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DVD Yojimbo - Criterion Collection
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
After watching Akira Kurosawa's magnificent "Seven Samurai", I was hungry for more. So when I received another Kurosawa classic, "Yojimbo", as a birthday gift, I watched it as soon as I could.
The film is about a wandering samurai, played by Toshiro Mifune, who comes to a small town plagued by wars between two rival gangs. The samurai - who calls himself "Sanjuro Kuwabatake", though he admits that it's not his true name - decides to pit the gangs each other. In doing so, he hopes to free the town from the constant battles of the two gangs.
Toshiro Mifune is, as always, spectacular. I'd say that he is without a doubt the greatest Japanese actor who ever lived. He gives another wonderful performance as a gruff, clever samurai.
Akira Kurosawa's directing is fantastic (isn't it always?). If I doubted that he was a master after watching "Seven Samurai" (which I didn't), this would have cleared it up. He has an unrivaled talent for cinematic storytelling. Truly a brilliant director.
Another part of the film which I loved was the music. Masaru Sato's score is really perfect. It really added to my enjoyment of the film.
This movie is brilliantly directed, memorably acted, and beautifully photographed. I thought it was interesting to see how similar this really was to "A Fistful of Dollars" (which was a remake of this movie). There really is little difference, though "Yojimbo" is far superior to "Fistful".
"Yojimbo" is an outstanding film, an undisputed masterpiece, and without a doubt one of the finest films ever made. I look forward to watching more of Kurosawa's films, and I will definitely check out the sequel to this movie, "Sanjuro".
Yojimbo (1961) - Akira Kurosawa
Yojimbo is both an influential film and an incredible mess. Kurosawa never finds the right balance between the comedic and violent moments in the film. The cinematography is nice, but the film is often too contained indoors. The performances from some of his usual collaborators is good, but the film just doesn't live up to it's lofty reputation. The pace of the film is slow, and you never become emotionally invovled with the charcaters to really care what happens to them. Kurosawa is a great filmmaker, and has made much better films like High and Low (1963). And like High and Low, Kurosawa is his best when working in contemporary times.
"The gate to Hell...I'll be waiting there for you."
This was only my third Kurosawa film I have ever seen but I am quickly becoming a fan. I can't wait to see and study more!
Toshiro Mifune (who I'm learning has a massive screen presence) is a master less samurai who enters into a small village looking for work as a bodyguard. He quickly realizes that the town is paralyzed due to constant fighting between two bosses and their hired men. Neither side is deserving of the gift of life so Toshiro uses his cunning to accelerate their destruction of each other.
Not a lot of action, compared to say THE SWORD OF DOOM, but the story was exciting enough. I was also intrigued by Kurosawa's style. I'm not smart enough to put it into words but there is something so beautiful about his films that you want to see more and more. And I do!
I wish the DVD had an audio commentary, very disappointing.
Produced with assistance from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Dreams is an omnibus of eight short stories and parables that spell enchantment at every turn. The opening story, "Sun Under the Rain," emerges from director Akira Kurosawa's personal memories, as a child (whose house is modeled after Kurosawa's childhood home in Koishikawa) witnesses a fox's wedding ceremony in a magical forest. The Garden of Eden motif continues in "The Peach Orchard," while Lucas's ILM special effects group shines in the glorious "Crows" segment, in which an art admirer finds himself living within the paintings of Van Gogh (played with concentrated energy by Kurosawa enthusiast Martin Scorsese). In the idyllic closing fable, "The Village of the Watermills," a centenarian claims that "people... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Akira Terao - Mitsuko Baisho Director(s): Ishirô Honda - Akira Kurosawa DVD Release Date: Released the 18 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A Fistful of Dollars launched the spaghetti Western and catapulted Clint Eastwood to stardom. Based on Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai picture Yojimbo, it scored a resounding success (in Italy in 1964 and the U.S. in 1967), as did its sequels, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The advertising campaign promoted Eastwood's character--laconic, amoral, dangerous--as the Man with No Name (though in the film he's clearly referred to as Joe), and audiences loved the movie's refreshing new take on the Western genre. Gone are the pieties about making the streets safe for women and children. Instead it's every man for himself. Striking, too, was a new emphasis on violence, with stylized, almost balletic gunfights and baroque touches such as... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Clint Eastwood - Gian Maria Volonté Director(s): Sergio Leone DVD Release Date: Released the 19 June 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's a good film and everything, but would i ever watch this again? After many positive reviews, i decided to buy this and add it to my samurai film collection(which includes Seven Samurai, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Ran, Kagemusha, Shogun's Samurai, Shogun Assassin, Sword of Doom, Shogun's Ninja, a Sword of Vengeance and Zatoichi film or two, etc). I liked the movie, was caught up in the story and characters enough, and the ending had a good pay-off with an extended fight that was well done(great to see so many characters involved in such a desperate battle to accomplish their mission).
But here's the problem, that was the ONLY major fight/action sequence in the entire (lengthy)film. Plus, once you get the 'twist' in the story line(which is pretty easy to figure out), and you... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Kihachi Okamoto DVD Release Date: Released the 08 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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At three brief hours, La Dolce Vita, a piece of cynical, engrossing social commentary, stands as Federico Fellini's timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticizes finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Marcello Mastroianni - Anita Ekberg Director(s): Federico Fellini DVD Release Date: Released the 21 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The collision of Japan's two most famous cinematic swordsmen--Shintarô Katsu's blind masseur, gambler, and rascally hero Ichi and Toshiro Mifune's unnamed wandering mercenary and scruffy antihero who goes by the appellation Yojimbo (which means, simply, bodyguard)--makes this one of the most riveting chapters in Zatoichi's long-running saga. Not quite friends and not really enemies, the rival swordsmen meet in a once-peaceful village caught between rival gangs, a swarm of government spies, and a fortune in stolen gold. Director Kihachi Okamoto gives Yojimbo a marvelous ambiguity that Mifune invests with a grubby sense of honor, whether growling and drinking and stirring things up or fearlessly strolling through the climactic gang war, dispatching attackers with a swipe and a grimace.... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Kihachi Okamoto DVD Release Date: Released the 23 November 1999 Usually ships within 24 hours
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