Yojimbo
Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Japan. 1961. NR. 110 min.
- Sun, Sep 19, 4:30 pm
Presented on 35mm.
Yojimbo is a nod to the American western Kurosawa was so fond of. This one is set in the 1800’s after the collapse of the Tokugawa Dynasty and at beginning of the end of the Samurai era. A wandering, out-of-work Samurai strolls into a town where two rival gangs have taken over. Toshiro Mifune plays Sanjuro, though as this is a name he chooses arbitrarily, he really is The Man with No Name. There is a dark humor that runs through the film that’s based in Sanjuro’s indifference to the situations around him. He accepts his lot in life as any good Japanese Ronin should, but enjoys manipulating the two groups as if their deadly conflict is a game for his personal amusement. That is, until the balance of power is suddenly shifted when new technology arrives upon the scene in the form of a pistol. Sanjuro’s weapon of choice, the sword, is quickly rendered obsolete.
This is the film that spawned a series of spaghetti westerns starring Clint Eastwood, starting with Fistful Of Dollars (The producers of Yojimbo actually sued the producers of Sergio Leone’s famous picture, and won). The story idea reportedly comes from the Dashiell Hammett novel Red Harvest, in which a private eye sets two rival gangs against each other. (Ted The Fiddler)