YOJIMBO & A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS - How The Western Was Changed Forever 

What Most people don't realize is, both films are set in at almost same time period. Yojimbo is set in 1860's, Which was the Final years of Edo Period of Japan. Fistful of Dollars is set in the same time period as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" which is set in American Civil War 1861-1865. That's why the Yojimbo villain was able to have a Revolver.

A fistful of yen: a samurai in the old west

Glad to see I'm not the only insane person who sees Westerns and Samurai movies as the same thing.

I watched Yojimbo for the first time last night, and one of my favorite parts of it were that the lone samurai just picked up a stick, threw it up, and went where it told him to go. By the end he just leaves, and this gave me such a refreshing suggestion of how this was one of many adventures he’d been on, one of many he would go on. It alludes to that if he went the other way, he’d have a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT story he’d stumble upon. His fighting style and personality suit this perfectly as well and I just love that. In many movies and stories in general, there’s always this sense that the hero will ONLY have that ONE adventure in their life to look back on, that one story where they saved the world. The original Star Wars made me feel this way especially, like Luke’s only major adventure took place in that span of time, and though he’d come back for the newer films he hadn’t really done much up to that point. He hadn’t gone on any other major adventures, or met people that he didn’t already have some affiliation with OTHER THAN the newer cast that stars in the new movies. This has always made me feel often sad for these hero’s, like you get the sense that they’re not really gonna get any other significant adventures... and that’s something I found so refreshing about Yojimbo. Which now sounds pretty silly being that it came out YEARS before I was even born, only after the 17 years of my life have I now seen it. Either way, I really want to create a story that has that same feeling... though I just now love this movie for thousands of other reasons and WHY DIDN’T I WATCH THIS FOR SO LONG?!?

If you can measure any filmmaker's success by his influence, Kurosawa should probably be in the top 10. Think about it: No Kurosawa = No Spaghetti westerns No Kurosawa = No hundreds if not thousands of movies inspired by Seven Samurai or Rashomon No Kurosawa = No Star Wars

Walter Hill did his own version of this story with 'Last Man Standing' back in the 90's. It stars Bruce Willis as John Smith, a mysterious gunman that drives into a border town and gets caught between Irish and Italian bootleggers during prohibition. It's not bad, well worth a watch.

Both of these are just so classic. They both have changed cinema history

This was a fantastic exploration of two great film makers! If he has not yet, I hope he explores the similarities between Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress and the first Star Wars.

Matt Draper talking about The Good The Bad and The Ugly? HELL YES PLEASE!!!!!

When Rdr2 meets Ghost of tsushima

This was actually my Master's thesis, also 7 Samurai / Magnificent 7.

I cannot describe in words how much I love both this movies. Movies like this simply cannot be made today. These movies were an expression of pure love of cinema.

As a kid, when these movies came out, the so called critics were trashing the movies and actors. I was stunned by them. Eventually, the foolish critics had to eat crow. Would liked to seen clint Eastwood stay another few months and complete the 4th movie for Sergio Leone. Would have been, Glorious!!!

I’m definitely going to have to rewatch Yojimbo soon. Between this video and Ghosts of Tsushima, I’m feeling the love for Kurosawa. As always great video, glad to see you covering more films!

Brilliant video, Matt. I always enjoy it when you look at classic films like these!

Excellent video, Matt! I’ve never seen these movies. But they seem like they are timeless classics. I’ve always wanted to watch at least one classic western, and this video might just be the push I needed. Great timing too! With Ghost of Tsushima recently coming out. Any interest in playing that game?

Don’t mind me. Just here to help the algorithm.

Hell yeah dude! The crossover and inspiration between the samurai and western genres is my favorite aspect of cinema.

This is a great analysis, thanks, Matt. You made my day!

A RU-vid video dedicated to my two favorite directors? Yes please!

Great video, always thought this but thanks for explaining it so concisely.

Excellent video as always. Whilst I knew that Leone was influenced by Yojimbo, your essay really broadened my understanding of both Leone's and Kurosawa's 'genre' works and their relationship with Western/American hegemony. Well done!

