Yojimbo Reviews

The filmmaking is marvelously austere, yet in its sudden bursts of action electrifying, in its stern morality sobering, in the blackness of its comedy often quite delicious.

One of the great samurai pictures, its darkly brilliant premise--the cynical mercenary/master swordsman or yojimbo (bodyguard) who walks into a town feud and plays both evil sides against each other--has been copied frequently, most notably in the Sergio Leone-Clint Eastwood A Fistful of Dollars. But Kurosawa's treatment remains the most savage, thrilling, smart and hideously funny. [26 Jan 2007, p.C2]

Amazing performance by Toshiro Mifune. Yojimbo is iconic and Eastwood-esque.

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune collaborate for the eighth time in a long and fruitful cinematic partnership. This act finds Mifune in a classic role: the cynical old samurai who rumbles into a small town, makes an impression and immediately lights the fuse to a long-simmering gang war. Casually manipulating both sides, if only to amuse himself and torment the unjust, he eventually presses his luck too far, gets in hot water and transforms the dalliance into an icy tale of violence and vengeance. As usual, Mifune makes the part his own, stirring a delicious blend of bold irreverence and well-earned arrogance; always the coolest guy in the room, even when he's held captive and taking a beating. There's something about the way he carries himself - the nonchalance with which he strolls through a line of armed men, the raging tempest in his eyes - that tells us this guy is cut from a totally different cloth. As with most lone samurai films, this one is both influenced by, and influential toward, the gun-slinging American western genre. In this case, Sergio Leone borrowed liberally from the plot for 1964's A **** of Dollars, sparking a legal struggle that delayed the spaghetti western's American release for years. Kurosawa often referenced the work of John Ford as a heavy personal influence, and the roots of this film are actually seeded in an American novel from the 1930s, so the lawsuit seems contradictory, but that's how it went down. Either way, Yojimbo is a great one. Easy to watch, appreciate, and get wrapped up inside. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Yojimbo does not cause viewers to ponder deep issues in the way Rashomon does, nor does it possess the epic grandness of The Seven Samurai, yet it must still be considered in the top tier of Kurosawa's films. Stylish, compelling, and involving, it became as much a blueprint for future productions as it is an homage to past ones.

Toshiro Mifune is electrifying as an unemployed samurai exploiting two embattled factions in an early nineteenth-century Japanese country town. [05 Nov 2000, p.11]

Though this lacks the epic stature of Seven Samurai, Kurosawa here again shows his mastery of the medium.

Far from being just another vehicle for Mifune, this belongs in that select group of films noirs which are also comedies.

As in most Westerns, the dramatic penetration is not deep, and the plot complications are many and hard to follow in Japanese. Kurosawa is here showing more virtuosity than strength. Yojimbo is a long way (in the wrong direction) from his brilliant Rashomon.