Filmmaker reacts to Yojimbo (1961) for the FIRST TIME! 

Now look into the life of Miyamoto Musashi, one of the most well-respected samurai of all time. At least 61 duels won, and quoted as saying "Use your head, or someone else will".

Yojimbo is possibly my favourite film of all. First, it's just a masterpiece. Second, Mifune is incredible.

It's quite interesting how the Japanese Cinema had been inspired by the very old western movies. IIRC Kurosawa's brother was a Narrator for silent movies, and so he got to see all those westerns with the dusty plains, the stoic heroes and the gangs of bandits. He used those elements and his own understanding of Samurai culture, to create something spectacular. And then it went back to the west, and inspired a generation of filmmakers (like G. Lucas and S. Leone). Truly some cultural cross-pollination at work.

You definitely need to watch the sequel, Sanjuro. It's just as good as Yojimbo, but deals with a lot of different themes. Also Mifune is just as funny in that one too.

Always a pleasure to watch someone appreciate the film-making and art of Kurosawa😊

Yes!!!! More Kurosawa!!! Hope you’re well James, I do recommend the Samurai Trilogy by Hiroshi Inagaki. Here is the Google description “starring Toshiro Mifune as Musashi Miyamoto and Kōji Tsuruta as Kojirō Sasaki. The films are based on Musashi, a novel by Eiji Yoshikawa about the famous duelist and author of The Book of Five Rings.”

Before seeing this I saw the Great Sergio Leoni's Fistful of Dollars. Great story am sure many of you have heard. Kurosawa saw the film and sued as it was an unattributed remake of this (Yojimbo). Leone received a letter from Kurosawa that said: I saw your film. It is a very good film. but it is my story. Leone said he was so delighted to read "it was a good film" from Kurosawa that he framed the letter and claimed he was happier losing all rights just for that letter

Sanjuro is almost a slang meaning a guy in his 30's. He'll pair it with the first thing he sees, Sanjuro Cherryblossoms for example. Essentially he has no name. The sequel is sometimes overlooked but I think it is a great sequel with a much more deeper meaning about life.

It's interesting that you say its the closest thing to Vagabond we'll ever get. There's a trilogy called "Samurai" from 1954 starring this very actor, Toshiro Mifune, who plays Musashi Miyamoto, the main protagonist of Vagabond.

All of Kurosawa's movies have inspired multiple movies. Yojimbo led to A Fistful of Dollars, Django, The Warrior and the Sorceress, and Last Man Standing.

BTW it's pronounced yo-jim-bo (jim like the name Jim, no English diphthongs on the o:s) with no Spanish jota sound. ;)

Nothing like getting jumped by people wielding swords and pistols. Want to vote on what I should watch next? Click here! www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema Have a great day!

It is such a joy to see you discover and appreciate these iconic movies and I am looking forward to your next Kurosawa reaction. It is so interesting that that quality you commented the most on, his (graphical) compositions, also kind of led him to having to recalibrate himself to the use of color. With spectacular result as you have seen in Ran.

Toshiro Mifune is the ultimate leading actor

There are also 2 sequels to this movie: Sanjuro, and Zatoichi meets Yojimbo. Zatoichi is a characher with his own long list of movies, a tv show and a reboot where Beat Takeshi, who played the bad guy teacher in Battle Royale, plays Zatoichi.

One of my favorites from Kurosawa! Toshiro Mifune plays such a cool character 😊

7:57 We all know Lucas based Star Wars on the Hidden Fortress, I can't help thinking the Cantina scene was based on this.

I also love Kurosawa and Mifune's follow-up... SANJURO. Not quite as amazing as YOJIMBO, but a lot of fun!

Loved Seven Samurai, but Yojimbo will ALWAYS be my favorite Kurosawa film, and one of my favorite films of all time.

Hey man, so glad you're reacting to such a legendary movie like this. Toshiro Mifune is such a badass in this!😎

YES! Kurosawa's other films are, in terms of film history, more iconic in many ways as great films, but this one is just my personal favorite and most enjoyable to watch, where Mifune's just a straight wily lone wolf antihero. And you should absolutely watch Sanjuro later.

One of my all time favorites. Possibly on my list of perfect movies.