This channel has some of the best video essays

This is your best essay yet man holy god guy knocked it out of the park

Fantastic Video! Great work, Matt. And I love the fact that you mentioned your favourite film of all time... which just happens to be mine too! The Good, the Bad and the Ugly! I have my fingers crossed that you'll do a video on that one too! Keep up the great work and thanks again, mate!

Definitely recommend these movies, along with the following below 👍(All of these are a mix of oldies and modern flicks) ((Also added others from everyone's lovely suggestions in the comments :D -Samurai Films- 13 Assassins Harakiri (Both the original & remake is good, but in different tones) Three Outlaw Samurai Seven Samurai Blade Of The Immortal Lone Wolf & Cub Series The Zatoichi Series The Hidden Fortress Samurai Rebellion -Western Films- Seraphim Falls Unforgiven A Few Dollars More Shane 3:10 To Yuma Once Upon A Time In The West The Outlaw Josey Wales Free State Of Jones The Good The Bad And The Ugly Tombstone Rio Bravo The Searchers The Magnificent Seven (Both are good 🙏) There's some other titles I've probably forgotten, but these are the first that came to mind 👌

Great vid. Insightful

Wow great video essay man!

As much as I love Kurosawa, I am glad to see you provided the original influences, hardboiled novelist Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" and to a lesser extent "The Glass Key" (which is also what Coen Bros' Miller's Crossing is based on). Red Harvest was basically one of Hammett's stories starring the nameless "The Continental Op", a lone operative of the Continental Detective Agency, who took care of his missions with cold, ruthless efficiency without any emotional attachments. You can see that template in both the characters of Sanjuro, as well as The Man with No Name. I highly recommend reading this genre of American crime thrillers to any Samurai and Western fans, specifically novels by Dashiell Hammett and then moving onto Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald who took the genre to artistic heights.

Great video and great films! Keep up the good work!

Awesome. I love your videos.

I love Kurosawa and Leone, thank you ❤️

This channel rules keep up the content

Great video. Makes me want to go back and watch both films.

Yes! Awesome Movies. Yojimbo Masterpiece defines many Masterpieces to come. And Still Inspire Generations to come for others Masterpieces.

I love the scene after Sanjuro meets some of the gang's men after he gets the boss to publicly announce the price he's getting paid. One of the older samurai is unhappy knowing he'll never live up to Sanjuro in the boss's eyes. Before the fight Sanjuro sees him fleeing. They wave at each other, and the samurai smiles and laughs carefree as he leaves. Nothing more really comes from that tale, but I just loved the respect they have of each other, and the pride Sanjuro seems to have seeing a fellow samurai who's finally had enough of these crooks, hitting the open road like himself

Mifunes walking style and shoulder movement are based on the way a wolf walks, Kurosawa told him to walk like a lone wolf when they were making Yojimbo.

Excellent vid

Heh, I could have done with this video when I was in the midst of writing my MA thesis on 'Death, Justice and Vengeance in Shakespearean Tragedy and Sergio Leone Westerns' nearly twenty years ago, yes...?! Great job by the way...

Very well-made video. I had seen Yojimbo a year ago and watched Fistful tonight. Not knowing of the actual connection, I thought, "Hmm. This movie is an awful lot like Yojimbo," and then bang, validated. Feels good to be right.

Superb video

Great video

Do love some samurai movies and old westerns Good video you made

I literally questioned the connection between the two genre's yesterday. This is impeccably timed. 😂

Well done 👏👏👏

The Lone Wolf and cub films always felt similar to westerns to me.

Great video on an interesting subject. I rewatched these two classics back-to-back last year to compare and contrast, and picked up on a little thing you didn't mention in the video. After having killed the first two gang-members (and dismembered a third), Mifune's samurai tells the undertaker to prepare "Two coffins... No, maybe three." While in Dollars, Eastwood's gunslinger first tells the undertaker to make three coffins ready, but after the gunfight corrects himself: "My mistake. FOUR coffins". Killing one more than Mifune's samurai. I think that's was a pretty cocky (but in a good way) of Leone.

