Yojimbo

The samurai film has brought about some absolutely legendary films throughout cinematic history. Like any great film genre there are many different flavors if you will, to the samurai film, creating a nice variety for the filmgoer. There's the slice and dice straight action, the dramatic telling, the horror based, and everything in between. Today's subject does a phenomenal job of blending many things into one amazing experience. An experience that has entertained and inspired audiences for almost 60 years from one of the best visionaries and storytellers in cinematic history.

So if you're like me and you enjoy film and the impact and emotions they convey, then grab a glass of your preferred liquid and join me for the next little while. For me that's a can of Honey Pils from our friends at Saranac in Utica, NY. So sit back, relax, and let's talk about the love of film. Welcome to Glazed Cinema.

Today I wanted to talk to you about one of my favorite Kurosawa films called Yojimbo. It's a film that has a lot fantastic elements that make it so great from the direction, the acting, to the score. From the beginning we're introduced to our hero and drawn into the plot, like a moth to the light.

As the opening credits roll on out subject today, we see the head and shoulders of the man as we follow close behind. Bouncing as he walks, twitching his shoulders and scratching his neck he looks around, his hair in the chonmage style, with frayed side hairs stretching to the sun. Soon the camera pans down to his feet and as he walks away from the now stopped camera, we get a view of the man as he gets further away. He is wearing a dark hakama and kimono, his arms hidden from the elements, shoulders raised, with the empty arm sleeves dancing in the wind. Standing in a crossroads with tall grass bordering the dirt and jagged mountains in the distance he begins looking for something. Bending down the samurai picks up a large stick from the ground and hurls it into the air. As it falls, a pronged end points down one of the roads and as it commands, he saunters down the trail toward an unknown destination. Entering a town, he experiences something that gives him pause. The streets are empty, wind kicking up dirt, rushing off the sound of silence, the only welcoming inhabitant. He doesn’t think too much of this however. That is until he sees something that presents just what this town is about. He sees a dog walking toward him…a dog with a hand in its mouth. Shortly after he meets Gonji, a bar owner who introduces our hero to the town, which after seeing the state that it's in, he decides to offer his services as a Yojimbo.

Yojimbo means bodyguard and it's a service that a terrific swordsman in a dangerous town can capitalize on. The town is in bad shape, ruled by the criminal corruption of two enemy gangs. During a conversation our hero learns of the two rival gangs and that they do not get along. The only thing they seem to agree upon is that they both enjoy terrorizing the locals. Hearing about the town’s situation, the man decides to help the innkeeper and other townsfolk and thus begins a plot that has entertained audiences all over the world for over sixty years.

Yojimbo is a 1961 film directed by the great Akira Kurosawa under a production company established by the director himself only one-year earlier. If you’ve never seen his films, his name alone may ring a bell. Arguably the most significant Japanese director of all time, his films have influenced countless filmmakers, writers, cinematographers, and fans alike the world over. He was a sort of chameleon in the sense that he was always playing around in different genres. Whether that was crime thrillers, samurai films, or character pieces, he tried a lot of things and almost always had success. All of his films share a certain ambience of warmth and care that even for his more action based films is never lost. Kurosawa is one of those people whose influence is felt so profoundly in their field, that it permeates out of it. Directors, musicians, writers, and artists are still inspired today by this great master of cinema.

Kurosawa started directing movies in the forties, inspired by international predecessors like Sergei Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, and John Ford. He took a great deal of inspiration from the latter quite a bit and you can see that in certain films including our subject today. We can see this particularly in his camera stillness, which was a trademark of Ford's, which we talked about in a previous episode devoted to Ford's 'The Quiet Man'. The scenes almost become moving paintings in which the camera lens becomes the framing. He was also a fantastic editor and had a phenomenal eye for movement and pacing. As much as Kurosawa took from the western genre, the western also took from him, but we'll come back to that a little later on.

The main character of Yojimbo is played by none other than Toshiro Mifune. Mifune is an absolute icon of Japanese cinema and a legend of international cinema. If you’ve listened to the podcast before you may have heard his name before. He’s one of my favorite actors and his performances are phenomenal, particularly for an actor without any formal training in the craft of acting. Very economic and caring in his expressions and movements I'm convinced Mifune could play anything on screen and be great. He knew when to do something, how to do it, and how much to do. I can talk about Mifune for hours, he is amazing. His performance in this film is among my favorites of his. The range he exudes is quite awe inspiring and I love the subtle nuances he displays in the role and I'm always amazed by his fluid and smooth sword work and movements.

