| Yojimbo | |||||
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 Theatrical release poster | |||||
| Japanese name | |||||
| Kanji | 用心棒 | ||||
| Literal meaning | Bodyguard | ||||
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa | ||||
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Akira Kurosawa | ||||
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |||||
| Cinematography | Kazuo Miyagawa[1] | ||||
| Edited by | Akira Kurosawa[1] | ||||
| Music by | Masaru Sato[1] | ||||
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Toho[1] | ||||
Release date |
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Running time | 110 minutes[1] | ||||
| Country | Japan | ||||
| Language | Japanese | ||||
| Budget | ¥90.87 million (US$631,000)[2] | ||||
| Box office | $2.5 million (est.) | ||||
Yojimbo (Japanese:用心棒,Hepburn:Yōjinbō;lit.Bodyguard) is a 1961 Japanesejidaigeki film directed byAkira Kurosawa, who also co-wrote the screenplay and was one of the producers. The film starsToshiro Mifune,Tatsuya Nakadai,Yoko Tsukasa,Isuzu Yamada,Daisuke Katō,Takashi Shimura,Kamatari Fujiwara, andAtsushi Watanabe. In the film, arōnin arrives in a small town where competing crime lords fight for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard.
Based on the success ofYojimbo, Kurosawa's next film,Sanjuro (1962), was altered to incorporate the lead character of this film.[3][4] In both films, the character wears a rather dilapidated dark kimono bearing the same familymon.[a]
The film was released and produced byToho on April 25, 1961.Yojimbo received highly positive reviews, and, over the years, became widely regarded as one of the best films by Kurosawa. The film grossed an estimated US$2.5 million worldwide with a budget of ¥90.87 million ($631,000). Its story wasplagiarized bySergio Leone in hisSpaghetti WesternA Fistful of Dollars (1964),[5] leading to a lawsuit by Toho.
In 1860, during thefinal years of theEdo period, arōnin wanders through a desolate countryside. Stopping at a farmhouse for water, he overhears an elderly couple lamenting that their only son has run off to join the "gamblers" in a nearby town, which is overrun with criminals and contested by two rivalyakuza gangs.
In the town, the rōnin stops at a smallizakaya (tavern). The owner Gonji advises the rōnin to leave, and tells him that the two warring bosses, Ushitora and Seibei, are fighting over the lucrative gambling trade run by Seibei. Ushitora had been Seibei's right-hand man until Seibei decided that his successor would be his son Yoichiro, a useless youth. The town's mayor, a silk merchant named Tazaemon, had long been in Seibei's pocket, so Ushitora aligned himself with the localsake brewer, Tokuemon, proclaiming him the new mayor.
After sizing up the situation and recognizing that no one in town cares about ending the violence, the rōnin says he intends to stay, as the town would be better off with both sides dead. He convinces the weaker Seibei to hire his services by effortlessly killing three of Ushitora's men. When asked his name, he sees amulberry field and states his name is Kuwabatake ("mulberry field") Sanjuro ("thirty-years-old") (桑畑三十郎).[b]
Seibei decides that with the rōnin's help, it is time to deal with Ushitora. Sanjuro eavesdrops on Seibei's wife, who orders Yoichiro to prove himself by killing the rōnin after the upcoming raid, saving them from having to pay him. Sanjuro leads the attack on Ushitora's faction, but then "resigns" over Seibei's treachery, expecting both sides to massacre each other. His plan is foiled due to the unexpected arrival of abugyō (a government official), which prompts both Seibei and Ushitora to make a bloodless retreat.
Thebugyō leaves soon after to investigate the assassination of a fellow official in another town. Overhearing the assassins discussing the hit in Gonji's tavern, Sanjuro later captures them and sells them to Seibei. Then he comes to Ushitora and tells him Seibei's men caught the assassins. Alarmed, Ushitora generously rewards Sanjuro for his "help" and kidnaps Yoichiro to exchange for the two assassins. At the swap, Ushitora's brother Unosuke kills the assassins with a pistol.
Anticipating this, Seibei reveals he had ordered the kidnapping of Tokuemon's mistress. The next morning, she is exchanged for Yoichiro. Sanjuro learns that the mistress, Nui, is a local farmer's wife. After he sold her to Ushitora to settle a gambling debt, Ushitora gave her to Tokuemon aschattel to gain his support. After tricking Ushitora into revealing where Nui is held, Sanjuro kills the guards and reunites the woman with her husband and son, ordering them to leave town immediately. He comes to Ushitora and informs him that Seibei is responsible for killing his men.
