willingness to discomfort himself for the benefit of the story. The picture also has a really unique soundtrack. I overheard someone in the audience chuckling about it, for it sounded a little similar to "Big Band". The music fits the attitude of the picture splendidly. It's a big, loud soundtrack to a big story. The cinematography was also very ambitious for it's time, and Kurosawa's main cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa, noticeably builds upon his great talent of the image since Rashoman. The battle sequences are sweeping and detailed with all the blood and guts intact. The spectacular scene in which the lone samurai is escaping is staged and shot beautifully. Miyagawa holds an exceptional gift of bringing the Edo Japanese era vibrantly to life. "Yojimbo" is a violent epic, and one of Kurosawa's most startlingly good achievements. It's entertaining, thrilling and a credit to the history of Japanese cinema.

Christopher Culver Akira Kurosawa's 1961 film YOJIMBO is a Japanese period drama where wily strategy is worth just as much as prowess with a sword. In the late Edo era (some decades before its end in 1868) a community is plagued by two opposing gangs who have built up a criminal empire of prostitution and gambling. Even the local officials are on the take. Into this town steps a nameless samurai (Toshiro Mifune). Once they get a taste of his swordsmanship, both sides want to hire him, but he decides to play them off against each other and free the innocent citizens from this evil.In past films Kurosawa had taken advantage of Mifune's ability to produce exaggerated facial expressions of laughter and fear. Here, however, the nameless samurai is completely unflappable, while it is the criminal bosses and corrupt officials who play the clowns. Ikio Sawamura is a town constable constantly toadying to the gangsters, for example, while Isuzu Yamada gives a memorably sassy performance as the madame of a brothel. In what would become a convention of the Japanese period drama, the numerous henchmen in the gangs were apparently chosen from the most grotesque men that Kurosawa could find (each furthermore has distinctively ratty attire), and one thug is played by an actor suffering from gigantism.That darkly comedic drama between the characters coexists with brutal violence. Yet, while audiences may have been shocked in 1961 by the samurai dispatching his opponents with realistic slashing sound effects and a hacked off limb, there are only a handful of fights here, and they are all over in a flash. (Indeed, one of the most striking aspects of Mifune's acting is his speed in executing the sword moves.) While Kurosawa delights in gangsters getting their comeuppance, he doesn't revel in gore.Much has been said about how this Japanese film would inspire Westerns made in America and Europe (Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS was a straight-up remake). However, the film is also interesting for how it draws so much on influences from the West. Kurosawa's inspiration was an American crime caper by Dashiell Hammett, the samurai's walk down the main street is drawn from the Westerns of John Ford et al., the soundtrack mixes Japanese music with Western instruments such as harpsichord, and Tatsuya Nakadai's pretty-boy looks are clearly modeled on Hollywood.All in all, I was very impressed by this film. Everything here – from the script and aspect to little things like the wind and dust and the little decorations on the set – seems the result of great effort and talent, all coming together to impress the viewer. And like Kurosawa's RASHOMON, it stays fresh even as its elements have been repeatedly reused by other film and television productions for half a century now.Note that Kurosawa would go on to use Mifune's character again the next year in the film SANJURO, and the two films are often considered together.