elvircorhodzic YOJIMBO is an action drama about a rōnin who finds himself at the center of a conflict between the two crime lords.A hungry and tired rōnin wanders through a desolate Japanese countryside. Soon, he arrives in a small town. A local caterer advises him to leave because, two local clans fight every day on the streets. However, a stranger decides to stay. The situation in a town is very good for one rōnin. This is a good chance that he earns some money. However, he does not need a bloody money. He wants to destroy local crime lords...This tense story is full of lies, doubt, turning, pranks, blackmails and excellent fights. A careless and seemingly insensitive samurai is actually a peaceful and good man. Mr. Kurosawa has, under the influence of a western and noir, made a very exciting and visually impressive film. Of course, he has not neglected the significant situations that are related to the Japanese culture and tradition.Close-ups, almost perfectly, reflect an evil, arrogance, fear, invincibility and contempt on faces of some of the protagonists. There is a large number of villains, which are quite different in character.Toshiro Mifune (Kuwabatake Sanjuro) is a resourceful, interesting and determined as a wandering rōnin and master swordsman. He, apparently, enjoys in his machinations, however, his goal is extremely benevolent. He's kind of a lone hero, regardless of a tactical evil and theatrical swagger in his character.His support are Tatsuya Nakadai as Unosuke a wild and insolent gunslinger and the biggest threat to a samurai. He is interesting because he is a completely different character from Sanjuro. Kyū Sazanka (Ushitora) and Seizaburo Kawazu (Seibei) are fairly inconclusive as crime lords. However their primary relationship "of a teacher and his student", could be interesting. Isuzu Yamada as Orin is the the wife of Seibei. She is perhaps an initiator of conflicts. Daisuke Katō as Inokichi is a visually the most memorable character. A character, who is capable to commit a vicious murder, but also make the greatest stupidity.Simply, Mr. Kurosawa has managed to combine several styles in a small masterpiece.

Jackson Booth-Millard I had sen this Japanese film listed in the television schedules a number of times, always on the same channel, Film4, it is rated five out of five stars by critics, so I decided it was definitely worth a watch, directed by Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai). Basically samurai Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Toshirô Mifune) finds himself in the middle of a Japanese village with feuding, neither side is particularly honorable, but Sanjuro is hungry and impoverished, so he finds work as a bodyguard (or Yojimbo) for a silk merchant Tazaemon (Kamatari Fujiwara). Sanjuro chooses over a job working for sake brewer Tokuemon (Takashi Shimura), but he pretends to work for him, as part of a plan for them to tear each other apart, but he is eventually arrested for treachery. Sanjuro escapes in time to see the two warring sides fight to the finish, the plan all along was to create and restore peace, Sanjuro leaves the village for further exploits, the character returned in the sequel titled Sanjuro a year later. Also starring Eijirô Tôno as Gonji the Tavern Keeper, Seizaburô Kawazu as Seibê the Brothel Operator, Isuzu Yamada as Orin, Hiroshi Tachikawa as Yoichiro and Susumu Fujita as Homma the Instructor Who Skips Town. The performances are fine, and the direction as always is great from Kurosawa, I will admit I did not pay the fullest attention to everything going on, and it did get confusing at times, but the 19th century feel is authentic, and the sword skill and fight scenes catch your eye, I can see some reasons why it would get full marks from critics, it did influence A Fistful of Dollars and the "spaghetti western" genre, a worthwhile adventure. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Costume Design. Very good!

willcundallreview Rating-5/10Yojimbo, A samurai action movie created by the legendary director and writer Akira Kurosawa. This movie is considered the stuff of movie legend, but for me, it is far from it. It's not that it's a bad movie, not even that poor, I just didn't feel it is special and wound up for me an average movie. So why do people love this so much?, well to be perfectly honest I have no idea, it is smart no doubt but just too dull to be fully enjoyed, the kind of movie only some can fully appreciate.Now don't get me wrong, the movie is pretty much built up of well done things, but just not well enough. Toshiro Mifune is very good as the samurai who makes up his name, he seems to act at a much higher level than everyone else in this cast, top stuff. As the acting goes though, it is not good and even though Mifune is on form, the rest of the cast drag the acting score so low I can't give it credit. The problem is it is just so over the top, it isn't believable and the characters seem like from a comedy at times. Kurosawa directs and co writes well enough for this, it isn't maybe what I expect from a movie held in such high regard, but nevertheless you can see his skill at times. The movie I felt is not paced all that well, it has a very slow beginning and very little action actually, the ending is the opposite with lots going on and more action than before, it needed for me to be more evenly spread. I think yet again the case with the cinematography and the editing is the same as the others before, done well not just not very well. I felt the editing could be a little sloppy, the cinematography makes sure that the technical side does it well with a nice approach and some pretty nice shots too. One thing I really disliked in the movie, maybe the most is the score, now some people who have seen it may read this part and disagree which is fine, but for me it is horrible, doesn't fit in the picture and makes ordinary scenes going slowly seem like there meant to be massive epic shots.I think sometimes it is easy to criticise an older movie because it doesn't have the same things we have today, but this movie does have some positives. The ending is at moments thrilling and as mentioned the action stepped up, the fighting is a little poorly choreographed but I feel it only looks that way because of the editing to make it look less violent. That said this movie is not all that gory and horrible, the odd death and arm cut off, but not in a disgusting way, the movie is more sensible than to horrify the viewer.I think by the end, you either could watch this with great praise or great displeasure, but even if you pick one way or the other, most should admit this is a smart plot. Of course Sergio Leone's "Man With no Name" series must be inspired by this, and that being a spaghetti western just goes to show how far this movie can reach and also inspire around the world. I do feel this is a kind of plot that works better like say in a western, a good story but points in it just not good enough for me, Kurosawa doesn't waste his time, he just doesn't make it enjoyable enough.

Adam Peters (73%) Watching this it's pretty clear to anyone that A fist full of dollars owes almost its entire existence to this Japanese classic. Almost from the very beginning, right down to the performances, direction, and script, this has the feel of a classic Leone western as the guy clearly helped himself to bits and pieces. And he must have figured that he'd largely get away with it because so few western people at the time would have ever actually had the chance to even know about this far-east hit. For anyone interested in classic Asian films, or just classic films in general, this is a must- watch that's well worth tracking down. There's a fair share of action, fun, and sheer entertainment value to be had from this quality, and still watchable first rate winner.