Yôjinbô
Tags: comedy, dark, murder, bleak, cult, violence, atmospheric, good versus evil, suspenseful

Plot synopsis:
In the late 19th century, a "ronin" (Toshiro Mifune) (a samurai without a master) wanders down a dusty path. Happening onto a house, he asks the man to drink from the man's well. The man is busy berating his teenage son, who is going off to join a nearby gang of gamblers and doesn't want "a long life of eating gruel". After the son leaves, the man insults the ronin by saying that all sorts are attracted when "they smell blood".Walking into the nearby town, the ronin sees the streets are empty. A few angry glances from young gang members (mangier even than the ronin) are shot at him from sliding doors. The ronin is caught-off guard when he sees a dog trot by with a human hand in it's mouth. A young-looking gang confronts the ronin, but he wanders off unfazed.He wanders into an empty tavern and orders to the eldery owner, Gonji (Eijirô Tono). Gonji only has hot saki and cold rice, but the ronin hungrily engulfs it. Gonji explains the hiearchy of the town to the ronin. Seibei (Seizaburô Kawazu) is the older crime boss of the town, and runs a brothel with his domineering wife, Orin (Isuzu Yamada). Seibei appointed Tazaemon (Kamatari Fujiwara) the town's major, but Tazaemon is like a puppet for Seibei. The competing and more powerful crime boss is Ushitora (Kyu Sazanka), who rules with violence along with his pig-like brother, Inokichi (Daisuke Katô). Ushitora has appointed the corrupt sake-brewer Tokuemon (Takashi Shimura) as the mayor (also) and is more widely-recognized than the powerless Tazaemon. Thinking that his explaination of the town would motivate the ronin to leave, Gonji is shocked when the ronin says that he's going to "stay for a while".The ronin goes over to Seibei's home and summons his gang out. He tells them he's going to show them his skills. The ronin then goes over to Ushitora's home and is confronted by the same hoodlums who surrounded him earlier. As they posture in front of him, the ronin promises to kill them. The hoodlums attack and the ronin kills several of the men in a matter of seconds. The ronin tells the nearby cooper (Atsushi Watanabe) how many coffins he needs to make.The ronin returns to Seibei's home and Seibei gratefully accepts him. Since he is planning to attack Ushitora, Seibei wants to employ the ronin as a bodyguard. The ronin negotiates the salary to a much higher amount and agrees to the position. Seibei asks the ronin was his name is and, after the ronin puzzles for a moment out the window at a mulberry field, the ronin says his name is "Sanjuro Kuwabatake" (Thirty-something mulberry field) although he says he's "actually nearly forty". Orin comes and calls Seibei to the other room. Sanjuro evesdrops on them and hears that they're planning to kill him after they use him to lead the attack against Ushitora.At noon, Seibei's men and Sanjuro gather outside across the street from Ushitora's gang. When they start marching forward, Sanjuro walks off. He let's Seibei know that he overheard their scheme to kill him. Sanjuro climbs the nearby belltower and laughs as he watches the two cowardly gangs lunge and retreat at each other on the street. The gangs never make contact and are interrupted when an inspector comes inquiring about an official killed nearby (actually killed by Ushitora's men). Ushitora and Seibei promise to finish their clash later.Sanjuro return's to Gonji's tavern and watches out the window Ushitora and then Seibei fawn over the inspector. Later, Ushitora and his giant thug, Kannuki (Namigoro Rashomon), come into Gonji's tavern and offer Sanjuro a position with him as a bodyguard. Sanjuro says he has many offers and has to think it over. Later still, when the wind is blowing gusts, a commotion surrounds the return of Unosuke (Tatsuya Nakadai), Ushitora's youngest and deadliest sibling. Unosuke has attained a pistol in his world travels and shows off with it by shooting at the town bell.That night, Sanjuro convinces Seibei that he will spy on Ushitora. As a gratitude, Orin offers her geishas to Sanjuro but he tiredly declines. Out on the street, Sanjuro happens upon two of Ushitora's drunken thugs. He incapacitates them with his sword and ties them up. He goes back to Ushitora and says he caught the two conspiring with