I remembered watching Yojimbo and 7 Samurai on PBS. My local PBS station had a little carnival to pay for the rights to show them four times over a week. This was in the early 80's.

One of my all-time favourite movies together with Seven Samurai and Sanjuro. Happy you finally got around to seeing it. And now you know where Sergio Leone got his A Fistful of Dollars from, lawsuit and all. :)

Yes! James, you literally just made my day. And here just last week I was wondering if you'd get back to Kurosawa. I love that you're doing these. Can't wait until you get to the Seven Samurai. Kurosawa is, oddly, a master of character storytelling, but through the visuals... i still struggle with understanding it, and how it moves me, to this day. Cheers.

There's also "the Samurai Trilogy"! Frelling amazing!

I recommend Sanjuro, the sequel to Yojimbo. Really good film as well. Though Yojimbo is undoubtetly better as a film and is more ambitious of the two, I personally kind of prefer Sanjuro as it's a little more concise for my tastes.

Fantastic piece of cinema. Absolute treasure.

Apart from A Fist Full Of Dollars, this has also been filmed as Last Man Standing , staring Bruce Willis set in 1920's or 30s.

The opening of this movie was used for inspiration in the Samurai Jack Episode "Jack and the Zombies." Jack is walking down a lonesome road when he comes to a fork. He picks up a stick, throws it up in the air, and the evil that is Aku sees this happen, and uses his magic to direct which direction the stick points. Jack, unaware of Aku's influence, follows the the stick to a haunted graveyard, where he ends up battling all manner of terrible undead, and ultimately Aku himself. It also references legendary director Sam Raimi, and the "Evil Dead" series. The witch screaming "I will swallow/eat your soul!"

This film is so good. If you want a contrast comparison try watching Bruce Willis' Last Man Standing, which is hollywoods version of this.

Only one man, Mifune, could be so badass as to be the origin of both Clint Eastwood's entire career AND Obi Wan Kenobi

Yeeeesssss Kurasawa love! Thank you for representing the old masterpieces

I highly highly recommend Masaki Kobayashi’s film Harakiri, and I get a lot of people recommend Kurosawa, but Kobayashi has a similar background as far as filmmaking, photography, and painting goes. It’s a 1962 film that’s a slow burn of dialogue and near the end you’re just, “Yooooooo!” and the film is a critique on bushido and the “honor code” the house Iyi follows. It stars Tatsuya Nakadai (he’s the big bad gun wielding brother in Yojimbo) and is just a phenomenal actor just like Toshiro Mifune, and Nakadai is still alive today. The tension is phenomenal in that film and the screenplay was written by Shinobu Hashimoto who also wrote Rashomon and Seven Samurai, so I highly highly recommend this film as Masaki Kobayashi deserves plenty of attention as well when it comes to being a director plus learning about his background on being against Japanese imperialism even when he was drafted just speaks volumes. Kobayashi is more well known for the film anthology Kwaidan (Different inspired folktales in Japan from a book that was written by a man born in Greece; Lafcadio Hearn went to the U.S. and then settled in Japan later in life then made a book from the folktales he’d gather) that would inspire Guillermo del Toro. Where do I donate for this to happen? 😆 I feel that strongly especially since Nakadai is still acting in stage plays and movies to this day.

You REALLY gotta get to Sanjuro soon as well! Personally I prefer it to this, but they're both amazing films!

This movie was the archetype for countless action movies.

I’m excited whenever you get a chance to watch Throne of Blood. That film is incredible.

Any Kurasawa is worth a watch. I hope you will get to his Shakespeare adaptations eventually.

Awesome, now you should watch the spiritual successor, Sanjuro. Sanjuro also has the scene that changed action film and anime forever, see if you can spot it. Another great film, god, and you can't pass up Red Beard. Kurosawa was the master. I would also suggest you read the Hagakure so you get a deeper understanding of the symbolism in Kurosawa Samurai films. There's so much you're missing if you aren't familiar with Bushido. Also, Sergio Leones Fistful of Dollars is a remake of this film.

Yojimbo's alignment is def Chaotic Good :)

Kurosawa & Mifune did an excellent modern tale, High and Low (1963). Highly recommend it!

