Review of Yojimbo (1961) by Keiko A — 24 Jan 2011

Great and Worst Project's (Westerns).

Directed by Akira Kurosawa Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôko Tsukasa and Isuzu Yamada.

To me Yojimbo is the greatest western ever made and hands down it is better than The good the bad and the ugly. I think of Akira Kurosawa as the greatest filmmaker in cinema history and easy that hands down, I don't think I have seen a better director with such style and influence over the films he makes and the films of course to come such as A fistful of the dollars. But that movie really just copied the story of this but more of an Italian style to it. In my opinion this is better than Seven Samurai but Ran is still my all-time favourite by Akira nothing but Style.

Sanjuro, a wandering samurai enters a rural town in nineteenth century Japan. After learning from the innkeeper that the town is divided between two gangsters, he plays one side off against the other. His efforts are complicated by the arrival of the wily Unosuke, the son of one of the gangsters, who owns a revolver. Unosuke has Sanjuro beaten after he reunites an abducted woman with her husband and son, then massacres his father's opponents. During the slaughter, the samurai escapes with the help of the innkeeper; but while recuperating at a nearby temple, he learns of innkeeper's abduction by Unosuke, and returns to the town to confront him.

I think the story well...is very influential even though it was based on American westerns but the type of westerns we had were called Jidaigeki cinema. Seven Samurai kick stated it with the whole American thing or idea. The story really captures the whole western feel to it as well. And of course it's the whole Man with no name thing which would inspire the dollars trilogy and even the films.

Again we have western type towns in the countryside that look amazing and again we copied the American thing you can see the building and people designs were done because of it. Although 1 gun and the rest are just swords. I really liked the whole concept of it really.

We really see some amazing direction by Akira with a whole range of Close-ups and pull backs so we can see this creative design of his. And we see the man with no name pull into town and we see everything around him. So the acting is truly flawless I liked it from our lead Toshirô Mifune who is just incredible. And same really goes for everyone else in this epic cast.

The music is very good as well same with sets and weaponry and really just everything okay. So by the end this truly is my favourite western of all time. Simple no flaw.

Keiko's score 100%.