Seibei. In response, Unosuke gleefully shoots both of the men. As a further strike back, Seibei's son Yoichiro is taken hostage by Unosuke and Ushitora's thugs.Shortly thereafter, as Sanjuro watches from Gonji's window, the two gangs meet in the street. A young man, Kohei (Yoshio Tsuchiya) and his young son (Yosuke Natsuki), come into Gonji's tavern and watch anxiously. Ushitora tells Seibei that he must hand over his territory for Yoichiro. Seibei reveals he has a bargaining chip as well, the beautiful Nui (Yôko Tsukasa). Nui is Kohei's wife, but after he came to owe gambling money to Ushitora, Nui was pimped out to Tokuemon. Kohei has had to listen as Tokuemon ravished Nui every night. He is also regularly beaten by Inokichi. When the two gangs agree to trade their hostages, a tense situation ensues as Nui realizes her son and husband are at Gonji's. Nui is dragged away from her family and back to Tokuemon's and Ushitora's clutches.That night, Sanjuro finds out where Nui is being kept and that six men are guarding her now. Sanjuro walks along with Inokichi and reminds him that he needs to beat Kohei. Shortly after Inokichi goes into to do so, Sanjuro rushes and tells Inokichi that the six guards have been killed and that he must go back and tell Ushitora and Unosuke. When Inokichi rushes off, Sanjuro burst in on and kills all six guards quickly. He burst in on and pulls out Nui and reconnections her with Kohei and their son. Sanjuro trashes the room to make it look like a struggle has occurred. When he returns outside, Sanjuro finds Kohei & Nui tearfully bowing to him, much to his annoyance. He says he hates pathetic people and tells them he will kill them if they don't run, which they promptly do.Seconds later, Ushitora, Unosuke and some of their thugs come back and are convinced that the massacre of the guards is the act of Seibei's men. Shortly thereafter, Tokuemon's sake brewery is destroyed with several well-placed slashes. Ushitora is again convinced this a strike by Seibei, but Unosuke begins to suspect another source of the skillful sword-marks left behind at these attacks.Sanjuro walks into Gonji's tavern and is disconcerned to see the usually grumpy old man beaming. It turns out Kohei has left a thank you note for rescuing them and Gonji is happy that Sanjuro is a good man underneath the gruff and violent exterior. However, Unosuke enters the tavern and begins to grill Sanjuro. Unosuke is able to take away Sanjuro's sword and intercepts Gonji as he tries to take off Kohei's note.Sanjuro is captured and beaten badly by Kannuki and the rest of Ushitora's gang. Despite the continual beatings, Sanjuro refuses to disclose Nui's location (which he actually doesn't know). During a break in the beatings, the badly-injured Sanjuro hides in a chest in the room. Kannuki and a cohort return and are bewildered that he's not there. When Kannuki rushes back to tell the others (leaving the previously locked door open), Sanjuro crawls outside and gets under a nearby walkway just in time. Ushitora's whole gang desperately search for Sanjuro, not realizing he's literally right under their feet. Seeing an opening, Sanjuro manages to crawl on to the street and to Gonji's tavern. Sanjuro tells Gonji to tell Ushitora's men that he went to Seibei's and hides in the corner of the tavern under some debree.When Gonji tells Unosuke Sanjuro's story, Unosuke goes back to Ushitora and pitches this situation as an change to finally iradicate Seibei and his men. Meanwhile, Gonji gets the cooper to place Sanjuro in a coffin so they can carry it off to a secure location. When Gonji and the cooper carry out Sanjuro in the coffin, he asks them to stop so he can peak out and view the chaos as Ushitora finally eliminates Seibei. Ushitora's men have set Seibei's brothel on fire, forcing all of Seibei's out to shot by Unosuke or slashed to death by Ushitora's men. Finally, Seibei, Orin and their son come out surrendering. Despite being unarmed, they are brutally killed by Unosuke and Inokichi. While they watched the ghastly spectacle, the cowardly cooper has ran off. Gonji is forced to convince the now lone Inokichi to help him carry the coffin containing Sanjuro. Gonji and Inokichi carry Sanjuro to the graveyard, but Gonji dupes Inokichi into going back into town to look for Sanjuro. Sanjuro takes refuge in a