Film Review: Yojimbo (dir. A. Kurosawa, 1961)

This is the film that For a Few Dollars More, the classic spaghetti Western starring Clint Eastwood, is based on. Tishoro Mifune plays a mid-19th century out-of-work samurai who stumbles into a village split between rival factions. Historically, this was a period of great instability, lots of gang- and gambling-related violence. But the Mifune character--we never learn his real name--is a master swordsman who can slash his way through any number of the henchmen of these petty thugs. So he finds his skillz in demand.

Bored, broke, and misanthropic (quite a combination), Mifune decides to have some fun. He starts a bidding war ("for a few ryos more") between the rival gangleaders, first siding with one, then the other, to serve as a leader's bodyguard. That's what "yojimbo" means--the title of the film is "The Bodyguard." (But trust me, the Kevin Costner-Whitney Houston movie is not an American remake.) But he's really trying to instigate an all-out clash between the two groups. Why? In a sense he's trying to rid the town of the gangs, but it's hard to say that he's a "good guy," at least at first. He is, instead, misanthropic, an anarchic particle adrift in a chaotic world. Really, think Clint Eastwood in most of his better movies. he's not looking for trouble, but he's not not looking for trouble, either, and God help anyone who actually causes him trouble. But there's a plot, here, too: about halfway through film, he becomes soft and helps out a "pathetic" man (a man who makes him sick), whose wife has been forced into sex slavery by one of the gangs--a move that eventually puts Mifune into a difficult place (never stick your neck out for anybody). He's beaten badly by one of leader's henchmen, but not quite badly enough. He escapes (in a very suspenseful scene) and eventually causes the destruction of the gangs.

This is not one of Kurosawa's more "serious" films. A great deal of the film is straightforward action, not really different from standard Western fare. The score is very lighthearted, as well. But one can see why other filmmakers would borrow heavily from this one, if not steal it, entirely.

Speaking of which, the more Kurosawa samurai movies you see, the more you realize just how much of the "Jedi" is stolen from Kurosawa's samurai. Indeed, even the terms "Jedi" and "samurai" are similar, to some extent. For the Mifune character, here, think Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Mos Eisley cantina. The attitude: "I don't want to have to cut your arm off, but if I have to, I won't hesitate."