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Rating: 8.5 stars

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NWI

All movies seen on 06/20/2011

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Yojimbo (1961)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Action

Most recently watched by sleestakk, jakeneff, leiabox, zombiefreak

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.

Rated NR | Length 110 minutes

Actors

Toshirō Mifune | Tatsuya Nakadai | Yôko Tsukasa | Isuzu Yamada | Daisuke Katô | Seizaburô Kawazu | Takashi Shimura | Hiroshi Tachikawa | Yōsuke Natsuki | Eijirô Tôno | Kamatari Fujiwara | Ikio Sawamura | Atsushi Watanabe | Susumu Fujita | Kyû Sazanka | Kô Nishimura | Takeshi Katô | Ichirô Nakatani | Sachio Sakai | Akira Tani | Namigoro Rashomon | Yoshio Tsuchiya | Gen Shimizu | Jerry Fujio | Yutaka Sada | Shin Ôtomo | Shôichi Hirose | Hideyo Amamoto | Shôji Ôki | Fuminori Ôhashi | Hiroshi Kiyama | Senkichi Ômura | Noriko Honma | Ryusuke Nishio | Naoya Kusakawa | Nadao Kirino | Mitsuo Tsuda | Shinpei Takagi | Jun Ôtomo | Akio Kusama | Yasuzô Ogawa | Hiroshi Takagi | Jun'ichirô Mukai | Takuzô Kumagai | Ichirô Chiba | Haruya Sakamoto | Rinsaku Ogata | Fumio Kogushi | Yoko Terui | Hiromi Mineoka | Michiko Kawa

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

I’m a big fan of Kurosawa, but I’m ashamed to admit that there is a significant portion of his films I haven’t seen. One of those was, until now, Yojimbo. I have no excuses. I knew forever and a day that Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars was wholly based on Yojimbo, and I love A Fistful of Dollars. Like I said, no excuses.

I expected a great movie, and that’s what I got. What I wasn’t prepared for was the amazing score! The music adds so much to this film that I simply could not imagine it without.

Toshiro Mifune is brilliant as the nameless samurai.

This was another Criterion movie that’s expiring on Netflix Instant on 6/21.

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