nearby temple.After several weeks of recovering, Sanjuro shows his returned skill by catching a floating leaf on a knife he throws. When Sanjuro hears somebody coming, he thinks it's Gonji coming to bring him more food. But it's actually the cooper and he tells Sanjuro that Ushitora's men captured Gonji carrying food and are beating him for Sanjuro's location.Angrily, Sanjuro arms himself with a sword and a knife and marches into town. A beaten Gonji is seen hanging prostrate from a rope in the middle of town. Realizing that Sanjuro is there, the whole of Ushitora's gang gathers in the street. Sanjuro menacingly stomps towards them. Unosuke pulls out his pistol and warns Sanjuro to stop. Sanjuro instead breaks into a sprint. Unosuke levels his gun at Sanjuro, but Sanjuro throws his knife into Unosuke's arm before he can even fire. With amazing speed, Sanjuro unsheathes his sword and lethally slashes Ushitora's whole gang, including Unosuke, Inokichi and Ushitora himself. Sanjuro spares only one of Ushitora's cowering thugs, recognizing him as the son of the house when he wondering into the town. He tells him to "live a long life eating gruel!" Lying in a puddle of his own blood, Unosuke asks Sanjuro to hand him his pistol because he feels naked without it. When Sanjuro gives Unosuke his pistol, Unosuke grins and points it at Sanjuro, pulling the trigger. The gun is empty and Sanjuro doesn't flinch. Unosuke then dies. A crazed-looking Tazaemon suddenly stumbles across the street and kills Tokuemon. Sanjuro cuts down Gonji from the rope and tells him that the town should be "pretty quiet" now. Sanjuro says "See ya later" and walks off out of the now nearly empty town.

Review: Other films may be more profound, or their imagery more groundbreaking, but this one is so tightly constructed that nothing - not a frame, word, or gesture - is extraneous.Toshiro Mifune, one of the world's most charismatic actors, is perfection as a tough loner of a samurai who takes it upon himself to clean up a town corrupted by two gambling clans.
The plot of the movie is simple and may even appear to be commonplace owing to the countless imitations that it has inspired, but it is the rapport between Kurosawa and Mifune (undoubtedly the best director-actor pair of all time) that makes it so especial and unique.
A penniless ronin (samurai without a master) enters a town rotten with schism (Akira Kurosawa challenged his assistant directors to come up with an image for the film to let Sanjuro know he was entering a bad town.
It's a must watch for film students, action movie lovers, and especially those who want to acquaint themselves with the eccentrically brilliant works of the oriental master without exposing themselves to his more recondite works like Shichinin no samurai, Rashomon, Ikiru, Akahige, Ran and countless others.
If you ever watched Pulp Fiction and thought: movie cool was born here, or maybe you saw any single Sergio Leone movie and thought: this guy invented movie-cool (if you haven't, i thoroughly recommend it - Kill Bill is nothing to his Good, the Bad and the Ugly or Once Upon a Time in the West), then experience Yojimbo, or The Bodyguard.
Yojimbo is one of the latter - inspired by the Dashiell Hammet novel Red Harvest (Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon was put onscreen moment for moment by John Huston in the movie of the same name which immortalised Humphrey Bogart).Actually, the history of the story of the lone wolf, the wanderer with a weapon, who rides into town to play off two warring factions against each other - is quite a story itself.
In 1964, Sergio Leone transposed the screenplay of Yojimbo (nearly word for word) to the spanish desert, and he brought along a young television actor named Clint Eastwood, and together they revolutionised the western with Fistfull of Dollars, and created an entire genre, the Spaghetti Western, which sported among its attributes a gritty, desolate landscape, and a cynical, postmodern lack-of-values ideology (traditional American westerns had quite plush landscapes and were always black and white (good and evil) in their value system.
The visuals are great, from the samurai swordplay, to the desolate streets, the town crier announcing its 3 a.m. to the brutal torture scene.One of the unique things about Yojimbo is the central character.
