Yojimbo

**Yojimbo** is a UK VHS release by Palace Video on November 1983.

## Description

"What a pleasure!…
What zest!
What authority!"
*Daily Mail*

"Kurosawa has the command of and enthusiasm for the skills of film making which distinguish the finest of Hollywood craftsmen" *Daily Mail*
"Toshiro Mifune is - as always - superb as the samurai" *Financial Times*

A ronin, a masterless samurai, is wandering through the countryside. He has the distinctive gait of a master swordsman. He reaches a crossroads, and tosses a stick in the air to decide which path he should take. And so it's fate that leads him into a small town that's in the grip of a violent feud. The silk merchant and the sake merchant are bitter enemies; each has mustered a gang of thugs to defend his interests, and the two sides are evenly matched. That's why both are eager to win the newcomer to their side. The ronin assesses the situation, sells his services to both sides, and then cynically sets about helping them to destroy each other.
If Kurosawa's story sounds familiar, that's probably because Sergio Leone 'borrowed' it for his first Clint Eastwood movie, *A Fistful of Dollars*. Here, as often, the original is better than the imitation. Kurosawa's film is already a kind of western, with the dishevelled hero shambling into town, setting the best trouble-shooter around and boosting business for the local coffin-shop. The townspeople are human dregs - the bad and the ugly, with a vengeance - and the hero is a classic loner, apparently only interested their money. A gun even enters the picture, though it proves no match for the ronin's sword.
*Yojimbo*was Kurosawa's first full-blooded comedy. It centres on Toshiro Mifune's masterful performance as the ronin (he later developed the character in *Sanjuro*), a paragon of cynicism, amorality and laziness. It surrounds him with brilliantly sustained sketches of villainy and vice. It expertly anchors the humour in character and situation. And the result is utterly compulsive, from first frame to last.

*Tony Rayns*

## Cast

* Toshiro Mifune as "Kuwabatake Sanjuro" (桑畑 三十郎), a wandering ronin and master swordsman drawn into a gang war.
* Eijirō Tōno as Gonji (権爺), the izakaya (tavern) owner and the ronin's ally and confidant.
* Tatsuya Nakadai as Unosuke (卯之助), a gun-toting gangster and younger brother to both Ushitora and Inokichi.
* Seizaburo Kawazu as Seibei (清兵衛), the original boss of the town's underworld. He operates out of a brothel.
* Kyū Sazanka as Ushitora (丑寅), the other gang leader in town. He was originally Seibei's lieutenant but broke ranks to start his own syndicate in a succession dispute.
* Isuzu Yamada as Orin (おりん), the wife of Seibei and the brains behind her husband's criminal operations.
* Daisuke Katō as Inokichi (亥之吉), younger brother of Ushitora and older brother to Unosuke. He is a strong fighter, but is very dim-witted.
* Takashi Shimura as Tokuemon (徳右衛門), a sake brewer who claims to be the new mayor.
* Hiroshi Tachikawa as Yoichiro (倅与一郎), the timid son of Seibei and Orin who shows little inclination to take over his father's gang.
* Yosuke Natsuki as Farmer's Son, a young man seen running away from home at the beginning of the film who joins Ushitora's gang.
* Kamatari Fujiwara as Tazaemon (多左衛門), the town mayor and silk merchant who is going insane from fear.
* Ikio Sawamura as Hansuke (半助), the town constable who is completely corrupt and concerned only with keeping himself alive.
* Atsushi Watanabe as the town's Coffin Maker, who is profiting heavily from the gang war but ultimately chooses to help Sanjuro and Gonji put an end to it.
* Susumu Fujita as Honma (本間), Seibei's "master swordsman" who deserts his employer before a battle with Ushitora's men.
* Yoko Tsukasa as Nui (ぬい), the wife of Kohei. She was taken prisoner by Tokuemon because of her beauty after her husband could not pay back his gambling debts.
* Yoshio Tsuchiya as Kohei (小平), the husband of Nui who lost all of his money gambling and frequently gets beaten for trying to visit his wife.
* Tsunagoro Rashomon as Kannuki (かんぬき), Ushitora's giant enforcer.