Mifune was a regular in Kurosawa's filmography and played in sixteen of his feature films including High and Low, Red Beard, Rashomon, and of course Seven Samurai. Kurosawa had a great way of inspiring his performers and for Yojimbo, he told Mifune that his character was like a wolf. This direction inspired the actor to adopt a shoulder twitch and way of walking that resembled a dog in how they shake off fleas.

He plays the main character expertly well here. The main character is nameless for a decent portion of the film and he is secretive about himself and his past. When asked his name, he looks around, almost instinctually. Spotting a field of flowers outside of the open window he states that his name is, "Sanjuro Kuwabatake", which roughly translates to 30 year old mulberry field. Why he is so secretive about his identity and origins we'll never truly know, but the fact that this practice comes so fast to him tells us that he uses it often.

Though his background is unknown we can tell from how he carries himself that he is not a samurai and if he was, he no longer is. He is more of a Ronin. If you're unfamiliar with the difference, I'll try to summarize it for you. Samurai, otherwise known as bushi, were warriors that were at the top of the social hierarchy and highly respected. They always served a lord, for whom they fought for and defended in battle. They also lived by a strict moral code called Bushido or "Way of the Warrior". Bushido included eight traits that the samurai lived by, which were Rectitude, Courage, Benevolence, Politeness, Honesty, Honor, Loyalty, and Self-Control. In some cases this code also dictated their deaths as going against Bushido would be met with seppuku, otherwise known as hara-kiri. Depending on the circumstances this was either done voluntarily or as punishment. Interestingly enough, samurai could be men or women and were highly cultured and literate as they were considered nobility. Samurai were a major part of Japan's livelihood and way of life for over 700 years until feudalism was abolished in 1868.

Ronin were samurai with no lords, wandering the land for employment and taking work when available. Samurai could become Ronin in various manners, but oftentimes this was due to the death of their daimyo or the lord they served. Becoming Ronin also meant that the samurai did not commit seppuku, thus dishonoring themselves by going against Bushido. Those who lived out their days as Ronin were disgraced and widely regarded as dangerous and untrustworthy. This perception however was not always representative of the Ronin. Some of them tried to find new masters while others dueled each other to attract the attention of a lord as the legend of their sword skill grew in the hopes of becoming samurai once again.

For others, the newly titled Ronin couldn't live with their new status and took matters into their own hands to become samurai again. No more famous story of this exists than the 47 Ronin of Ako who avenged the death of their master. After their master's murder they were stripped of their titles, but instead of committing seppuku they laid in wait, plotting an attack to avenge their lord. At the right time, they launched their attack and avenged their lord, thus achieving samurai status again, at which time they all committed seppuku as one, dying with honor. If you're unfamiliar with the story, it's worth a read as it's a fascinating piece of history and gives insight into the difference of samurai and Ronin.

Though it's not stated at anytime in the film, Sanjuro is a Ronin as he does not hold true to Bushido and has no master. He truly is a wanderer, with no real home or sense of place and no lord to report to. He also doesn't follow Bushido, which is demonstrated by his actions throughout the film. The best way to see this is how he plans to help the townspeople from their terrorizing gangs. He devises a plan to speak to both sides and deceived them in thinking he'd on their side, all the while, pitting the rival gangs against each other. His plan is thwarted however when one of the gang leader's bother Unosuke comes to town...wielding a revolver.

Tatsuya Nakadai who plays Unosuke is also very good in this movie. I've found through watching other films with him that he is very animated and does very well at emoting. In Yojimbo he plays the role as if unhinged and anything will set him off. He seems crazed at times, over-confident at others, and all the while playing with his new age weapon. If you like action samurai movies, another great film that includes both and Mifune is Sword of Doom. That one is a lot more action forward, but he's great in that as the anti-hero protagonist.

Interestingly enough there's another connector between those two films, which is the conposer of both fiilm's scores. Another powerhouse of the film is undoubtedly another reason why this film works so well. The composer, Masaru Sato did the scores to many Kurosawa films and in my research I found that he was something of legend, doing scores for more than two hundred films over his career.

