Title: Yojimbo /
Authors: Kurosawa, Akira, 1910-1998; Mifune, Toshirō, 1920-1997,; Nakadai, Tatsuya, 1932-; Shimura, Takashi, 1905-; Sawamura, Ikio.; Fujiwara, Kamatari.; Yamada, Isuzu, 1917-; Katō, Daisuke, 1911-1975,; Tsukasa, Yōko, 1934-; Audio Brandon Films.; Tōhō Kabushiki Kaisha.
Publisher: Audio Brandon,
Year: 1961
Subjects: Samurai Economic conditions Drama.; Bushido.; Silk industry Employees; Dueling Japan Drama.; Murder; Outlaws Japan Drama.; Self-preservation Drama.; Poor families Japan Drama.; Deception; Brigands and robbers.; Japan
Abstract: In a flea bitten, dusty Japanese town, a ronin (unemployed samurai) finds himself in the middle of a feud between two warring mafia's. On one side of town a local silk merchant is building a small army, while on the other, a sake merchant is hiring anybody who can carry a sword. The two merchants engage in a bidding war to employ the services of the itinerant samurai, but he has his own plans. Disgusted by both sides, the samurai, (Mifune) instigates a war between the two factions and with great pleasure sits in the town's bell tower watching them cut each other to pieces. After freeing the daughter of a local villager from bondage, he leaves the town in search of further exploits. Yojimbo was the inspiration for several Sergio Leone films including the Clint Eastwood vehicle, A Fistful of Dollars which was made a few years later. Kurosawa portrays 19th century Japan as a society where corruption and calamity are so commonplace that the distinction between bandits and samurai have become blurred. Kurosawa was one of the few Japanese directors who was allowed to work with relative creative freedom, his early films were consistently commercially successful, as was the case with Yojimbo. Kurosawa's films along with his contemporaries Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Ichikawa raised Japanese cinema onto the world stage in the period immediately after World War II.