Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #212794 in DVD
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Running time: 75 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
This semi-comic 1961 film by legendary director Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon, Ran) was inspired by the American Western genre. Kurosawa mainstay Toshirô Mifune (The Seven Samurai) plays a drifting samurai for hire who plays both ends against the middle with two warring factions, surviving on his wits and his ability to outrun his own bad luck. Eventually the samurai seeks to eliminate both sides for his own gain and to define his own sense of honor. Yojimbo is striking for its unorthodox treatment of violence and morality, reserving judgment on the actions of its main character and instead presenting an entertaining tale with humor and much visual excitement. One of the inspirations for the "spaghetti Westerns" of director Sergio Leone and later surfacing as a remake as Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis, this film offers insight into a director who influenced American films even as he was influenced by them. --Robert Lane

Customer Reviews

No help for fools.
The great Akira Kurosawa directed "Yojimbo" -- first released in 1961. The film stars frequent Kurosawa collaborator, Toshirô Mifune, who's as good here as he's ever been. The film is set in the post-samurai era, and Mifune is a wandering samurai offering his services as a bodyguard. He stumbles upon an inept, warring town and decides to make some money - perhaps having a little fun in the process.

Of all Kuosawa's movies, "Yojimbo" is probably structured the most like a traditional western. Not surprisingly, Sergio Leone used it as his inspiration for "A Fistful of Dollars," the first of his "spaghetti-Westerns." Obviously, "Yojimbo" is better than the vast majority of movies, foreign or otherwise, but I was a bit disappointed nevertheless. Many people consider "Yojimbo" to be among Kurosawa's best film. However, the serio-comic approach didn't work entirely for me. I did not connect with it the way I did with other great films by the director, such as "Rashomon" or "High and Low."

In addition, the DVD transfer is problematic. A hissing sound can be heard throughout the movie, and the film just wasn't cleaned up the way it should have been before being transferred. Finally, the DVD includes no extras, save for the original trailer for "Yojimbo." Overall, the film is quite good although not Kurosawa's best, and the packaging is below par.

Death in the Dust and the Wind
Although it lacks the scope of THE SEVEN SAMURAI, THRONE OF BLOOD, and other more widely known films by the celebrated Akira Kurosawa, the 1961 YOJIMBO (also known as BODYGUARD) is one of the most important films of the second half of the 20th Century--and a film that was deeply influenced by American film. Even so, YOJIMBO stands on its own merits: it's a magnificent piece of cinema that will fascinate even those who normally turn up their noses at "movies with subtitles."

In theory, the film is based on the 1929 Dashiell Hammett novel RED HARVEST--but transports the basic story to a period in Japan when the Samurai class has fallen on hard times and must seek employment as common body guards. Sanjuro Kuwabatake (brilliantly played by Toshiro Mifune, who appeared in several Kurosawa films) is such a one, a scruffy looking and aging warrior who finds himself caught between warring factions of a Japanese village and responds by playing the two against each other.

One of the film's greatest assets is its visual style. Kurosawa is very clearly influenced by the look of the American western here, and most particularly so, in my opinion, by HIGH NOON. Consequently, YOJIMBO leaps the cultural divide with considerable ease--but Kurosawa uses the images of empty streets and the lone warrior to considerably different effect, presenting him as a dangerous figure who emerges from the dust and the wind to rip wide his foes. But the film does not rely on visual style alone: there is plenty of hard substance here, too. The plot is tightly wound, action-intensive, and laced with a dry and very black humor, and the cast is superlative throughout.

As it borrowed from the American movie western, so did it influence American film in return, most obviously in the form of the popular Clint Eastwood "spaghetti westerns" of the 1970s--where it was essentially remade as A FIST FULL OF DOLLARS. But frankly Clint Eastwood never had it so good: with Kurosawa at the helm and Mifune as the lead, Eastwood's "lone stranger" feels mighty tame in comparison.

The Criterion DVD offers the film in original widescreen and in the best possible condition short of a full digital restoration. As noted elsewhere, there are occasional blips and lines--but honestly the film is so driving that you will barely notice them. The subtitles also seem to be a better translation than I've seen in any other version. YOJIMBO was my introduction to Japanese cinema. I urge you to let it be yours as well.

GFT, Amazon reviewer

Classic (though flawed) film, questionable DVD
Being one of Kurosawa's best known works, Yojimbo is indeed a classic and a beautiful study in film craftsmanship. The visual compositions, performances, and fight sequences that Kurosawa delivers here are, as usual, brilliant (and highly influential). It must be said, however, that the film's plot is pretty confusing at times, especially in the second half with all the various characters and shadowy intrigues that enter the mix. I personally have some difficulty keeping track of which characters are aligned with which of the two warring factions, and that becomes doubly difficult when the rival groups start exchanging prisoners and whatnot. Of course it doesn't really matter in terms of the film's tone and meaning (the two groups are equally evil and equally deserving of what Sanjuro does to them), but I still like to be able to grasp what's going on when I watch a samurai-western-action movie like this. Nevertheless, it is a good film and certainly essential viewing for any fan of Kurosawa or samurai films. Criterion's DVD edition, though, leaves a bit more to be desired. The only extra is the film's trailer, which is in widescreen but is strangely and inexplicably shifted towards the bottom of the screen; and those of you with good home theater systems will see a lot of pixellization and other problems in the visual presentation of the film itself. But worst of all is the obvious fact that part of the image is missing at the left and right edges of the screen-- anybody watching the opening credits sequence can clearly see that the words are spilling out of the picture (causing the credits to read "Starrin Toshiro Mifun" with the last letters of words missing). Criterion should have done something about this, especially with a film like this one where you know Kurosawa struggled to get every aspect of visual detail just right. Still, the film makes up for these problems, and since this is the only American DVD of this movie, we don't have too many alternatives...