Another thing that's well done in this film is the cinematography. There is a wide variety of shots in this film from stagnant, deep focus, tracking, close-up, low angle, elevated, and so much inbetween. Each shot speaks to us to convey the emotions and intent of each scene perfectly and nothing feels ill-advised or out of place. The cinematagrophy comes from Kazuo Miyagawa, who worked with greats of Japanese cinema like Kurosawa, Ozu, and Mizoguchi over his illustrious career.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is the first time we see the two rival gangs meet each other on the main street of the town. The street appears much like an old west town with buildings on the sides as the two groups march toward each together. There's a nervous energy among them and neither side seems particularly confident. The movement of the two groups ebbs and flows and as one moves a little closer, the other erratically retreats. All the while our hero is in a tall outpost, watching the action unfurl, dissecting the two sides' movements and mannerisms. The thing that always gets me about the scene is that amongst one of the gangs there is one very tall man among them. Unlike the others who are carrying swords however, he wields an almost comically large wooden mallet. The scene is great to see this kind of hesitancy from the gangs and the disbelief from our hero observing it all. It almost reminds me of that scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey when the warring monkeys first meet at the watering hole, prior to Moon-watcher's discovery in which the two joust for position, but never come to blows.

Yojimbo was a success upon release and entertained film fans the world over. With a budget of around $90 million Japanese Yen or $680,000 American dollars it grossed around $350 million Japanese Yen or 2.5 million American dollars worldwide. It also received high praise from both fans and critics alike.

Up to that point Kurosawa had already seen the western genre take notice of him and noticed his reflection in certain films. Maybe no better example exists previous to Yojimbo than that of Hollywood's 1960 Western classic 'The Magnificent Seven', which was inspired by Kurosawa's1954 classic, 'Seven Samurai'. One of those directors inspired by Kurosawa was a young man, far away in Italy. He too loved western movies and was inspired by the samurai films of Kurosawa and set out to make a film that reflected both of them. Written by Adriano Balzoni, Mark Lowell, and Victor Andres Catena and released in 1964 and starring a relatively unknown American actor as the lead role, it was a film that took inspiration from our subject today. Some say, including Kurosawa, a little too much inspiration. Legend has it that when Kurosawa saw the film he uttered, "Good film. Where's my 15%?". If you watch the two films side by side it is extremely difficult not to notice glaring similarities and in some cases specific sequences are taken from Yojimbo. Kurosawa claimed plagiarism against the film since Yojimbo was copyrighted and the young director sought now permission from the Japanese legend. When all was said and done the Italian director ended up paying Kurosawa 15% of his current and future profits to Kurosawa with an additional $100,000 for plagiarism. After the lawsuit was over the director made two more films to cement a trilogy that has gone down in history as a fan favorite of the western genre and spurred a phenomenal career for the young American lead. The director's name was Sergio Leone and the film was A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood.

I love Yojimbo for all that it is. It's a highly engaging and entertaining movie with a lot of character, action, and charm about it. I first heard about Yojimbo from looking at Toshiro Mifune's filmography. To that point I had seen a lot of Kurosawa's earlier work including Rashomon and Stray Dog and really gravitated toward him as an actor. In looking at the movies they had done together, one of them stood out to me as the title was intriguing. Yojimbo. It sounded interesting simply in its pronunciation and look. After reading more about it, I bought the movie on Blu-ray and watched it.

As engrossing as the plot synopsis was, the film itself was so much more than that. I loved all the layers of this movie. The layering of problems presented to our hero, the layers of suspense built throughout its 150 minute duration, and the layers of effect and emotion. I felt many things from curiousness, to humor, to exhilaration, to concern. To put it simply, this movie is a rollercoaster ride and one that I really enjoyed and love watching today. Mifune steals the show in this film as he often did. I love his acting in this film and find him so cool and magnetizing. If you're in the mood for an action film that offers more dimensions than just slice and dice, Yojimbo has it.

If you'd like to watch Yojimbo for yourself you can find it on a variety of streaming services. At the time of this recording you can find it on the Criterion Channel. The Criterion Channel is a service with tremendous value from our friends at the Criterion Collection. The Criterion Channel includes pricing options of $10.99 per month or $99 per year, which is what I chose to do. Apart form the Criterion Channel you can also find Yojimbo on HBO Max. HBO Max is a service with a diverse catalog and includes pricing option of $9.99 with ads or $14.99 ad-free.

You can also find Yojimbo on other services as well, including Prime Video and iTunes for $3.99 and Apple TV for $14.99 to buy.

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