Influenced by preceding Westerns but also highly influential in its own right for the movies that followed, "Y?jinb?" executes the genre's now familiar tropes with conviction and style while also infusing them with a subtle but potent sense of humour. Some sequences are really captivating and overall it's quite an engaging film, though it doesn't eschew certain convenient conventions and some OTT acting, and it rarely hints at something more layered or subversive than what the premise indicates.

One of my favorite Kurosawa films.

Yojimbo (1961). I like A Fistful of Dollars (1964) better, both based on Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest. For example Sergio Leone improved the scene where the protagonist kills the first thugs. I also like Sanjuro (1962) better. Toshiro Mifune Kuwabatake/Tsubaki Sanjuro one of the synonyms of cunning next to Philip Marlowe, The Man With no Name, Batman his weapon is cunning above all. I liked how Mifune refused to be Obi Wan Kenobi, he have said "I am Toshiro Mifune, why would I make that movie?" I like the quote "Kill one or a hundred you will only be hanged once." Sanjuro's plan to make them exterminate each other and he profit it like balkanization. The worst would be that crying child, hateful, loud and complaining, along with his father who is a bit of a man, a good-for-nothing idiot. Seibe's wife is one of the most memorable characters.

Kurosawa's display of a classic modernist in <i>Yojimbo</i>, as plain and simple as it is, goes a long way to paving the road for the later American westerns to come.

My favorite Kurosawa movie.

A very fun and easy movie to watch, its a cynical movie that show us how society can get so low to the point that its funny to watch.

Yojimbo is a perfect Samurai movie. Great story, great acting and great characters. In my personal opinion Toshiro Mifune is the greatest movie Samurai. The only American actor that compares to Toshiro Mifune is John Wayne who is the greatest movie Cowboy.

classic samurai film well shot great acting great swordfights i loved it

As good as films get: dramatic, touching, funny. Japanese and American tough coincide here. If you haven't seen it, you are overdue.

not my thing but it was good

The perfect movie!!!!

The influence this has on westerns is plain. Immediately you see stories such as Shane in the plot. A solitary warrior, looking for the next place to stay, finds a town in turmoil, torn by two warring factions. The samurai, superior in combat to everyone else, plays the two sides against each other, recognizing that there are no good guys here in the factions. He manages to mostly get them to kill each other, but then he gets ambushed, tortured, and left for dead. Then the battle really begins. My only criticism is that it suffers from the sin that Game of Thrones committed-- building up a foe only to have them dispatched far too easily.