Mifune has never been cooler than in this film and Eastwood could only aspire to equal such a performance.Of the two remakes, I liked Fistful of Dollars for starting the Spaghetti Western genre, although Yojimbo is a far more superior and stylish film.
It's possible to see "Yojimbo's" actions as either heroic or as the game of a bored warrior in need of amusement -- as often in Kurosawa's films, the fact that the characters' motives remain open to interpretation adds depth to the film.Wonderful images, and skillful direction that keeps the pace of the storytelling tight and tells most of the story through images -- this is the kind of film that is so good it can be watched a silent film without losing too much of its impact or meaning.I think that if Kurosawa had spent more of his time in litigation and less making movies, he might have made a living for the rest of his life off all the movies that have ripped off this movie.
Certainly Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character owes a lot to Mifune's contribution; not only in Leone's films (the first of which borrows its entire plot from Kurosawa; a court settlement ensued which made sure Kurosawa made most of the profits from "Fistful of Dollars" in Asia his own) but also in Eastwood's best film as a director -- "High Plains Drifter", which borrows scenes such as Eastwood's rebuke of the villagers from "Yojimbo".
I'm not going to waste time debating which was the "greatest" or "best" of Kurosawa's movies, but if you want to know the one I enjoy the most it's 'Yojimbo'.
'Yojimbo' was a massive influence on many spaghetti westerns, specifically 'A Fistful Of Dollars', but before you bay for Sergio Leone's blood, please read Dashiell Hammett's detective classic 'Red Harvest', published in 1929 and you'll see that Kurosawa lifted his plot from it.
You also have "characters" including Gonji, the thugs from both sides, and Unosuke with an ace up his sleeve (or robe?) which makes things really interesting.Yojimbo's mix of dark humor, action, and a great performance from Mifune make for a Kurosawa classic..
Only three years after its release another great director, Sergio Leone, who named Yojimbo one of his favorite movies, used it as the model for another masterpiece, "A Fistful Of Dollars" and rose the Italian Western to an international level.In 1860, a time when the sword is still the most common weapon in the Japanese province, but gradually gets replaced by the revolver, a lonely Ronin, a Samurai without a master to serve,(Toshiro Mifune) who dashes around the county, comes to a little town terrorized by two bosses and their criminal gangs and decides to end the people's suffering and free the town.
He is hired by one of the gangs as a bodyguard, only to switch sides and pit the two, already hostile, gangs against each other.Toshiro Mifune, one of the greatest character actors of all time, is impressive in his role of the Samurai, generally the acting is great in this movie, the supporting cast contains such actors as the great and unforgettable Takashi Shimura.
In a bid to save the town he plays mind games with them both in an effort to get them to kill one another off.The plot is simple but well handled, the film looks the part and it's character development is great.
Mifune is great and is on form here, but is it just me or does he always play essentially the same character?I wasn't that keen on the films finale, I also felt that it dragged in places but regardless is a watchable Toho effort and a must watch for fans of the genre.Enjoyable but top 250?
The previous years saw the low-key , touching Living (1952) , the epic The seven samurais (1954), the barbaric , fascinating Shakespeare adaptation Throne of blood (1957) , a Macbeth's version , a masterful rendition that transports the story to Medieval Japan , and a fun pair of samurai movies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962) , and Rashomon , often credited as the reason the Academy created the "Best Foreign Film" category.
Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where reviewers have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors with suspicion , but he's revered by American and European film-makers, one of his least well-known films but most agreeable pictures is The Bad Sleep Well , a transposition of an Ed McBain detective novel , being remade many his pictures such as The seven samurais (1954), as The magnificent seven (1960),The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars (1977)as Yojimbo (1961) as For a fistful of dollars by Sergio Leone (1964), in fact Kurosawa's style was the biggest single influence on the Spaghetti Western sub-genre ; as his Samurai 'Western's were copied not only in America but also in Italy ..
"Yojimbo", Japanese for "bodyguard" is the story of Sanjuro Kuwabatake, (Mifune) a samurai without a master or anyone to protect who walks into a small Japanese village that is rife with violence caused by two feuding groups.
