Yojimbo – Der Leibwächter (1961)

Yojimbo – Der Leibwächter: Directed by Akira Kurosawa. With Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada. A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.

“After a string of classic masterpieces, Kurosawa confronted his influences head-on. Throwing John Fordu0026#39;s Western aesthetics into a blender and painting them pitch black. The results are Yojimbo and its legacy.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYojimbo (u0026quot;the bodyguardu0026quot;) is the tale of a flea-ridden wandering swordsman, Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune, in his finest performance). He arrives at a gang-war ravaged town and starts hiring himself out to both sides, playing them off against another, in order to wipe all the scum out. Sound familiar?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEven though Yojimbo the film is a thrilling ride and very funny dark comedy, it is hard to imagine what a bombshell this was for audiences at the time of its release. It is as far removed as can be from the then squeaky-clean aesthetic of samurai films: you can almost smell the sweat and the grime of the sordid town and characters. The action is fast and furious, enhanced by Kurosawau0026#39;s deft use of telephoto lenses and Masaru Satou0026#39;s avant-garde score. With all that, Yojimbo was a massive kick in the pants of a fossilized genre.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt exploded beyond the confines of its own country and genre, forever influencing the very Westerns that had inspired it, particularly a new wave out of Spain and Italy at the time. One Sergio Leone copy/pasted the whole plot into his own revisionist Western and gave us the Dollars trilogy. The slightest of Spaghetti Western enthusiasts owes Kurosawa a debt of gratitude.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs with all truly great work, its greatness exists even devoid of context, and for all the historical precedents it set, all Kurosawa wanted to make was an entertaining film. That he bloody well succeeded is the least you can say about Yojimbo.”