Yojimbo
Oriental western starring Toshirô Mifune as Sanjuro, a samurai who ends up in a town torn apart by fights between two gangs. Sanjuro manages to play the gangs against each other with diabolical pleasure.
Yojimbo is one of the many masterpieces in Kurosawa’s oeuvre. Set in 1860, during the twilight of feudalism in Japan, the samurai are now unemployed and offering their services to the rising middle class. Sanjuro arrives in a seemingly deserted town that feels straight out of a John Ford Western. Two rival merchants are at each other's throats, employing all sorts of villains in the process. Sanjuro, though, is just as ruthless as the other criminals in the film and offers his services to the highest bidder.
More than seventy years on, Yojimbo still impresses with its sophisticated sword-fight choreography, sublime camerawork, Mifune’s outstanding lead performance, and a good dose of black humour. The film was a significant influence on other filmmakers. Sergio Leone drew inspiration from Yojimbo for A Fistful Of Dollars, and its influence can also be seen in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
Ahead of the screening on Friday 27 June at 19:30, film critic Hugo Emmerzael will be joining us at Lumière for a lecture on Yojimbo (in Dutch). This talk is part of the series In Focus: Akira Kurosawa, in which we bring a selection of beautifully restored films by one of the greatest directors of all time back to the big screen.