YojimboYojimbo is a samurai film from 1961 directed by Akira Kurosawa, the man who directed Seven Samurai.

Yojimbo is about a Ronin (masterless samurai)named Sanjuro (played by Toshiro Mifune) wandering the land back in 1860.  Sanjuro arrives at a small town which is experiencing tough times.  This town is ruined by a gang war’s two sides: Seibei and Ushitora.  Ushitora has broken away from being Seibei’s top man, after Seibei announced that his son would succeed him.

Sanjuro meets a restaurant owner, who suggests he leaves and mentions that the town would be better off if both gangs were dead.  Sanuro approaches Seibei to hire him as a swordsman, giving him somewhat of an edge of Ushitora.  But Sanjuro overhears a plot to have him killed when his services are no longer required, dodging the full payment of his work.

So Sanjuro tells Seibei he has no intention of being killed by him, and allows the two gangs to fight each other off.  Sanjuro then starts to slowly pull some strings and turn each side against each other, escalating the fight with the goal of eliminating both sides.

But as things escalate so does Sanjuro’s risk of being caught and things erupt as Sanjuro must fight for to survive.

Sanjuro

Another old skool Samurai Classic!

I love these old Samurai movies! They’re told simply and always have some interesting characters.

Watching Sanjuro provoke each side to attack each other is interesting, especially when he eventually picks a side to hire him and starts to set things up form the inside.  Seeing the town slowly die from this gang war also gives you a good idea of how bad things are and you are left cheering a little bit for Sanjuro as he plays the gangs for fools.

The two gangs fight

This movie tells the story of a lone warrior, using his wits to outsmart two gangs, and demonstrates the power one man can have with the right mental tools.  However, it also shows just easily you can get burnt playing with fire – and no one is invincible.

As Sanjuro is inevitably found out, he loses his sword and his beaten to a pulp – at this point he slowly manages to escape to recover, but you can’t help but almost yell “hurry up!!”  as he slowly crawls around the town in danger of being killed at any moment – you do get sucked into the movie a bit!

It’s a classic story, told in that old fashion style which makes it just a pleasure to watch.

The fighting

The Martial Arts and Action

This movie was made in 1961, and it shows.

You’ve got a Samurai who loves to slice people up, the problem is most of the scenes show Sanjuro swinging around his sword, and not even coming close to his opponents! No camera angles were used to sell the strikes but it’s not a big deal, as the strikes are performed well and the actors reactions (to being cut) work well when see the fight anyway.  You can’t expect much more considering it’s a pioneering film of such a genre.

What makes these movies great isn’t the choreography, (althoguht it does work for what it is), it’s the story behind each fight and the overall struggle.

What also makes movies like Yojimbo work well for martial arts fans is that the fancy moves weren’t mainstream back when it was made so realism was what the film makers were after.  So you see traditional sword work and realistic movements, not the over the top fancy flips and somersaults we’re used to.

Is it a classic?

Long before I watched this film I knew it was regarded as a classic and I believe it definitely is.  It’s a pioneering movie which tells a cool story with  fight scenes performed well for it’s time.  It’s not for the action junkies but fans of classic action & martial arts movies.

On Blu Ray –

Region A (US & Canada)
Yojimbo (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

On DVD –

Region 1 (US & Canada)
Yojimbo: Remastered Edition (The Criterion Collection)

Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Yojimbo [1961] [DVD]

Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Yojimbo

More info on Movie Regions here.

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