Yojimbo (1961)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Akira Kurosawa (story)
Akira Kurosawa (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 September 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.

Plot Keywords:

Samurai | Escape | Bodyguard | Ronin | Jidai Geki

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Toshirô Mifune	...	Sanjuro Kuwabatake / The Samurai
Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Unosuke, gunfighter
Yôko Tsukasa	...	Nui
Isuzu Yamada	...	Orin
Daisuke Katô	...	Inokichi, Ushitora's rotund brother
Seizaburô Kawazu	...	Seibei, brothel operator
Takashi Shimura	...	Tokuemon, sake brewer
Hiroshi Tachikawa	...	Yoichiro
Yosuke Natsuki	...	Kohei's Son
Eijirô Tôno	...	Gonji, tavern keeper
Kamatari Fujiwara	...	Tazaemon
Ikio Sawamura	...	Hansuke
Atsushi Watanabe	...	The Cooper (Coffin-Maker)
Susumu Fujita	...	Homma, instructor who skips town
Kyû Sazanka	...	Ushitora

Also Known As:

Yojimbo (UK) (USA)
The Bodyguard (International: English title) (literal title)
Yôjinbô (International) (modified Hepburn romanization)
Yojimbo the Bodyguard (USA)
Le garde du corps (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Yojimbo (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
A testör (Hungary) [hu]
Die Leibwache (West Germany) [de]
La sfida del samurai (Italy) [it]
Livvagten (Denmark) [da]
Mercenario (Spain) [es]
Straz przyboczna (Poland) [pl]
Yojimbo (Greece) [el]
Yojimbo - Der Leibwächter (West Germany) [de]
Yojimbo - Livvakten (Sweden) [sv]
Yojimbo - O Guarda-Costas (Brazil) [pt]
Yojimbo - onnensoturi (Finland) [fi]
Yojimbo, o Invencível (Portugal) [pt]

Runtime:

110 min | USA:75 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Perspecta Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | UK:PG (video rating) (1993) | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Toho Studios, Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Kurosawa Production Co.

Trivia:

Tatsuya Nakadai, who plays the flamboyant, pistol-waving Unosuke here, also plays the main villain role in the Yojimbo sequel, Tsubaki Sanjûrô (1962).

Goofs:

Continuity: In the initial fight scene The Samurai cuts the first two adversaries in the mid-section, then slices the last man's arm off. That last man is first seen from behind holding the sword in his right arm above his head, but the arm holding the sword shown moments later is a left arm.

Quotes:

Kannuki the giant: He's nothing without his sword

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Kurosawa's most entertaining film

Yojimbo, based on noir writer Dashiel Hammett's Red Harvest is a magnificently entertaining film. Toshiro Mifune stars as the nobody who calls himself Sanjuro (thirty but closer to forty). He enters a town destroyed by warring factions and plays a double-game to pit one faction against the other thus destroying the criminal element.

Yojimbo (aka The Bodyguard) is one of the coolest and most stylish films ever made. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa's favorite actor, as the scruffy looking Samurai, Yojimbo has all of Kurosawa's qualities and none of the flaws. The music score is an essential element of the plot and strikingly good, but admittedly bettered by the Ennio Morricone version in the Spaghetti Western remake Fistful of Dollars. The visuals are great, from the samurai swordplay, to the desolate streets, the town crier announcing its 3 a.m. to the brutal torture scene.

One of the unique things about Yojimbo is the central character. He is an anti-hero. We see him initially as a killer and a man greedy for money. But then, he saves a family by re-uniting mother and child and giving them all the money he was advanced. Mifune has never been cooler than in this film and Eastwood could only aspire to equal such a performance.

Of the two remakes, I liked Fistful of Dollars for starting the Spaghetti Western genre, although Yojimbo is a far more superior and stylish film. The gangster version, Last Man Standing, was not very good and Bruce Willis made for a poor substitute to Yojimbo. This film looks fresh and undated even today - watch it!