Yojimbo on DVD (1961)

Gonzo Soul from The Thoroughfare, Woodbridge , 07/05/2004

This is a fantastic movie and probably my favourite Kurosawa flick. I think Mifune is in his element when it comes to playing charismatic ronin.

Theres also a great wood-blocky score to set the atmosphere.

The narrative is lean and neat.

I could watch this film hundreds of times.

peace y'all. gonz

  21 out of 26 people found this review helpful

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Tim Turner from Manchester , 19/05/2004

You really could watch this classic movie dozens of times and probably find something new every time. Every time you feel compelled to sit through a cheese-filled Hollywood blockbuster, you should watch 'Yojimbo', just to appreciate how funny, moving and exciting an action movie. Like Scorsese and De Niro, it's always reassuring to find Kurosawa and Mifune together, and in this case, they fit together hand in glove. It's tense, it's exciting, and beautiful to look at. If you haven't asked for this already, what are you thinking of?

  20 out of 21 people found this review helpful

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Nick from England , 27/09/2004

Akira Kurosawa's tribute to the western is a marvelous piece of cinema. Toshir? Mifune stars as a ronin (samurai without a master) that goes to a small town, which is divided by two gangs of criminals. While there, he decides to play one off against the other in order to defeat both gangs. Yojimbo lacks the depth of some of Kurosawa's other films, such as Rashomon or Seven Samurai, but it is, on the whole, more entertaining and much more accessible than those two mentioned films, and most of the rest of Kurosawa's oeuvre. That's not to say that Yojimbo lacks substance however; there's more than enough here to please fans of Kurosawa's other works. Just like the majority of Kurosawa's films, Yojimbo is spectacularly well filmed. The black and white cinematography looks absolutely incredible, and the some of the scenes, in particular that involve rain, are extremely atmospheric and lend the movie a great gloomy style.

Toshir? Mifune's performance in this film is, in my opinion, his best. Mifune has been in some great films and given some great performances, many of them under the direction of Kurosawa; but the one here eclipses them all in my opinion. In this film, Mifune is most definitely the 'star'. In many other Kurosawa films, Seven Samurai especially, Mifune hasn't been alone, and although he isn't alone here either; he has to carry the film a lot more than he has had to with other films, and he does a great job of it. The answer to the question of whether or not he is believable in his role isn't even debatable; he is. So believable in fact that it's hard to believe that he's an actor playing a samurai, and not an actual samurai. Like a western, Yojimbo features several weird characters that add to the feel of the movie. The actors playing these smaller roles aren't as pronounced, or indeed as great as Toshir? Mifune; but they all still excel in their small roles, making the support cast a very nice ensemble indeed.

Yojimbo's influence can be felt across cinema. I dread to think how great cinema might not have been if the Japanese master; Akira Kurosawa had never picked up a camera. His body of work has influenced so many styles and genres that the mind literally boggles. If he never had made a film...well, it doesn't even bear thinking about. It is well known that for one, Yojimbo was remade into Sergio Leone's 'A Fistful of Dollars', which in turn kick started Leone's career. That's just one great director we may have been without had it not been for Kurosawa. That's not all Yojimbo has had an impact on; the Spaghetti western sub-genre is littered with influence from this film, and even recent favourites such as Kill Bill have obviously taken influence from this masterpiece. Of course, cinema would be no worse off if Kill Bill was never made; but it's still credit to Yojimbo. Overall, every film fan should see Yojimbo. It's too important a film to miss, and not only that but it's guaranteed to give you 105 minutes of enjoyment. Highest recommendations from me.

  13 out of 14 people found this review helpful

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StiltonChoir from Essex , 28/01/2004

Fans of Sergio Leone’s western ’A Fistful of Dollars’ will recognise many of the lines (“Two coffins cooper, maybe three”) and much of the story of this 1961 film about a wandering samurai (ronin) with an inscrutable manner and uncanny ability. While ‘A Fistful...’ is perhaps the more dynamic movie - this is the original; responsible for a dozen or so conventions of the action-hero genre that we now take for granted.

Toshiro Mifune’s Sanjuro Kuwabatake (meaning ‘mulberry field’ in Japanese) never speaks unless absolutely necessary and is unerringly cryptic when he does. He is casual and yet intense, has unkempt facial hair and is wonderfully unpredictable for the duration of the movie. He is the archetypal quiet, quirky anti-hero and his influence can be traced through Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name (The Spaghetti Western Trilogy), Mel Gibson’s Mad Max (the comparison is particularly potent in the third film), Bruce Willis’ John Smith (Last Man Standing) and one could even argue Keanu Reeves’ Neo (The Matrix Trilogy, in his more enigmatic moments).