The gang war escalates, with Ushitora burning down Tazaemon's silk warehouse and Seibei retaliating by trashing Tokuemon's brewery. After some time, Unosuke becomes suspicious of Sanjuro and the circumstances surrounding Nui's escape, eventually uncovering evidence of the rōnin's betrayal. Sanjuro is severely beaten and imprisoned by Ushitora's thugs, who torture him to find out Nui's whereabouts. When Ushitora decides to eliminate Seibei once and for all, Sanjuro escapes. Smuggled out of town in a coffin by Gonji, Sanjuro witnesses the brutal end of Seibei and his family. He then recuperates in a small temple near a cemetery.
Upon learning that Gonji has been captured by Ushitora, Sanjuro returns to town and dispatches Ushitora, Unosuke, and their gang in a final confrontation. He spares a terrified young man, the son of the elderly couple from the opening, and sends him back to his parents. As Sanjuro surveys the damage, a now deranged Tazaemon comes out of his home in a samurai outfit and stabs Tokuemon to death. Sanjuro frees Gonji, proclaims that the town will be quiet from then on, and departs.
Kurosawa stated that a major source for the plot was the 1942film noir classicThe Glass Key, an adaptation ofDashiell Hammett's 1931novel of the same name. It has been noted that the overall plot ofYojimbo is closer to that of another Hammett novel,Red Harvest (1929).[6] Kurosawa scholar David Desser, and film criticManny Farber claim thatRed Harvest was the inspiration for the film; however,Donald Richie and other scholars believe the similarities are coincidental.[7]
When asked his name, the samurai calls himself "Kuwabatake Sanjuro", which he seems to make up while looking at amulberry field by the town. Thus, the character can be viewed as an early example of the "Man with No Name" (other examples of which appear in several earlier works, includingRed Harvest).[8]
Many of the actors inYojimbo worked with Kurosawa before and after, especiallyToshiro Mifune,Takashi Shimura andTatsuya Nakadai.[9]
After Kurosawa scolded Mifune for arriving late to the set one morning, Mifune made it a point to be ready on set at 6:00 a.m. every day in full makeup and costume for the rest of the film's shooting schedule.[10]
This was the second film where director Akira Kurosawa worked with cinematographerKazuo Miyagawa (the first beingRashomon in 1950).[11]The sword instruction and choreography for the film were done byYoshio Sugino of theTenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū and Ryū Kuze.[12]
The soundtrack for the film has received positive reviews.Michael Wood writing retrospectively for theLondon Review of Books found the film's soundtrack byMasaru Sato as effective in its 'jaunty and jangling' approach stating:[13]
The film is full of music, for instance, a loud, witty soundtrack by Masaru Sato, who said his main influence was Henry Mancini. It doesn’t sound like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, though, or Days of Wine and Roses. The blaring Latin sound of Touch of Evil comes closer, but actually you wouldn’t think of Mancini if you hadn’t been told. Sato’s effect has lots of drums, mixes traditional Japanese flutes and other instruments with American big band noises, and feels jaunty and jangling throughout, discreetly off, as if half the band was playing in the wrong key. It’s distracting at first, then you realise it’s not decoration, it’s commentary. It’s a companion to Sanjuro, the sound of his mind, discordant and undefeated and unserious, even when he’s grubby and silent and apparently solemn.[13]
Yojimbo was released in Japan on 25 April 1961.[1] The film was released by Seneca International in both a subtitled and dubbed format in the United States in September 1961.[1]
Yojimbo wasJapan's fourth highest-grossing film of 1961, earning adistribution rental income of¥351 million.[14] This was equivalent to estimatedbox office gross receipts of approximately¥659 million[15] ($1.83 million).[16]
Overseas, the film had a September 1961 release inNorth America, but the box office income of this release is currently unknown.[17] At the 2002 Kurosawa & Mifune Festival in the United States, the film grossed $561,692.[18] In South Korea, a 2012 re-release grossed₩1.566 million[19] ($1,390).
In Europe, a January 1991 limited French re-release sold 14,178 tickets,[20] equivalent to an estimated gross revenue of approximately€63,801[21] ($87,934).[22] Other limited European re-releases sold 3,392 tickets between 2000 and 2018,[23] equivalent to an estimated gross revenue of at least€18,995[21] ($27,938). This adds up to an estimated$678,950 grossed overseas, and an estimated$2,508,950 grossed worldwide.
Adjusted for ticket price inflation, at 2012 Japanese ticket prices, its Japanese gross receipts are equivalent to an estimated¥9.75 billion[15] ($122 million), or$167 millionadjusted for inflation in 2024. The overseas gross revenue of North American and European re-releases since 1991 are equivalent to approximately$1.6 million adjusted for inflation, adding up to an estimated inflation-adjusted total gross of over$137 million worldwide.
Yojimbo was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Costume Design at the34th Academy Awards. Toshiro Mifune won theVolpi Cup for Best Actor at the22nd Venice Film Festival.
A 1968 screening in the planned community ofColumbia, Maryland was considered too violent for viewers, causing the hosts to hide in the bathroom to avoid the audience.[24]
Pauline Kael described the film as Kurosawa's "first shaggy man" movie[25] going on to call it a wonderful satire-comedy and "farce of force."
