Underplayed Gems

Yojimbo (1961)

Yojimbo poster
Original title
用心棒
Directed by
Akira Kurosawa
Genre
drama film
Country
Japan
Runtime
1h 50m
Rated
NR
Rating
8.1 of 10 from 1,707 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A masterless samurai wanders into a town torn between two rival crime bosses. He plays both sides against each other, offering his services as a bodyguard to each without committing to either.

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What happens

Yojimbo (Japanese: 用心棒, Hepburn: Yōjinbō; lit. Bodyguard) is a 1961 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa, who also co-wrote the screenplay and was one of the producers. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Atsushi Watanabe. In the film, a rōnin arrives in a small town where competing crime lords fight for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard. Based on the success of Yojimbo, Kurosawa's next film, Sanjuro (1962), was altered to incorporate the lead character of this film. In both films, the character wears a rather dilapidated dark kimono bearing the same family mon. The film was released and produced by Toho on April 25, 1961. Yojimbo received highly positive reviews, and, over the years, became widely regarded as one of the best films by Kurosawa. The film grossed an estimated US$2.5 million worldwide with a budget of ¥90.87 million ($631,000). Its story was plagiarized by Sergio Leone in his Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars (1964), leading to a lawsuit by Toho. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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