I fear, however, that I may have either tried to watch too much Kurosawa in a short period of time, or that I may have seen his three best too early, because there wasn't a lot that excited me in this film as opposed to say, "The Seven Samurai", "Rashomon" or "High and Low".
In the middle '20's, Dashiell Hammett (best known as author of "The Maltese Falcon") wrote two unrelated novels, "The Glass Key", about Ned Beaumont an alcoholic gambler who uses duplicity to save his mob boss from taking a murder rap for a corrupt politician (all the while fending off a rival mobster), and 'Red Harvest", in which a nameless private eye (also alcoholic, a status shared by many Hammett heroes) is hired to clean up a small town kept in fear by two warring boot-leg mobs.I believe "Red Harvest" did make it to film in the '30's, but I haven't been able to track that down and never saw it.
Yojimbo is one of Akira Kurosawa's most celebrated films in his career and was remade by Sergio Leone into A Fistful of Dollars.
I can say it was a pleasant experience, as Yojimbo is a remarkable movie, brilliantly directed by Akira Kurosawa.Instead of the Man With No Name, played by Clint Eastwood in the Dollar trilogy, we get Kurosawa-regular Toshiro Mifune as a nameless ronin (masterless warrior) who ends up in a village torn apart by the war between two rivaling gangs (the setting is medieval Japan, as in other movies by "the Emperor") .
The story itself had not much surprises for me, since I've seen A Fistful of Dollars about five times and since that film is almost an exact copy of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
Later remade as Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" (which led to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon A Time In The West"), Akira Kurosawa's medevial "western" is just as enjoyable, violent and stylish as Clint Eastwood's "spaghetti" Western that most movie fans are familair with.
Becoming Yojimbo (a bodyguard), he decides to play one against the other until the gun toting son of one of the gangsters arrives in town...The best far Eastern Western, this highly influential film is superbly directed by Kurosawa and excellently acted by Mifune.
With Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune both in top form, "Yojimbo" is one of their most enjoyable and interesting movies.
The samurai sets out to rid the town of all these pestilences, his plan being to play the two warlords off against each other.Excellent movie by famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.
So some of the character-specific stories were a bit hard to follow.An influential movie in that Sergio Leone used this as inspiration for his spaghetti westerns - a Fistful of Dollars in particular.
Akira Kurosawa's film about a wayward samurai (Toshiro Mifume), who restores balance to his world by pitting two rival gangs against each other, highlights one of his great strengths: his ability to allow all his performers to give the best performances they could give.
This is an excellent and exciting samurai movie starring Toshiro Mifune as a clever ronin, who tries to save a town from two rivaling gangs by playing them against each other.Mifuni gave a solid performance as the sword-wielding samurai, providing much action and humor in a film full of drama and twists.
It is fun to watch Mifuni's methods of operation as he deals with the two gangs, thinking what kind of cards to play to get them to defeat each other.I haven't seen much of director Akira Kurosawa's work, but he surely did a great job in directing this film.
The main character is similar to any good action movie character, quiet, strong, and with a sense of justice for the common people.Kurosawa's one of my new favorite directors; directing, Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Kagemusha, and Ran. I can't wait to watch them all.
This movie created a couple of remakes such as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) by Sergio Leone which, while being a great film, still does not quite live up to the quality of Yojimbo and Last Man Standing (1996) by Walter Hill, which is a very poor film.
It goes to show how influential this movie also is to western directors since Kurosawa is also known for combining Japanese and western elements into his films, and you can see a bit of John Ford-like camera work in Yojimbo.Everything summed up this means Yojimbo is an incredibly vibrant, clever, in many cases beautiful motion picture created by the master Kurosawa himself..
The war between the silk and sake factions of the small town is in essence a pathetic comedy of errors, and Sanjuro's systematic annihilation of both sides, though probably largely deserved, is a sort of exaggerated, bloody prank.Of course, Kurosawa's patient, steady-as-a-rock direction helps to create an air of serious drama for the film, which serves to make the satire even more sophisticated.A special film to say the least--"Yojimbo" is fun to watch on pretty much every level..
