At one time, when I thought I’d really try with this blog, I was going to make double-feature reviews for movies that were foreign remakes of others to show the impact one culture could have on another as well as emphasize where those cultures differed. If I had gone that route, Yojimbo would certainly have been one of them. Yojimbo is a loose remake of a US noir called The Glass Key, based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett. It would have been an interesting to look at the intersectionality between early crime dramas in America and the samurai films of Japan. However, the even greater spiritual connection to the samurai film is the Western. Yojimbo was remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars – the first film in a trilogy that ended with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Leone’s film was so close to Yojimbo that Toho (the studio that made the film) successfully sued Leone for a failure to license his film as a remake. Not only are the plots between the two nearly identical, but Clint Eastwood, who stars in Leone’s trilogy as a man with no name, has admitted to impersonating Toshiro Mifune’s character in Yojimbo.

An unnamed ronin wanders along the Japanese countryside. He enters a small, quiet town and stops at a tavern. He learns from the tavern owner that two different gang leaders (Ushitora and Seibei) are each trying to take control of the town and have each claimed one of their “friends” as the town’s mayor. The tavern owner encourages the ronin to get out while he can. Instead, the ronin convinces Seibei to hire him after killing three of Ushitora’s men easily. The ronin stays the night at Seibei’s house as he prepares to take down Ushitora in the morning. The ronin eavesdrops on a conversation between Seibei’s wife and son and learns they intend to kill him after they take care of Ushitora so they don’t have to pay him. As the battle begins, the ronin resigns from the fight supposedly because of Seibei’s deceit. Just before the battle commences, a government official enters the town, causing both Seibei and Ushitora to withdraw. The ronin then becomes a liaison between the camps as they try to find a one-up on the other. After the ronin is discovered to playing both sides, Ushitora has him captured and beaten, but he escapes as the two gangs meet in the center town to finish their fight. However, he returns to the town when he discovers the tavern owner who helped him escape undetected is captured. Singlehandedly, the ronin dispatches both sides, freeing the town from gang control.

Akira Kurosawa is most famous for his samurai films, even though they don’t make up even half of his filmography. Most likely, this is a revisionist history due to the influence of the genre on Western films (both the Western genre, and more broadly, Western culture). I already mentioned the influence of Kurosawa and Yojimbo, specifically, on the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, but Kurosawa’s samurai films have also been a source of inspiration for George Lucas. The first Star Wars film pulls some from the plot of Yojimbo, but even more so, Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. The entire series pulls a lot from samurai films. The Jedi is basically a space samurai, and the influence was so strong that Lucas originally tried to get Toshiro Mifune (Kurosawa’s most famous collaborator who appeared in most of his samurai films) for the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. If you have any interest in world cinema, I’d recommend Kurosawa to everyone. He’s easily the most accessible for Americans, and he’s definitely the most fun.

Bonus Review: Sanjuro

Sanjuro was originally its own film, but after the explosive popularity of Yojimbo, it became an official sequel. Mifune’s nameless ronin again comes to a town to help its people with their problems. However, Sanjuro is considerably less influenced by western films than its predecessor. And, unlike other sequels, there is significant discourse regarding whether Yojimbo or Sanjuro is the superior film, which proves that Sanjuro can stand on its own if nothing else.

A group of samurai fear their local chamberlain is corrupt and notify the superintendent who tells them he will take care of the situation. As they discuss the situation at a shrine, our favorite ronin overhears them and tells them they shouldn’t trust the superintendent. Sure enough, the ronin helps the samurai fend off an ambush. Though about to leave, the ronin decides against it, realizing that means the chamberlain is in danger. The ronin and the other samurai learn that the chamberlain has been abducted and his wife and daughter are being held prisoner in their own house. The ronin rescues them and they all hide out in a house next to the superintendent’s compound. The ronin decides to get closer to the superintendent and so makes friends with his right-hand man, Hanbei, who is impressed with the ronin’s skill. The ronin realizes that the chamberlain is being held at the superintendent’s compound, but cannot win the day in a frontal assault, so he tells Hanbei that the samurai are at a temple nearby. The superintendent immediately takes his men to the temple, but Hanbei becomes suspicious and ties him up, preparing to kill him. However, through the ronin’s ingenuity, the samurai arrive and fight off the remaining forces. The chamberlain is restored to his palace, the superintendent commits hara-kiri and Hanbei, in his anger, forces the ronin to duel with him. The ronin tries to dissuade him, but seeing its foolish, agrees.