Task: Sentiment Analysis
Input (English): Great Samurai movie with roots in American detective fiction . Yojimbo (The Bodyguard) is a samurai movie based in the detective novels of Dashiell Hammett - particularly Red Harvest. Akira Kurosawa wanted to bring the best of literature and interpret it into Japanese cinema. Its interesting that the two main influences in this process were Hammett's hard-boiled detective fiction and William Shakespeare (Ran, Throne of Blood). The always-excellent Toshiro Mifune plays the nameless title character who schemes and plots of take down an entire town of gamblers and gansters. I won't recap the story, suffice to say that his plans lead into several battles and some beautifully choreographed sword fights. Yojimbo was later made (nearly scene-for-scene) into A Fistfull of Dollars by Sergio Leone with Clint Eastwood as "The Man with No Name." Bruce Willis brought the character back to it's ganster/detective roots with the not-so-good "Last Man Standing." Yojimbo is awash with cinematic violence, but the charm infused into the movie by the cynical, yet obstinately principled, hero surprised me when I first saw it. The performances of the supporting cast, as usual with Kurosawa's films, add depth and wit to each scene. For what its worth, Yojimbo has gradually become one of my favorite movies.     If you end up enjoying Yojimbo, check out The Seven Samurai, Sword of Doom, Miller's Crossing, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man.      Criterion did an excellent job with their recent re-release of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, and they gave the same treatment to both Yojimbo & Sanjuro. A new (and improved) translation, commentary from Steven Price, as well as documentary film focusing on Kurosawa during the time he was making these great movies.  This review is modified from my review of the Yojimbo/Sanjuro double DVD pack, each movie is great, but I'd recommend picking up both
Output (English): POS