The Classic Corner: Yojimbo (1961)
“Stop. Stop crying. It’s pathetic. I hate pathetic people. I’ll have to kill you.”
Master Akira Kurosawa teams up again with his favorite actor Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo, another of his film that Hollywood filmmakers shamelessly ripped off as seen in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars or Clint Eastwood’s High Plain Drifter among many others. Marking a major departure from his more sentimental and reflective fare such as Ikiru or Seven Samurai, this film’s high entertaining value spanned the entire spaghetti western sub-genre.
The man with no name, before Clint Eastwood made the trope popular on this side of the Pacific, is a rootless ronin — a masterless samurai — who comes upon a nearly completely deserted town in 1860 Japan. The first thing he sees is a dog trotting past him, carrying a severed hand in its mouth. It isn’t long before our protagonist is informed that two rival gangs are vying for control of the small town. After quickly sizing up the situation and proving his superior swordsmanship, he offers his services to the highest bidder while secretly hatching a plan to get the warring factions to eradicate each other.
Inspired by classic American westerns such as John Ford’s films, Kurosawa imbues Yojimbo with a sardonic sense of comedy as evidenced in its tongue-in-cheek, unheroic protagonist. Played by the iconic Toshiro Mifune, Sanjuro (a name he made up for himself) is a lazy, seemingly amoral and ultimately pragmatic anti-hero who defined the notion of a cool and recklessly confident movie protagonist. Because of his superior intelligence, the character finds intense amusement in playing both sides and brewing chaos around him. This begins to change when Unosuke (Nakadai) shows up. He is the only one in town with a revolver and unlike the other gangsters, he is cunning and doesn’t trust Sanjuro.
Mifune was an incredibly physical actor and he gives one of his best performances here, conveying his character’s personality almost entirely through goofy mannerisms. Constantly scratching and possessing a hitch in his posture, his mere presence is enough to elevate this movie to greatness. The entire situation is just a raucous game for Sanjuro but his morality eventually comes into play when he realizes the consequence of his inaction. The supporting cast is typically excellent as you would expect from a Kurosawa movie with Tatsuya Nakadai as the peculiar gunman, Kamatari Fujiwara and Takashi Shimura as the two gang bosses, and Eijirô Tono as the meekly tavern owner.
The sudden outburst of violence in Yojimbo are well choreographed, often used to amusing effects to showcase Sanjuro’s skills or the thugs’ ineptitude. The movie isn’t very deep or thought provoking, it’s rather basic actually yet it is a masterfully crafted action film that leads into an intense climax. The soundtrack by Masaru Satô is brilliantly offbeat and delightfully catchy.
One of the most influential and stylish film of the 20th century, Yojimbo is highly entertaining and darkly funny.
A-
(9/10)
Notes: 110 minutes.
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17 Comments
This was the first Kurosawa film that I saw. I can definitely remember the time I first saw it. It was on a rainy night some years ago where my family’s satellite feed went haywire. There wasn’t much to watch and I couldn’t sleep so I decided to watch “Yojimbo”. I found myself engaged into the film and was amazed by the action. It was definitely a big moment for me when I was starting to get into the world of film. I saw it a few years later to write a review and found it more enjoyable.
It’s my 2nd favorite Kurosawa film so far and having seen this and Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars”. I’m more likely to lean towards Kurosawa but I have a lot of love for Leone’s remake. It just goes to show why Kurosawa is a master. I bow down to that man.
I really need to see A Fistful of Dollars again after seeing this. You know, to see how similar they are ahah
My intelligent contribution to this post is that Toshiro Mifune is the hottest Asian actor, if not the hottest actor. It’s so weird how someone with his stature got cast as jesters all throughout the ’50′s. This is his definitive role.
Is he the guy on the left on the second picture? I was gonna say, he’s pretty cute
No, he is the guy on the right!! Don’t you know a legend when you see one?
I understand how Ruth can mistake Toshiro for a minor pretty boy. Kurosawa is like John Ford/ every director who made a war film in a way that you can play the ‘spot the hot guy’ game. There are bit players in Kurosawa films, especially Throne of Blood, where I was like ‘that guy was cute, put him in more movies.’
And for the record, aside from the films discussed above, I have also seen Rashomon, Hakuchi, Seven Samurai, parts of Sanjuro, Dersu Uzala, Kagemusha, Ran, Madadayo. The symmetrical compositions in his 1950′s BW films are better understood at home, since they kinda look dour on the big screen. I will cling to the unpopular opinion that colour and wide screen is his best friend, his films more epic during that long era.
We should do a poll sometimes what people’s favorite film by Kurosawa is. I haven’t seen this one, but I recently saw Ikiru and I thought it was better then Seven Samurai and Rashomon put together.
Before you venture into this, I recommend checking out High and Low. Yojimbo may rank #3 on my Kurosawa list (after Seven Samurai #1 and Ikiru #2), but High and Low is the one I find myself championing the most often because, simply, it’s his greatest underseen masterpiece. Somewhere between Seven Samurai, Ran, Rashomon, Ikiru, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, etc. etc. High and Low got lost in the shuffle – and it shouldn’t have. An absolute masterpiece of shot composition.
I have seen Yojimbo, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Sanjuro and Rashomon. I’m working on High and Low right now
Choosing your favorite Kurosawa film is like choosing your favorite ice cream flavor or favorite pizza. There’s pretty much no such thing as a wrong answer (unless you choose a pizza with onions on it, but I digress).
For me, I go: 1. Ikiru, 2. Rashomon, 3. High and Low, 4. Sanjuro, 5. Throne of Blood. Ask me again next week and I may just feel differently and populate the list with Red Beard, Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress, and The Bad Sleep Well. The only thing that I know remains the same when I talk about Kurosawa is that Ikiru is (and will probably remain) my #1.
Or it’s like choosing your favorite child, impossible!
If you ever want to spend an amazing hour of stories – check out The Masterworks Akira Kurosawa (Criterion released the two parter with their Yojimbo/Sanjuro dual pack) and just hear all the stories. They spend a great deal of time talking about the wind and the amount of effort Kurosawa put into getting it just right. They had multiple high power jet engines on the set blowing the dust around so violently the cast had to be specifically ordered by Kurosawa not to squint or cover their eyes in any way. So much drama and amusing situations – gives a great perspective on how well put together he treated not only these films, but all his films.
Thanks for the tip. Definitely should be a treat to learn about about some of the stuff that went into making these masterpieces.
I was wondering whether to see this one or Seven Samurai as my first Kurosawa flick, I think I’m gonna go w/ this one after reading your review Castor
Yea I would definitely start with either this or Rashomon. I really did it in the wrong order, starting with the 4 hour movie (Seven Samurai), then seeing Sanjuro which is basically the sequel to Yojimbo before actually seeing this.
Good to know, Castor. That’s gotta be confusing that you saw the sequel first before the original, ahah.
I love “Yojimbo.” (I couldn’t possibly pick a single favorite Kurosawa film, but it’s definitely up there with “High and Low,” “Stray Dog,” and “Ikiru.” And whenever I watch “Yojimbo,” I have to watch “Sanjuro” soon after!) I always notice something new each time I see it, a small detail I’ve somehow missed or a different way of reading a scene. Mifune’s performance is tremendous and the social critique is scathing.
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