Yojimbo

Wednesday, April 16, 2008


Bonafide badass.

After the disappointment and disinterest I felt watching The Birds, this one picked my spirits right up. I'm gonna go ahead and say that this has become my favorite Kurosawa film (and it's got me stoked to see more), and not because of the beauty of it's images or the depth of emotions, but because it is one holy shit hot damn entertaining film. I might need to get myself a copy at some point.

Of course, A Fistful of Dollars was an unofficial remake of this, and I like it quite a bit, but this one is way better. This one is an action movie masterpiece. It came 3 years earlier, but it feels way more advanced, clever, fresh and funny. I'm thinking maybe Leone got better by exploring his own ideas, rather than rehashing what Kurosawa did here.

The best part of Yojimbo is its hero, a samurai who wanders aimlessly into a small town and decides, just for the hell of it, that he's going to completely destroy the two rival gans that control the town, all by himself. And the movie is all about the kind of crazy shenigans he pulls in order to escalate the gang war and get everyone to kill each other off. Like at one part, he runs into a house and kills 6 gang members in about 30 seconds. Then, after they are all dead, he trashes the place. When their companions show up, he says that he found them all their dead, and that the place is so badly damaged that it must have been the work of at least 15 or 16 men. What a badass.

So, this one has a sequel called Sanjuro, and you can bet I'll be watching it soon.