Fresh
Action-packed, highly comic 1961 translation of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.
Don Druker, Chicago Reader
Yojimbo
Kill one or a hundred... you only hang once
1961 · 1h 50m · Not Rated
Drama, Thriller
Directed by
Akira Kurosawa
Overview
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
Director and cast
- Akira Kurosawa Director
- Toshirō Mifune as Sanjuro Kuwabatake / The Samurai
- Tatsuya Nakadai as Unosuke, gunfighter
- Yōko Tsukasa as Nui
- Isuzu Yamada as Orin
- Daisuke Katō as Inokichi
- Seizaburō Kawazu as Seibê - brothel operator
- Takashi Shimura as Tokuemon, sake brewer
- Hiroshi Tachikawa as Yoichiro
- Eijirō Tōno as Gonji, tavern keeper
- Yōsuke Natsuki as Kohei's Son
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
96%
Tomatometer
Fresh
If the plot sounds familiar, it's probably because Leone stole it for A Fistful of Dollars.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Fresh
Even Eastwood's Man With No Name is inspired, perhaps, by the samurai in Yojimbo.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Rotten
Despite the sometime appearance of the whole thing as a forthright travesty, it does have stretches of excitement and cinematic power.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Fresh
It is fair to say that, without Yojimbo, certain key aspects of Western cinema would not be the same today.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
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