Yojimbo

Yojimbo (1961)

Runtime: 110 minutes

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada

From: Toho

Here’s a classic film from the Criterion collection, but this time it was something I bought on Blu-Ray when it was on sale at Barnes & Noble awhile back. I finally watched the movie this week and…

In short, the movie is about the title samurai (Mifune) who ends up in an almost constantly windy and dusty town in the Land of the Rising Sun in the early 1860’s-at least according to the small part of the commentary I listened to-and discovers that the small burgh is ridden with a pair of gangs who are aligned with either a sake or a silk merchant and a pair of wacky characters (who are his only allies in the town) tells him that the city has been ruined by these feuding gangs. So, he concocts a plot where he plays the two sides against each other to his advantage in hopes of getting rid of those guys, whether by them killing each other or just leaving the area.

If you’ve ever seen the movie A Fistful of Dollars, you’ll recognize the plot of this, as it’s an unofficial remake by Sergio Leone of this film, and that launched Clint Eastwood’s career. Now that I’ve seen both… it’s difficult to say which one is “better”. Both are classics and should be seen. But one of these days I’ll talk about The Man With No Name Trilogy. Here, this movie was pretty great. It’s an endlessly entertaining darkly comic tale where I was always interested in Yojimbo’s plan and how it would turn out, and while it definitely wasn’t subtle in portraying the bad guys as just that, who cares when it’s so much fun to watch. Mifune in the title role was classic.

As for further thoughts… I was surprised at how violent and bloody it was. When you did see violence, there was usually blood spurting about and you even get to see arms get hacked off and a torrent of claret gush out. I wasn’t expecting that. There was even a great gag involving a hand that I won’t dare reveal. I also was surprised to see a huge dude in one of the gangs who reminded me of Japanese pro wrestler Giant Baba. His name was Namigoro Rashomon and not too surprisingly, this 6 foot 10 man was also a pro wrestler, or so I hear. I also hear that I’m not the only one who has compared the two. In this movie, he was quite the menacing figure and he actually whupped Yojimbo’s ass in hand to hand combat. This was his only movie, though.

Anyhow, if you’ve never seen this, you should check it out, especially if you’re a fan of The Man With No Name Trilogy. I’ll be back Wednesday night with a new review.