In a retrospective look at the filmMichael Wood writing for theLondon Review of Books found the film to span several genres and compared it to other western and samurai films from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, such asSeven Samurai,A Fistful of Dollars,High Noon,The Outlaw Josey Wales, andRashomon, stating, "(The film contains) comedy, satire, folk tale, action movie, Western, samurai film, and something like a musical without songs. As everyone says, this work is not as deep asRashomon or as immediately memorable asSeven Samurai. But it is funnier than any Western from either side of the world, and its only competition, in a bleaker mode, would be Clint Eastwood’sThe Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)."[13] In 2009 the film was voted at No. 23 on the list ofThe Greatest Japanese Films of All Time by Japanese film magazineKinema Junpo.[26]Yojimbo was also ranked at #95 inEmpire magazine's list of the500 Greatest Films of All Time.[27]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 96% of 50 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 9/10. The website's consensus reads: "As effortlessly engaging as it is widely influential,Yojimbo represents Kurosawa at the peak of his powers -- and lays the groundwork for the modern American western."[28]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 93 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[29]
In 1962, Kurosawa directedSanjuro, originally intended to be a straight adaptation ofShūgorō Yamamoto's short storyHibi Heian (日日平安; lit. "Peaceful Days"), but was reworked to include Mifune and his character following the success ofYojimbo.[3]
In both films, he takes his surname from the plants he happens to be looking at when asked his name: inYojimbo it is the mulberry trees that feed the town's silkworms, and inSanjuro it is camellia bushes used to make tea.[30]
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Both in Japan and in the West,Yojimbo has influenced various forms of entertainment.
Yojimbo has beenremade several times, starting withA Fistful of Dollars (1964), aWestern directed bySergio Leone and starringClint Eastwood in his first appearance as theMan with No Name.[31] Leone and his production company failed to secure the remake rights to Kurosawa's film, resulting in a lawsuit. It was settled out of court for an undisclosed agreement before the U.S. release.[32] A second, looser western adaptation,Django (1966), was directed bySergio Corbucci and featuredFranco Nero inthe title role.[33][34][35] Other retellings includeThe Warrior and the Sorceress (1984), asword and sorcery take,[36] andInferno (1999, akaDesert Heat).[37]Last Man Standing (1996), aProhibition-eraaction film directed byWalter Hill and starringBruce Willis, is an official remake ofYojimbo: both Kikushima and Kurosawa specifically listed in this movie's credits as having provided the original story.[38]
The filmZatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970) features Mifune as a somewhat similar character. It is the twentieth of a series of movies featuring the blind swordsmanZatoichi. Although Mifune is clearly not playing the same "Yojimbo"[39] as he did in the two Kurosawa films (his name is Sasa Daisaku佐々大作, and his personality and background are different in many key respects), the movie's title and some of its content do intend to suggest the image of the two iconicjidaigeki characters confronting each other.[citation needed]Incident at Blood Pass (1970), made the same year, stars Mifune as a rōnin who looks and acts even more similarly to Sanjuro and is referred to simply as "Yojimbo"[39] throughout the film, but whose name is Shinogi Tōzaburō.[40] As was the case withSanjuro, this character's surname ofShinogi (鎬) is not an actual proper family name, but rather a term that means "ridges on a blade".[41]
Outside of remakes, several other films and other works have been inspired by the basic premise of an outsider joining a criminal group to defeat them from within. James Bond screenwriterMichael G. Wilson compared the story ofLicence to Kill (1989) toYojimbo, as both feature their leads "without any attacking of the villain or its cohorts, only sowing the seeds of distrust, he manages to have the villain bring himself down".[42] ScreenwriterLawrence Kasdan stated that his inspiration forThe Bodyguard (1992) was "Yojimbo withSteve McQueen as the lead."[43]Nancy A. Collins's novelA Dozen Black Roses (1996), the fourth book in her series about vampire killer Sonja Blue, is a retelling ofYojimbo featuring warring vampire clans with Blue taking the role of protagonist.[citation needed] After the writers of season one ofBarry (2018) discovered they had "kinda just didYojimbo," they added an acknowledgement of the similarity in the show itself.[44]
Other works that pay narrative and visual homage toYojimbo includeStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977),[45]Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017),[46]Samurai Jack (2002)[47] andUsagi Yojimbo.[citation needed]
Mifune's character became the model forJohn Belushi'sSamurai Futaba character onSaturday Night Live.[48]Roger Clark citedYojimbo as an inspiration for his portrayal ofArthur Morgan inRed Dead Redemption 2.[49]
One day Kurosawa said, 'I won't mention names, but the actors are late.' I said. 'What are you talking about? I'm the actor.' Every day after that, when Kurosawa arrived, I would be there already, in costume and makeup from 6 a.m. I showed him.
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