In the best way possible, there's almost a feeling of self-indulgence with the insanely good shot composition Kurosawa can get. It'd be perfectly acceptable to have a shot/reverse shot for dialogue scenes, but why not have all three characters separate in the same frame talking with each other?

If you like these kinds of compositions & techniques, you would love the films of Yasujiro Ozu. Tokyo story & Late Spring are a couple good entry films. Similar to here he puts a lot of detail in the frame & almost never moves the camera. But he also withholds info intentionally, drawing you in & forcing you to fill in the blanks.

Now I understand how Paul Verhoeven quoted the Sashimi part in his film, RoboCop (1987).

Samurai Fiction !!!! More Kurosawa ! More Wong Kar Wai ! More Park Chan-wook ! More asian cinema !!!

Hey, James! "Yojimbo" is inspired by Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel "Red Harvest". "Yojimbo" was then remade as: -- "A Fistful of Dollars" in 1964 by Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood -- "Django" in 1966 by Sergio Corbucci starring Franco Nero -- "The Warrior and the Sorceress" in 1984 produced by Roger Corman starring David Carradine -- "Last Man Standing" in 1996 by Walter Hill starring Bruce Willis Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura star in almost all of Kurosawa's films. "Sanjuro" is the sequel.

I've been trying to get people into these movies.. I loved them. Seven Samurai was GREAT! I saw it 5 years ago..but I wish I saw it 20 yrs ago.

Other films this inspired (besides A Fist Full of Dollars): Miller's Crossing, Last Man Standing, and Survival of the Dead, to name a few.

It's easy to miss but he says his name is Kuwabatake Sanjuro while looking out over the mulberry fields, and so he claims his name literally is Mullberry Field Thirty-years-old, as good enough an alias as any.

The common kimono of this period was linen, which is a rather tough fabric, so one would have to swing the sword down firmly to kill a person.

Ford -> Kurosawa -> Leone -> Tarantino... Yojimbo: "Two coffins, no - maybe three." Fistful of Dollars: "Get three coffins ready"..."My mistake, four coffins." Yojimbo: "Children shouldn't play with swords. Go home to your mother..." Kill Bill vol 1: "That's what you get for f**king around with Yakuza! Go home to your mother!" Please rewatch Fistful of Dollars while this is fresh in your mind. Not just to see the parallel story, but to see how Leone picked up Kurosawa's baton and applied it back to westerns (Kurosawa had been influenced by John Ford's westerns).

Hey james how are you i hope everything is great much love ✌😁

In Kill Bill, Vol. 1, The Bride utters a similar line to what Sanjuro said to the kid... "This is what you get when you hang around with Yakuza!" (slapping the kid on the butt with the flat edge of her Katana in rhythm with her words) (then, one more hard slap on the butt with the Katana) "Now go home to your Mother!"

Still freshly fresh 💁‍♂️

I'm _really_ looking forward to you watching "The Hidden Fortress"

An underrated element to this movie is Masaru Sato's score. It's just so weird and perfect. Apparently when he was starting the score, Kurosawa told him "I don't care what kind of music you write so long as it's not the stereotypical 'samurai' music" and so Sato decided to emulate Henry Mancini with a big band with lots of saxophones. Shouldn't work and yet it does

Yo-Jeem-Bo. 🙂 Now you've got to check out the sequel "Sanjuro" (Sahn-Joo-Row).

Giant baba plays the giant and he is one of the biggest (in both ways) stars in Japanese wrestling history. I love this film

Can't wait to watch this after work. Kurosawa was a great director

This is my favourite Samurai flick, so good in every way

Reputedly, when Akira Kurosawa saw Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, he sat back in his chair at the end of the screening and said, “A very good film. Where's my 15%?"

As a kid, I always used to think Yojimbo was a western cowboy movie because of that title. Sounded a lot like a texan calling the attention of a cowboy named Jim. "Yo, Jimbo!"😂

The American Western genre would be nothing without Kurosawa's filmography and other great Japanese samurai films

Fun fact, this film inspired a reboot in west which is A Fistful of Dollars (worth watching) and it connects to the Good, The bad, and the Ugly.

