Yojimbo (1961) ft. Myke Emal
- Thomas Duncan
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Guest:
Myke Emal
Host and Creator of the Cinemusts podcast
@cinemusts on Twitter, Letterboxd, Facebook, and IG
Previously on Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Sabotage (1936)
Cast:
Akira Kurosawa, Director/Editor/Writer
Ryūzō Kikushima and Hideo Oguni, Co-Writers
Kazuo Miyagawa, Cinematography
Masaru Sato, Music
Toshiro Mifune as "Kuwabatake Sanjuro" (桑畑 三十郎), a wandering rōnin and master swordsman who provokes two gangs into open war.
Eijirō Tōno as Gonji (権爺), the izakaya (tavern) owner and the rōnin's ally and confidant.
Tatsuya Nakadai as Unosuke (卯之助), a gun-toting gangster and younger brother to both Ushitora and Inokichi.
Seizaburo Kawazu as Seibei (清兵衛), the original boss of the town's underworld. He operates out of a brothel.
Kyū Sazanka as Ushitora (丑寅), the other gang leader in town. He was originally Seibei's lieutenant but broke ranks to start his own syndicate in a succession dispute.
Isuzu Yamada as Orin (おりん), the wife of Seibei and the brains behind her husband's criminal operations.
Daisuke Katō as Inokichi (亥之吉), younger brother of Ushitora and older brother to Unosuke. He is a strong fighter but is very dim-witted and easily fooled.
Takashi Shimura as Tokuemon (徳右衛門), a sake brewer who claims to be the new mayor.
Hiroshi Tachikawa as Yoichiro (倅与一郎), the timid son of Seibei and Orin who shows little inclination to take over his father's gang.
Yosuke Natsuki as the farmer's son, a young man seen running away from home at the beginning of the film who joins Ushitora's gang.
Background:
Yojimbo was released on April 25, 1961 in Japan.
On an estimated budget of $631,000, it is estimated that Yojimbo made $2.3 million finishing at #4 at the Japanese box office for 1961.
Critics were mostly positive at the time and since.
Yojimbo was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 34th Academy Awards.
In 2009, the film was voted at No. 23 on the list of The Greatest Japanese Films of All Time by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo.
Yojimbo was also ranked at #95 in Empire magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time.
In 1962, Kurosawa directed Sanjuro, originally intended to be a straight adaptation of Shūgorō Yamamoto's short story Hibi Heian (日日平安; lit. "Peaceful Days"), but was reworked to include Mifune and his character following the success of Yojimbo.
Yojimbo has been remade several times, starting with A Fistful of Dollars (1964), a Western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first appearance as the Man with No Name. Leone and his production company failed to secure the remake rights to Kurosawa's film, resulting in a lawsuit. It was settled out of court for an undisclosed agreement before the U.S. release. A second, looser western adaptation, Django (1966), was directed by Sergio Corbucci and featured Franco Nero in the title role. Last Man Standing (1996), a Prohibition-era action film directed by Walter Hill and starring Bruce Willis, is an official remake of Yojimbo: both Kikushima and Kurosawa specifically listed in this movie's credits as having provided the original story.
Outside of remakes, several other films and other works have been inspired by the basic premise of an outsider joining a criminal group to defeat them from within. James Bond screenwriter Michael G. Wilson compared the story of Licence to Kill (1989) to Yojimbo. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan stated that his inspiration for The Bodyguard (1992) was "Yojimbo with Steve McQueen as the lead."
Other works that pay narrative and visual homage to Yojimbo include Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and Samurai Jack (2002).
Yojimbo currently holds a 96% among critics on RT, a 93 score on Metacritic, and a 4.3/5 on Letterboxd.
Plot Summary: In a small, lawless town divided by two rival gangs, Toshiro Mifune plays a wandering ronin who sees an opportunity. Pretending to work for both sides, he tricks each gang into fighting the other, hoping to wipe them out and bring peace to the town. As his plan unfolds, the violence grows, and innocent people are caught in the middle.
The ronin must rely on his intelligence and sword skills to survive as both gangs begin to suspect his true intentions. In the end, he faces the consequences of his dangerous game while trying to restore some sense of justice.
Did You Know:
Sergio Leone was inspired by this film and made the famous "spaghetti western" A Fistful of Dollars (1964) with a similar plot. However, because Leone did not officially get permission to remake this film, which was copyrighted, Akira Kurosawa sued him and delayed the release for three years. Leone paid him a sum plus 15% of the profits. Interestingly enough, Kurosawa himself stated that he based his movie on The Glass Key (1942), an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel, without officially crediting either source. However, various critics and readers of Hammett's work have noted that Yojimbo's overall plot is closer to Hammett's "Red Harvest" and not "The Glass Key."