Even so, YOJIMBO stands on its own merits: it's a magnificent piece of cinema that will fascinate even those who normally turn up their noses at "movies with subtitles." In theory, the film is based on the 1929 Dashiell Hammett novel RED HARVEST--but transports the basic story to a period in Japan when the Samurai class has fallen on hard times and must seek employment as common body guards.
The plot is tightly wound, action-intensive, and laced with a dry and very black humor, and the cast is superlative throughout.As it borrowed from the American movie western, so did it influence American film in return, most obviously in the form of the popular Clint Eastwood "spaghetti westerns" of the 1970s--where it was essentially remade as A FIST FULL OF DOLLARS.
The coolest and best hero ever Toshiro Mifune is playing the leading role in this classic western film.Inspired A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS  and the last remade was Last Man Standing.Perfect played by my favorite action actor Toshiro Mifune and directed by the master director Akira Kurosawa.
I read Kurosawa told Mifune to play his Samurai like an errand dog, maybe that explains the next startling shot of the dog trotting over the main street with a hand in his mouth, maybe it's only a matter of time before the Samurai starts the biting.And when the thinking stops, a few shots of sake helping, he says "I'll get paid for killing, and this town is full of people who deserve to die." There's profit for him and peace for innocent villagers, it's a fair trade meaning every move has to be carefully prepared.
"Yojimbo" is one of the coolest samurai flicks from the one and only Akira Kurosawa and it's also starring Japanese acting legend Toshiro Mifune as a wandering ronin who plays two warring gangster fashions against one another.
In my opinion, Kurosawa's 1961 film "Yojimbo" - about a skilled samurai who comes to a town and plays its two gangs against each other - is superior to the (still great) "Shichinin no Samurai".
I love that feeling where the bad guys are set up so much that you just love to watch them get their asses kicked.Toshirio Mifune's character of "the man with no name" is definitely the best part of the film.
My Rating : 2/10If you want a good Kurosawa film watch 'Seven Samurai' or 'Rashômon' or 'High and Low'.Yôjinbô alongwith Ran are two of the least favourite of Akira Kurosawa movies for me.
Rating-5/10Yojimbo, A samurai action movie created by the legendary director and writer Akira Kurosawa.
The last of Kurosawa's samurai films I had on my list to watch, as I actually saw the sequel to this (SANJURO) beforehand.
However, there's no denying that YOJIMBO is a great movie in itself, a film both highly influenced by westerns and which would highly influence westerns to come (Sergio Leone famously 'borrowed' the story for his iconic classic A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS).The story is taken from the pages of pulp fiction and involves a rogue samurai (Toshiro Mifune, on top form) who comes into a rural town and finds a war going on between opposing gangs.
Akira Kurosawa teams up again with Toshiro Mifune to give us a wily and cynical Ronin who enters a one horse town in conflict and sees an opportunity to make money as well as ending the conflict.The film's plot has been remade many times, most famously as a A Fistful of Dollars starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone.Mifune is a cunning Samurai, expert with the sword and ruthless.
Yojimbo is one of the best foreign films of all time, this movie played a huge role in inspiring a fistful of dollars, this movie was also inspired by American westerns.
This is one of the finest Japanese films ever made, directed by arguably the greatest Japanese director (Akira Kurosawa), and starring one of the top Japanese actors (Toshiro Mifune).
Toshiro Mifume, who is present in many of Kurosawa's movies, plays impeccably the role of Sanjuro, a samurai without a lord.
An image of post-apocalypse in a civilized world.The main character, best known simply as Samurai, is played by one of Kurosawa's favorites, Toshiro Mifune.
Toshiro Mifune had represented the whole new movie culture until that time, the film idea of one man against the whole world.
about these swords: the fighting scenes are really bad performed, but we have to remind ourselves this was a movie made in '61 and that it did not come from America, so they had not the same spectacular special effects.one last thing however: the towns (or places) in Kurosawa's films contain as good as no women (something they took over in modern westerns).
I make this sound like work but actually it is good for me to focus wholly on any film but also the quality thus far has been high.Yojimbo, like Seven Samurai, will be familiar to many viewers without even watching it simply because of the amount of references and remakes it has since influenced.