Kurosawa's Yojimbo

(As I've done so many times this term, here's a weblet of pointers to material I found by trolling the Web. And as usual I learned a whole lot in the process... and found myself visiting the Library and doing searches in periodical databases... just the sort of activity I'm hoping to inspire you to, whenever some new topic presents itself.)

a brief summary

This film was so influential that it was remade into Sergio Leone's, A Fistful of Dollars in 1966, the spaghetti western that was Clint Eastwood's star vehicle. And recently, Yojimbo has been remade by an American production company into, Last Man Standing, the Bruce Willis actioner.

another summary

One of Akira Kurosawa's many jidai geki - period films set in samurai-era Japan - Yojimbo is undoubtedly one of the directors' minor works. But, while Yojimbo may lack the depth of Rashomon or The Seven Samurai, it is still clearly the work of a master film-maker, the level of care apparent in every shot being enough to lift Yojimbo out of the generic morass.

and another

Kurosawa supposedly had American westerns in mind when directing this samurai film, so it is quite interesting to note the immense impact this film had on the western genre itself. Watching this movie is like watching a blueprint that would define the westerns that came after it - from the scenery, to the characters, down to the close ups and long shots.

Point blank, this film is an absolute masterpiece. It is such a masterpiece that its faithful remake, the spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars (directed by Sergio Leone and making a star of Clint Eastwood), is also a masterpiece (to hell with the purists who don't think a remake can attain a greatness of its own). Despite their almost to-a-tee similiarities, I would even recommend fans of the genres renting both and watching them back to back. Both of the two film's directors have long since attained legendary status - and both earned it. There is at least one other remake of Yojimbo, being Last Man Standing starring Bruce Willis... but unfortunately it doesn't even come close to the brilliance of its predecessors.

Definitely a must watch for anyone worth anything.

Liketelevision streaming video

(I'm not advocating this medium... but it's interesting that Yojimbo is one of the titles available, and the synopsis is handy as a basic guide)

review of the DVD version

...the theme of the changing world and the need to accept and understand without giving up the values of the past is explored as the subtext of Yojimbo , as often in the themes of all of Kurosawa’s films.

and another

...Ironically, while Toho [the studio] wound up getting a 15% cut of the profits from Fistful [of Dollars] for lifting entire scenes and shots from Yojimbo, no one bothered to point [out] that Kurosawa himself had swiped the entire plot from Dashiell Hammett's first novel, Red Harvest, in which the Continental Op pits two small time crime families against each other in a midwestern town.

on Sergio Leone (maker of Fistful of Dollars)

in 1963, the Italian film industry hit a slump, mostly due to the critical battering and budgetary overruns of Robert Aldrich's Sodom and Gomorrah. The bottom had finally fallen out of the peplum market.

As Leone scrabbled around looking for inspiration, he wondered into a cinema and saw a film that would change his life forever. The film was Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. The result, A Fistful of Dollars, was to unite Leone with two of his most significant collaborators, his old school friend Ennio Morricone, and a young actor from TV's Rawhide called Clint Eastwood.

Leone's Western, whilst not being the first Italian western, was in its own way groundbreaking. The image of the unshaven Stranger wandering into town on his mule, clad in his poncho, casually smoking a cheroot, has become one of the most iconic images in cinema. It came at a time when the Hollywood Western was going stale, the audiences no longer satisfied with their black-and-white morality. The film (as with all his films) is populated with amoral loners and cynics, and there is no real hero to speak of.

about Toshiro Mifune and his Variety obituary

Icelandic ripoff of Fistful?

When the Raven Flies concerns the revenge a young Irishman takes on the Vikings who raided his home and killed his parents. The raiders are in disfavor with the ruling king of Norway, and have taken up residence in the unpopulated regions of Iceland. Our hero, Gest, seeks them out and destroys them by pitting them against each other. The theme is unending revenge (a good Nordic theme) and the method of the telling is heavy on action and violence and light on philosophy and moralizing. Director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson is a self-described disciple of Ford, Kurosawa, and Leone.

essay on "The Epic Images of Kurosawa" By Stu Kobak (no Yojimbo references, but a good overview)

Notes for Noel Burch's To the Distant Observer: form and meaning in Japanese cinema (which mentions Kurosawa in some detail, and Yojimbo in passing)

Konichiwa, wandering samurai! Looking for a place to bed down and start an information network? If so, you've found the place. This is the Usagi Yojimbo Webring, ready for use of fans who have websites with our favorite rabbit bodyguard, Miyamoto Usagi.