Review of Yojimbo (1961) by James M — 11 Apr 2011

Kurosawa movies seems to have influenced sphagetti westerns even more than the westerns themselves. Yojimbo is, from amongst the works I have watched till now, the kurosawa's most detailed work in terms of visuals. I have heard earlier that this was ripped off as A fistfulll of dollars by sergio leone, but the influence of yojimbo is obviously extends out to the entire dollars trilogy and once upon a time in the west ( in which I think sergio leone finally achieved the graphical finesse that kurosawa achieved in yojimbo ).

Yojimbo starts off with a sequence which has influenced the entire visual style of spaghetti weasterns- A huge open landscape into which the character abruptly enters. The camera closesly follows mifune as he walks aimlessly , with nothing other than clear sky in the background. Kurosara has worked out simple images which establishes the nature of characters and their context very effortless, an early example being what happens when the samurai reaches a plac e where the path splits into four. Mifune throws a wooden stick into the air and takes the path pointed by its direction, the whole sequence establishing him as an aimless wanderer.

We follow mifune into a village which is midst of a war between two rival gangs. He is greeted with a dog carrying a human hand which further establishes the kind of situation the village is facing. The entire movie is spent on the games mifune's character toys with the two gangs, playing one side against another trying to save the village. Pretty much every scene has been visually translated by Leone into a western in his movie "A fist full of dollars", but yojimbo is still different from it mostly owing to the difference in architecture in japanese and western settings. Architecture is an important factor in the movie. Most of the interior has multiple levels of transparency with large sliding doors and windows which helps the movie present the same interiors in countless way depending on the way people interact with the architecture .

The movie uses variations of a single soundtrack extensively, carefully tweaked in rhythm to suit to each movement and jesture of the characters- something , which again influence Sergio leone's filmmaking style considerably. There are often music attached to each minute expressions of character which might make us feel like we are watching a musical.

And I also loved the way kurosawa adds to the mystery and anonymity of the samurai ,the way mifune gazes at the fields when asked of his name and replies - "Sanjuro Kuwabatake ( 30 yr old strawberry fields)"- very similar to another scene in his movie Sanjuro. Mifune rules this movie from the first frame of the movie till the last. Mifune is in almost every scene of the movie ,we virtually follow him throughout the movie.

Yojimbo is an epic of a movie with its visuals, its fresh, spirited presentation style and it entertains the audience at every second without having to resort to bloodshed or violence for most part of the movie.

Absolutely a must watch for filmbuffs. Watch it asap 9if u havent seen it yet!

Rating- 5/5!