For reasons unknown, some foreign language movies are widely known by their original titles, and not by an English translation. Yojimbo is the Japanese word for ‘Bodyguard'. Perhaps since the titular character is employed to protect a gang rather than an individual, the translated title seemed too confusing. Indeed this bodyguard does not even live up to his name within the movie's definition of the word. A samurai is supposed to live up to his word and be loyal to his employer, but this samurai merrily betrays the trust that is bestowed upon him, and changes sides when it suits him. Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) is not a typical samurai in many respects. A samurai should be well-kept, but Sanjuro's appearance is scruffy and unkempt, showing a carelessness towards his caste. He is a ronin (a masterless samurai) who lacks employment. He drifts from place to place with no purpose beyond finding work and food. His arrival in the nameless town is arbitrary. He throws a stick in the air, and sets off in the direction in which the stick points. It is not only the town that is nameless, but our hero too. He shows no pride in his name or heritage. When he is asked what he is called, he looks outside at a mulberry field, and gives himself the name Kuwabatake Sanjuro, which translates as "30-year-old mulberry field", although that might not be his real age either. The town in which he arrives is ideal for a hungry samurai, which means that it is a hellhole for ordinary citizens. The streets are empty, and a perpetual wind blows dust all around the town, creating an atmosphere of waste, desolation and chaos. The townsfolk are mostly to be found indoors peering through shutters, as the streets are not safe for honest people to walk through. Only criminals can walk fearlessly through the town. As Sanjuro passes through the streets, he sees a dog scamper past carrying a human hand in its mouth. Indeed many of the characters in the film are no better than wild dogs, and the word is frequently used about them. The town is divided between two rival gangs, and they hire thugs to protect their interest. Many of their hired swords are on the run for a murder they committed, or have spent time in prison for a past offence. ojimbo subverts the situation that the viewer often saw in the old westerns that influenced Kurosawa. Usually the hero is a hired gun who chooses to defend the good side in their fight against the bad side. Here there is no good side, only a choice of two bad sides, and it hardly matters which side Sanjuro chooses. His only interest is in picking the side that pays him the most. This plot summary might suggest a depressingly nihilistic film, but Yojimbo is hardly that. The tone of the movie is set by its percussive and rhythmic music score that is both belligerent and jaunty. Kurosawa had intentions of showing the damaging effects of violence, hence the emphasis on dismemberment, but this is undermined by the cheerful cynicism of the plot and hero. Our hero certainly seems like a ruthless figure who blithely manipulates both sides for his own ends. During the scene where he bows out of the street battle, he sits perched on high watching the cowardly mercenaries approaching and retreating without a blow being struck. The camera angles are carefully shot so that we constantly see Sanjuro towering over the other men as they pretend to fight, emphasising his superior position, while the other characters move like figures in a game of chess. Only Sanjuro is refusing to be a knight or a pawn. He is playing a game of his own in which he does not care how many chess pieces are removed from the board. To view Sanjuro as amoral would be a profound misreading of his character. In fact, Sanjuro has loftier aims from the very beginning. The disapproving tavern owner Gonji (Eijirō Tōno) tries to persuade Sanjuro to leave this blighted town. Sanjuro confides his ideas to the honest publican: Listen, old man. I'll get paid for killing. And this town is full of men who deserve to die. Think about it. Seibei, Ushitora, the gamblers and drifters – with them gone, the town could have a fresh start. In short, Sanjuro sees himself as a scourge who can cleanse the town by removing the criminal elements that are stifling the lives of honest people. While Sanjuro betrays and deceives those who deserve it, he is notably loyal and fair in his dealings with trustworthy men such as Gonji and the cooper (Atsushi Watanabe). While Sanjuro is very much a human being – he is motivated by money, and he can be captured and beaten – there is also something transcendental about him. He is like an embodiment of higher justice, removing all that is corrupt and evil in the town. His powers as a samurai seem superhuman, and he can kill any number of adversaries without trouble. For all its alien elements, Yojimbo is a movie that helped to set the tone for many films that followed. It offered a tougher and more cynical approach in which villainy was not glorified and heroism was tarnished. I wrote a longer appreciation of Yojimbo on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2018/05/06/yojimbo-1961/

Yojimbo is one of the most important Japanese films in cinema history. It's a pure movie that looks better every time you watch it. I love Akira Kurosawa's direction, Toshiro Mifune's performance, unique story and creative landscape and production design. Overall, Yojimbo is one of the finest films I have watched.

his actions. The editing in the film is another critically important element. Kurosawa's editing techniques grew more skillful as his works progressed; adding to Yojimbo's message, not interrupting it. Keiko McDonald notes that, "At the very beginning of Yojimbo Kurosawa establishes the temporal setting of the film by the use of the subtitle: 'The time was 1860...the emergence of middle-class merchants put an end to the power of the Tokugawa Shogunate...'" (McDonald 188). The film, while being in black and white, and before CGI became the norm, is much more simplistic. With the lack of technology, directors and cinematographers had to have even more skill in order to realize their ambitions. Subtitles were often used as a way of establishing a setting, leaving no room for misrepresentation. It's in the film's best interest that the editing techniques advance the story while showcasing the varying groups and characters current situation as well as their interactions with one another. In the case of Yojimbo, if the viewer were to solely focus on one gang, or Sanjuro, and then transition over to another, the complexity of the situation and the realistic back and forth between the opposing elements would be completely lost.. Instead we are given many transitions between the two with each event or information being spread around to the other and it creates a more fluid and complex film. The editing ensures a temporal and spatial continuity that advances the story while conserving the emotional buildup through the film and come to resent the warring sides and support Sanjuro and his quest to trick the two sides. This is essential as the flow of the film is dictated by the editing techniques used and the sequences order and arrangement in the running time of the film. If you were to view a different scene first instead of in its placement within the film we would disturb the director/editor's, in this case both were done by Kurosawa, intention and throw off the particular rhythm of the film's progression. There are many aspects that are involved in making a film and while there are many different roles to fill in order to bring a motion picture together. It's the director who ensures the right people are in these roles. Over Kurosawa's career he developed great relationships and worked closely with a select few people on a regular basis. For this reason, many of his films and the works that were produced, including Yojimbo, have warranted praise as pieces of art. We have looked at a few elements that were paramount in bringing Kurosawa's vision to life in his film Yojimbo and what made him really stand out as a director and as a true artist. The film Yojimbo is simply Kurosawa's decades of film making and refining of his craft put into a motion picture with a complex and interesting plot and distinctly unique characters. The world they live in may be of a different time and place, even a whole other culture than ours, but it's our relatable feelings with the struggles of daily life that make us really feel for the under privileged and resent the power seeking corrupt. It's these basic elements that really pull in the film's audience and lend a layer of emotional correlation between the viewer and those in the film. Together, with the great cast and crew, a director is truly able to forge an admirable work of art.