Akira Kurosawa asked his sound engineer Ichirô Minawa to come up with a sound effect to be used when a sword is cutting, and killing, someone. After testing out slicing a sword into beef and pork, he finally found the perfect sample: putting two wooden chopsticks inside a raw chicken, then hacking it with a sword.
Masaru Sato was instructed by Akira Kurosawa to write "whatever you like" so long as it was not the usual period samurai film music so commonly used by all the major studios at the time. He ended up writing something that was inspired by one of his idols, Henry Mancini, whom he had the pleasure of meeting shortly after the film was released, where they discussed his "Yojimbo" soundtrack.
Tatsuya Nakadai, who plays the flamboyant, pistol-waving Unosuke here, also plays the main villain role in the sequel, Sanjuro (1962) although not the same character.
The fact that the main villain sports a gun shows the slow creep of Westernization and pitches the film as roughly taking place in the 1860s. It was around this time that the USA started forcing Japan to come out of its isolationist policy that had effectively kept the country stalled in a feudal, almost medieval society.
Best Performance: Akira Kurosawa (Director/Writer/Editor)/Kazuo Miyaagawa (Cinematography)
Best Secondary Performance: Toshiro Mifune (Sanjuro)/Eijirō Tōno (Gonji)
Most Charismatic Award: Toshiro Mifune (Sanjuro)/Daisuke Katō (Inokichi)/Tatsuya Nakadai (Unosuke)
Best Scene:
Welcome to Town
High Noon
Freeing Nui
Escape
Final Showdown
Favorite Scene: Final Showdown/Escape/High Noon
Most Indelible Moment: Welcome to Town/Final Showdown
In Memorium:
Matt DeCaro, 70, American actor (Prison Break, Richie Rich, U.S. Marshals)
Alan Osmond, 76, American musician (The Osmonds) and songwriter ("Down by the Lazy River", "Crazy Horses")
Patrick Muldoon, 57, American actor (Days of Our Lives, Melrose Place, Starship Troopers) and film producer.
Rif Hutton, 73, American actor (Doogie Howser, M.D., JAG, General Hospital)
Nathalie Baye, 77, French actress (Every Man for Himself, Strange Affair, Catch Me If You Can)
Mariclare Costello, 90, American actress (Let's Scare Jessica to Death, The Fitzpatricks, The Waltons)
Don Schlitz, 73, American Hall of Fame songwriter ("The Gambler", "Forever and Ever, Amen", "When You Say Nothing at All")
Joy Harmon, 87, American actress (Cool Hand Luke, Village of the Giants, Angel in My Pocket)
Best Lines/Funniest Lines:
Orin: Kill one or a hundred. You only hang once.
Sanjuro: I'll get paid for killing, and this town is full of people who deserve to die.
Sanjuro: I know I'm quite a sight, but could you do your staring later?
Sanjuro: A truce is merely the seed for an even bigger battle, nothing is worse!
Sanjuro: I'm not dying yet. I have to kill quite a few men first.
Sanjuro: Sake. I think better while I drink.
Unosuke: Say, samurai trash, are you there?... The entrance to hell - I'll be waiting there for you!
[Unosoke dies]
Sanjuro: He died as recklessly as he lived.
[Sanjuro walks away]
Sanjuro: Now it'll be quiet in this town... So long!
Sanjuro: Children shouldn't play with swords. Go live a long life eating gruel.
Kannuki: He's nothing without his sword.
Seibêi: You can't build a fortune unless you're known as a killer and a thief.
Sanjuro: I'll make sashimi outta them!
Orin: Honor means nothing to gamblers.
Sanjuro: I guess there is no cure for stupidity, except for death.
Inochiki: Where are all the ghosts?
Gonji: They only appear to scaredy cats like me. Not to brave guys like you.
The Stanley Rubric:
Legacy: 7.33
Impact/Significance: 7
Novelty: 8.33
Classic-ness: 8
Rewatchability: 7
Audience Score: 9.35 (91% Google, 96% RT)
Total: 47.01
Remaining Questions:
Why does Sanjuro get involved with the town?
Is Sanjuro a hero or anti-hero?
Would the movie be better with more extended named character deaths in the final showdown?
Comments