Fifty years On: Yojimbo

So another new feature idea that I had, why don’t I review films that are fifty years old this year (so films from 1961) to see if they are still good in the 2011! This works out quite nicely because I quite recently watched a film from 1961, Yojimbo, and here are my thoughts on it!

Akira Kurosawa is probably one of the most influential directors in film history, or so it could be argued. It is within the 1950’s that we see most of his most influential works; Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Hidden Fortress had heavy influences upon western cinema. Either directly, such as The Magnificent Seven, which took its story straight from Seven Samurai, or more subtly, such as the inspirations for Star Wars: A new Hope found within Hidden Fortress. By the beginning of the 1960’s then, Akira had already had all these films under his belt, along with many others, and was already an acclaimed director. However, after the box office failure of his first independent production team production, The Bad Sleep released in 1960, Akira returned from the modern setting to something much more traditional, and hence Yojimbo was born.

The plot for Yojimbo (translated as The Bodyguard) is rather a simple one, but one that has been replicated over and over throughout the years. It follows a nameless wandering samurai, or ronin, played by one of Akira’s favourites Toshiro Mifune, who enters an unnamed village where there is trouble afoot. Two rival gangs are fighting over the town, tearing it and its people apart, literally. The unnamed samurai (who comes to be known as Sanjuro, though it is clear that it is not his real name) soon decides to aid the inhabitants and begins to cleverly play the two sides against each other. Samurai themed action ensues. The plot never really deviates from this simple formula, though what it demonstrates here, clearly, is that just because something is simple doesn’t mean that it can’t be good.

Toshiro Mifune, like in all of his films with Akira, is excellent as the wandering Samurai. With Sanjuro we see the conventions of the samurai way turned on its head, instead of a well-disciplined and deeply respectful warrior, we see Mifune as a ill-tempered, lazy and scruffy fellow with little respect for those around him. While the only really samurai qualities are his skill in battle and his obviously golden heart, though he constantly attempts to conceal this, refusing thanks and praise. Mifune portrays this, and more, amazingly, and even with the issues of subtitling all his emotions are portrayed clearly, thanks mostly to his amazingly versatile facial expressions which demonstrate a range of emotions without a word uttered.

The main rival to Sanjuro comes in the form of Unosuke, the son of one of the leaders of the two warring sides, who appears on the scene complicating much of Sanjuro’s attempts to subvert the warring factions. Unosuke, played Masaki Kobayashi (who also played the rival to Sanjuro in the quasi-sequel of the same name released in 1962) is an excellent character, and brings a whole new dimension to the action by the fact that he is armed with a revolver, which he uses to strike fear into the opposition. This is certainly an interesting technique, with the gun being an almost all-powerful weapon to those who only have swords, demonstrating the impact on the encroachment of western ideas into Japan. It is the interplay between this gun wielding baddy and our hero Sanjuro that is the most exciting, and the way he deals with Unosuke and his revolver in the final battle is brilliant.

The fighting itself is good, though hampered by the fact that there are little effects and hence little blood, though Sanjuro is wielding a ostensibly incredibly Sharpe sword,men fall at its slightest touch there is no sign of the red liquid. There is some blood though, with a few limbs flying, reminiscent of when Obi Wan removes the arm of that guy in the cantina (yeah you know the one). Despite this, the fighting is still exciting, and Mifune brings such gusto to these performances that the viewer cannot help but be sucked in. With the final fight scene being short and intensely exciting. The film itself is beautifully shot and yes though it is in black and white (even in 1961!) this really adds a different flavour to the film that you don’t really get nowadays. The music is also great, giving it an old rustic feel, while the actions of Sanjuro are tied brilliantly to this one recognisable theme, which you can’t help but get excited about when you hear it.

In the end then, there are no real surprises with the plot, but there is no real need for this. You know what you are going to get, and you are still happy when you get it. Despite all the possible nods to lessons to be learned, such as the importance of working together and the rest, what this film is at its heart is pure fun and you can’t help but feel an attachment to that lone warrior (and clearly those at the time couldn’t help this either and a quasi-sequel, Sanjuro, was made only a year later staring both Toshiro Mifune and Masaki Kobayashi.)

If you were looking for a way to break into the work of Akira Kurosawa then, I would argue that you should begin here. Here you can test the waters, and the length of the film means that you aren’t committing so much time to it, with a running time of only 106 minutes, compared to the much more ominous 190 minute running time of seven samurai. Even if you don’t want to get into the wider works of Akira, this is still a magnificent ride and it shouldn't be missed. Despite some restrictions, it holds up as brilliantly in 2011 as it did in 1961, even though the story has been replicated in many more recent films. For example 1964’s, A fistful of dollars featuring a young Clint Eastwood, takes the story verbatim into the old west; while more recently the story was adapted into 1996’s, Last Man Standing, featuring Bruce Willis, and even more recently in the film Lucky Number Slevin, also featuring Willis. Evidently Yojimbo, though obviously not as praised as some of Akira’s earlier works, is similarly influential, and even though it has been replicated many times, Yojimbo is still the best and the most fresh in the genre, even fifty years on.