Must See Movie...

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Set in Japan , 1860 , at a little town that is a den of wrongs . Sanjuro, a wandering samurai enters a rural town in nineteenth century Japan and he finds himself the location run by two parties commanded by Ushitora and Seibe and their hired thugs . The samurái sells his activities to both parts with devasting resulting for all ; as he then sets out to rid the town of all these ominous people .The noisy town is full of injustices , inequity , violence and killings , due to the hordes of gamblers and murderers that inhabit it. After learning from the innkeeper that the town is divided between two mobsters , he plays one side off against the other . As 2 clans vying for political power bid on the services of a silent masterless Samurai , a quiet Ronin . His efforts are complicated by the arrival of the wily Unosuke who often uses a bloody gun . There is a massacre , but the samurai runs away with the help of the innkeeper ; but while recuperating at a nearby temple, he learns of an abduction carried out by Unosuke, and goes back to the town to take on enemies . This is a magnificent picture by Akira Kurosawa starred by his ordinary actor Toshiro Mifune , being his international breakthrough one . Yokimbo , the picture blends drama , violent fights , emotion , slaughters with high body-count and results to be pretty entertaining as well as thought provoking . It is incredibly detailed vision in its own right , as the impact of the action and combats on this trail-blazing adventure film opened the floodgates for the huge numbers of samurai films and subsequent Spaghetti Westerns that made fortunes for their producers in the sixties and early seventies . Dramatically staged sword-plays occur on and off throughout the plot . The known film Leone¨For a fistful of dollars¨is mainly cribbed from this Japanese samurái action classic ; however , some reviewers tell this Yojinbo bears little resemblance to Sergio Leone film . Very good acting by Toshiro Mifune as a Samurái who attempts to play the two warlords off against each other . This one made an international star out of Toshiro Mifune . At the beginning , Sanjuro seems to be a good Samurai , as being beaten after he reunites an abducted woman with her husband and son, then massacres his father's opponents. As well as Tatsuya Nakadai , still acting , as Unosuke, the son of one of the gangsters, who owns a revolver.This fiercely-charging , uncompromising pictures was compellingly directed by Akira Kurosawa and being exhibited with subtitles or dubbed .After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made this awesome film . The previous years saw the low-key , touching Living (1952) , the epic The seven samurais (1954), the barbaric , fascinating Shakespeare adaptation Throne of blood (1957) , a Macbeth's version , a masterful rendition that transports the story to Medieval Japan , and a fun pair of samurai movies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962) , and Rashomon , often credited as the reason the Academy created the "Best Foreign Film" category. When this film was released internationally to rave reviews, many speculated that Akira Kurosawa was influenced by Citizen Kane (1941) in the element of flashbacks that ultimately provide conflicting accounts of events. However, Kurosawa didn't even see Orson Welles's film until several years after . Rashomon won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West.Yet , there was a quieter side to Kurosawa's nature , expressed most succinctly on Living , The Lower Depths and especially the medical drama Red Beard . After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide . Other important movies were : The idiot based on Feodor Dostowieski , Drunken Angel , Scandal , A quiet duel , Tiger's tale , High and low . He survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) an epic tale of adventure in turn-of-the-century Siberia and , with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear" . He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990), and Madadayo (1993) and Rhapsody in August . Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where reviewers have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors with suspicion , but he's revered by American and European film-makers, one of his least well-known films but most agreeable pictures is The Bad Sleep Well , a transposition of an Ed McBain detective novel , being remade many his pictures such as The seven samurais (1954), as The magnificent seven (1960),The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars (1977)as Yojimbo (1961) as For a fistful of dollars by Sergio Leone (1964), in fact Kurosawa's style was the biggest single influence on the Spaghetti Western sub-genre ; as his Samurai 'Western's were copied not only in America but also in Italy .

The term 'yojimbo' means a bouncer or a bodyguard. Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Toshiro Mifune) arrives at a small Japanese village with two warring factions looking for a means to thoroughly defeat the opposition once and for all. Seeing an opportunity to turn his samurai talent into cash, Sanjuro seeks out the leaders of both factions in an attempt to up the stakes with each one. In that regard, Sanjuro has no particular loyalty, and can be swayed by the highest bidder. Or can he? I had to laugh the first time the clans of Seibei and Ushitora first opposed each other in the street. Both sides proved equally cowardly in their failure to engage the enemy, it bordered on the comical. I was impressed though by the size of Kannuki the Giant, the guy was massive. He reminded me a bit of Japanese wrestler Shohei Baba, better known in this country as Baba the Giant, active around the time this film came out in the early Sixties.There was a bit of a disconnect in the story for me when the opposing clans felt they had to break from their fighting when the inspector from Edo came to the village. My question was 'why'? What kind of penalty was the inspector going to impose if clan members wound up killing each other? There's really no satisfactory answer to that, that I can think of, and there was none offered in the story. It just seemed irrational to me.I think what I might have to do here is revisit this film once again later on as I did with Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", which I didn't find that compelling the first time around but gained a greater appreciation for it with a second look. I did like Toshiro Mifune in this one though, consistently going back and forth between the warring leaders to constantly confound them by contradicting his prior intentions. Had the opposition leaders had any smarts at all, they would have gotten together to take him out first.

YOJIMBO is an action drama about a rōnin who finds himself at the center of a conflict between the two crime lords.A hungry and tired rōnin wanders through a desolate Japanese countryside. Soon, he arrives in a small town. A local caterer advises him to leave because, two local clans fight every day on the streets. However, a stranger decides to stay. The situation in a town is very good for one rōnin. This is a good chance that he earns some money. However, he does not need a bloody money. He wants to destroy local crime lords...This tense story is full of lies, doubt, turning, pranks, blackmails and excellent fights. A careless and seemingly insensitive samurai is actually a peaceful and good man. Mr. Kurosawa has, under the influence of a western and noir, made a very exciting and visually impressive film. Of course, he has not neglected the significant situations that are related to the Japanese culture and tradition.Close-ups, almost perfectly, reflect an evil, arrogance, fear, invincibility and contempt on faces of some of the protagonists. There is a large number of villains, which are quite different in character.Toshiro Mifune (Kuwabatake Sanjuro) is a resourceful, interesting and determined as a wandering rōnin and master swordsman. He, apparently, enjoys in his machinations, however, his goal is extremely benevolent. He's kind of a lone hero, regardless of a tactical evil and theatrical swagger in his character.His support are Tatsuya Nakadai as Unosuke a wild and insolent gunslinger and the biggest threat to a samurai. He is interesting because he is a completely different character from Sanjuro. Kyū Sazanka (Ushitora) and Seizaburo Kawazu (Seibei) are fairly inconclusive as crime lords. However their primary relationship "of a teacher and his student", could be interesting. Isuzu Yamada as Orin is the the wife of Seibei. She is perhaps an initiator of conflicts. Daisuke Katō as Inokichi is a visually the most memorable character. A character, who is capable to commit a vicious murder, but also make the greatest stupidity.Simply, Mr. Kurosawa has managed to combine several styles in a small masterpiece.

(73%) Watching this it's pretty clear to anyone that A fist full of dollars owes almost its entire existence to this Japanese classic. Almost from the very beginning, right down to the performances, direction, and script, this has the feel of a classic Leone western as the guy clearly helped himself to bits and pieces. And he must have figured that he'd largely get away with it because so few western people at the time would have ever actually had the chance to even know about this far-east hit. For anyone interested in classic Asian films, or just classic films in general, this is a must- watch that's well worth tracking down. There's a fair share of action, fun, and sheer entertainment value to be had from this quality, and still watchable first rate winner.