Both remakes are worthy in their own right

Hey James i bet you're gonna love aftersun

Sanjuro, Rashomon, and the much less heard of Red Beard are all Kurosawa favs of mine.

THis is one of my favorite films of all time

The period of this film is probably around 1860. In fact, 250 years earlier, guns were the predominant weapon of samurai combat. During the 250-year period of peace after the end of the civil war, guns were strictly regulated and the samurai's weapon of choice was basically the sword.

I forget if you have reacted to the Dollars trilogy yet, from Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood. But if not would highly recommend them after this movie as the first one A fist full of dollars, is honestly from what I hear a bit of a remake of this film.

Thank you for keeping an eye out on the 'real' important movie milestones, James! I must admit: watching movie reactions has become a past time for me in the late years but most of these reactors just seem to be running down the ominous IMDB list or some recent popular movies; there are so many more great story telling movies out there: To mention director Jim Jarmusch and e.g. 'Night on Earth', Robin Williams in 'Bicentennial Man', Joachim Phoenix in 'Her'; the list goes on&on! 🙂

Amazing movie

For frame, composition and static camera you should watch some films by Ozu.

冒頭の３人の会話のシーンから、望遠レンズの使い方が素晴らしい。

Dam I remember seeing this movie with my mother in the 70s.

Toshiro Mifune was such a cool cat. One of my favorite actors of all time.

Looking forward to a comparison when you get around to watching A Fistful of Dollars.

the more time passes the more it like thoses older movies it all about acting the a famose face of effects

Mifune is goated

I bought this on VHS or maybe it was DVD about 20 years ago amazing movie isn’t it absolutely amazing

Once I saw you were doing this one, it went straight to the top of my viewing list, and I really liked your commentary about his scene composition. You are the reason I got into Vagabond, and I just picked up the last 6 volumes.

Later on in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) when Clint Eastwood tells the coffin maker, “get three coffins ready.” “My mistake, 4 coffins.” Totally took that from yojimbo 🤣

The Master is in the house.

YO! HIMBO! Toshiro Mifune is totally a himbo and a zaddie.

You now need to see the year later sequel, Akira Kurosawa's Sanjurō 1962

I've enjoyed your Kurosawa reviews, please be SURE to review at least three of his 'modern' dramas - in order or priority :) - High and Low (Kurosawa's film noir based on a McBain detective novel, pure perfection and is really two stories merging into one) - Ikiru (bring some kleenex you'll need it) and finally 'Stray Dog' (bring some cold drinks cause it is HOT HOT HOT) Keep up the great reviews!

Another to look out for is Dersu Uzala its the only film Kurosawa filmed outside of Japan, a true story about a Goldi Tribesman in Siberia.

The western movie A Fistful of Dollars was an unofficial remake of Yojimbo just like how the western film The Magnificent Seven was the same for Seven Samurai.

"Dreams" is an interesting film. Even off the channel, you should check it out.

Now that you've seen so many classic samurai movies, you gotta check out Forest Whitaker in Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, from 1999.

Yojimbo is very good, Sanjuro, the sequel, is even better. One of my top 10. Kurosawa was able to really dig in and express himself in round two.

Be sure and watch the sequel called Sanjuro.

I've not checked, but I'd be willing to bet Lucas pulled a lot from this film when writing the cantina scenes in Star Wars. I mean, the frenzied camera moves and arm dropping to the ground seems like a pretty deliberate homage.

There are 26 (original) Zatoichi movies. Zatoichi vs Yojimbo is one of the *BEST* ...with Mifune, btw. But ..theres 26 of the damn things. And 100+ hours of a tv show. And ..and ..and .. 😳 😴 Its mostly all great, but its also TOO MUCH!

The best samurai movie ever: "Seppuku" 1962, director Masaki Kobayashi

Check out "Throne of Blood", also a Kurosawa/Toshiro Mifune joint effort. They were the Scorsese/DeNiro of their time.

Since we all love Vagabond, maybe you should do Mifune's Samurai Trilogy which literally telling the story of Miyamoto Musashi.

I recommend throne of blood, its samurai macbeth directed by kurosawa

Stray Dog is a good Kurosawa film to watch in the summer.

You were a topic on 4chan recently James