Yojimbo, 1961 is co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, 黒澤 明, who is an excellent filmmaker... Toshiro Mifune 三船敏郎 portrays great in this motion picture...

The thing about "Yojimbo" that is so impressive, is how well made it is on every technical level. The look and feel of this film are both completely authentic, which makes it age well. While the story doesn't do a whole lot for me personally, I still felt engaged by the movie because of its style and dedication to creating this world. Overall, it is not necessarily the best of the Kurosawa films I have seen so far, but it is still one that showcases the legendary director's abilities behind a camera, at least from a technical perspective.

Akira Kurosawa's 1961 epic samurai masterpiece Yojimbo, is a story about a samurai with no master who enters a small village in Japan run by two rival businessmen. The samurai takes the name Sanjuro and starts a gang war between the two rivals. The film mounts with tension as each second passes by, and builds up to one of the most stressful final confrontations I have ever seen. The film's organic use of natural elements like wind, dust and rain make each scene stick in my mind. The cinematography and visuals are simply amazing and deserve much credit. I don't know how a village in 19th century Japan should look, but the film's production design immersed me and made me believe that's how it was. Yojimbo somehow takes an anti-hero character and makes him into someone I cared about. The writing is also great and there are genuinely funny moments for which I laughed. The film contains some very valuable screenwriting and moral lessons. It shows social disorder and corruption which is very much relevant today. Even with all this, the film manages to remain gripping and entertaining if you are looking for just that. In short Yojimbo is essential viewing for audiences looking for any type of film. If you are looking to watch a film for a weekend, you must check out Yojimbo, even if you haven't seen many black and white classics before. If you want to understand key principles of writing and direction, it is a must watch.

This might be a controversial opinion but I actually like this movie better than Seven Samurai. The story progressed very well and in unexpected directions, and I liked the main character quite a bit! The ending felt satisfying!

Okay I don't care what anyone says, black and white films BANG. This opening scene is amazing!!! The score and Toshirō Mifune's head with mountains in the background as credits roll… what could be better?? Akira Kurosawa will go down in history as one of the best directors of all time. He's flawless in the realm of film and it's amazing to watch! The acting is phenomenal and it's proof of a good director who knows how to work with his actors. Toshirō is stellar and I love his facial expressions, a true actor, something hard to come by nowadays. No wonder Kurosawa always worked with him, he's simply spectacular. There's something so special about old black and white Japanese films that get me so engaged. Even with Seven Samurai (3 1/2 hours) I was into it the whole time. The sound design in these kinds of films are great too, whether a character is walking or eating, if the weather is windy or rainy, every sound effect is perfect. The story is at times hard to follow. Maybe it's because I know little to none about Japanese culture but I was still at times thinking to myself, "why in the world is this happening?" Or "what does that mean?" The plot itself is great, I just think I lost it a little somewhere in the middle. There's simply so much that happens I was always just a tad bit confused. It's no Seven Samurai, but it's good. It's great even, however not perfect. I love the sound design, the cinematography, the shift in scenes, the acting, and the writing. "Well what else is there Daniel, why isn't this 5 stars?" The film drags—and not in a good way where I'm super excited to keep watching—in the way of "wow, there's still 35 minutes left??" It's close to perfect and I would definitely watch it again, but it's just too slow of a pace. Although the last 25ish minutes really make up for it. It's action packed and has you on the edge of your seat. (Yes I sound very indecisive, I know.) Give Yojimbo a try! Akira Kurosawa does not miss and I can't wait to explore more of his filmography. If you like Seven Samurai, you'll definitely enjoy this. 9.5/10 from me!