Is the film actually any good? Well, as is often the case with acclaimed films the work itself can feel a little underwhelming. Certainly those looking for

high-octane thrills will be disappointed (I think there are precisely six seconds of actual combat) - this is not a martial arts film. It is a gracefully paced, engaging and

amusing film about evil eating itself.

In a recent interview Quinton Tarantino called it ‘high-brow crap’. See for yourself.

  9 out of 10 people found this review helpful

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Nick from England , 27/09/2004

Akira Kurosawa's tribute to the western is a marvelous piece of cinema. Toshir? Mifune stars as a ronin (samurai without a master) that goes to a small town, which is divided by two gangs of criminals. While there, he decides to play one off against the other in order to defeat both gangs. Yojimbo lacks the depth of some of Kurosawa's other films, such as Rashomon or Seven Samurai, but it is, on the whole, more entertaining and much more accessible than those two mentioned films, and most of the rest of Kurosawa's oeuvre. That's not to say that Yojimbo lacks substance however; there's more than enough here to please fans of Kurosawa's other works. Just like the majority of Kurosawa's films, Yojimbo is spectacularly well filmed. The black and white cinematography looks absolutely incredible, and the some of the scenes, in particular that involve rain, are extremely atmospheric and lend the movie a great gloomy style.

Toshir? Mifune's performance in this film is, in my opinion, his best. Mifune has been in some great films and given some great performances, many of them under the direction of Kurosawa; but the one here eclipses them all in my opinion. In this film, Mifune is most definitely the 'star'. In many other Kurosawa films, Seven Samurai especially, Mifune hasn't been alone, and although he isn't alone here either; he has to carry the film a lot more than he has had to with other films, and he does a great job of it. The answer to the question of whether or not he is believable in his role isn't even debatable; he is. So believable in fact that it's hard to believe that he's an actor playing a samurai, and not an actual samurai. Like a western, Yojimbo features several weird characters that add to the feel of the movie. The actors playing these smaller roles aren't as pronounced, or indeed as great as Toshir? Mifune; but they all still excel in their small roles, making the support cast a very nice ensemble indeed.

Yojimbo's influence can be felt across cinema. I dread to think how great cinema might not have been if the Japanese master; Akira Kurosawa had never picked up a camera. His body of work has influenced so many styles and genres that the mind literally boggles. If he never had made a film...well, it doesn't even bear thinking about. It is well known that for one, Yojimbo was remade into Sergio Leone's 'A Fistful of Dollars', which in turn kick started Leone's career. That's just one great director we may have been without had it not been for Kurosawa. That's not all Yojimbo has had an impact on; the Spaghetti western sub-genre is littered with influence from this film, and even recent favourites such as Kill Bill have obviously taken influence from this masterpiece. Of course, cinema would be no worse off if Kill Bill was never made; but it's still credit to Yojimbo. Overall, every film fan should see Yojimbo. It's too important a film to miss, and not only that but it's guaranteed to give you 105 minutes of enjoyment. Highest recommendations from me.

  13 out of 14 people found this review helpful

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Noel Clay from Colchester, England , 05/12/2004

From watching some of his most famous movies, what I've learned is that you can never be sure quite what to expect from Kurosawa. One second he's making a psychological thriller about a murder, then it's a political drama about samurai, then it's an eastern version of Shakespeare ... you get the idea.

'Yojimbo' is probably one of Kurosawa's most entertaining movies, but at the cost of some of his usual intelligence ... the plot isn't exactly difficult -- a samurai shows up in a town, and kills everyone in order to make it peaceful. The message of the film, if it indeed has one, is that extreme violence combined with cunning can solve pretty much anything.

This is the movie that spurned the greatest of the western Kurosawa remakes -- Sergio Leone's 'A Fistful of Dollars'. That turned out to be the movie that set the tone for all of the spaghetti westerns that followed, and it pretty much follows the exact storyline of this movie -- after all, one nation's lawless, barbaric history is as good as anothers. For his infamous 'Man With No Name', Clint Eastwood basically replicated Toshir? Mifune's performance in this film, right down to the facial expressions and those squinty little eyes. The interesting thing is that Kurosawa used this style for just one movie, and Leone turned it into practically a whole career. Recently, Quentin Tarantino combined the genre of samurai movies with their western spin-offs, with superb results as we all know ...

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful

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