Matt, I hate to admit it, but I loved this video. Just fantastic work 🙌

Toshiro mifune man. This man makes Eastwood sounds like child

THE NICEST THING ABOUT ALL OF THIS IS HOW WE CAN ALL JUST TAKE A BACK SEAT AND APPRECIATE IT AND WERE NOT THE ONE ON THE LINE TO MAKING THESE DECISIONS.. THE MUCK.. THAT WE ALL GO THROUGH.. DAY BY DAY.. HAVE WE NOT ALL HAD ENOUGH?

That thumbnail is one of the most badass scenes I’ve ever seen. Is it available somewhere cause I’d love to use it as my desktop background or did you make it yourself?

9:45 Even scratching the beard is ripped off.

Enjoyed this! I'm surprised you didn't bring up another remake of this story: "Last Man Standing" starring Bruce WIllis.

Never thought about it but given Kurosawa's love of wide, deep shots, I bet they'd look great in 3D.

I love Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone!

I love how Samuraii movies have been inspiring Westerns and Sci-Fi movies for the past decades. And, even films in other countries are inspired by the Samuraii and Western genre. A great example is Yoon Jong-bin's "Kundo: Age of the Rampant" (2014), which not only is a homage to Seven Samuraii, but its musical score comes from the Golden Age of Westerns.

Positioning the camera right behind Clint Eastwood's gun as he skilfully shoots the bad guys makes for a very immersive and satisfying experience for us, the audience.

How in the world did you get to use Yojimbo footage? I was trying to do a comparison video of Yojimbo / Fistful of Dollars / Last Man Standing (I'm not even into monetizing) and Toho blocked the Yojimbo portion globally.

Even though I do love both Kurosawa and Leone, Kurosawa’s in a completely different league. The way he composes his shots is nothing short of masterful, with thier incredible depth and dynamic movement.

Cool!

Not gonna lie, I thought this was a Usagi Yojimbo video and clicked on it way too fast before reading the full video title :) Anyway, I'm quite surprised how deep the shared relationship between chanbara & spaghetti westerns were. I'm glad to know more about this. Kinda wished there are more modern Westerns try to tell good, meaningful stories instead of apeing off the old stuff.

"a fine movie, but it was my movie" - akira kurosawa on fistful of dollars

Two example of movies that watching them as a kid made me the film lover I am now!

The Magnificent Seven based on Seven Samurai, and Fistful of Dollars based on Yojimbo. Kurosawa should be a name known to lovers of spaghetti westerns.

I did not know that Kurosawa sued Leone and won 15% of all proceeds of Fistful…. But I’m glad he did! Both are masterworks, but one clearly “borrowed heavily” from the other.

For the plot of the film, the two directors were inspired by an Italian theatrical comedy. Arlecchino servitore di due padroni (Harlequin servant of two masters) by Carlo Goldoni, written by the Venetian author in 1745.

The first western I remember seeing that really blew me away was Once Upon a Time, and when I started watching Kurosawa's movies I remember thinking, these samurai movies are basically the Japanese version of the wild west - except there's also something very 90's hip-hop about them (can't imagine where I got that from..) Was watching Fistful tonight and I was like, oh, this is Yojimbo Thanks for confirming XP

In film studies in college I watched this film yojimbo last year

Matt Draper has never made a bad video Change my mind.

The Story goes, as retelled by Leone himself, that the director made no mistery this was an adaptation of Kurosawa's work in a different setting and he was in the open with everyone who worked on the picture. The production company knew very well it has to acquire rights from Kurosawa (and was instructed to do so according to Leone), but since the movie was for them just another low-budget project, they didn't may be hoping it went unnoticed. Following the unexpected international success it certainly didn't go unnoticed.

Dude, have you ever read Red Harvest? Kurosawa swiped it. Lock, stock and barrel. Right down to the moral ambiguity of the protagonist (who was based on Hammett in real life, when he worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency). Which is why his lawsuit of Leone was so repulsive. Kurosawa got paid for something he stole from Dashiell Hammett to begin with.

The idea of against all odds and the practice of anti hero are the game changers that these flicks contained. They changed the principle direction of western film broader

The underrated Bruce Willis movie "Last Man Standing" is also the same story.

And like that I must watch Yojimbo.

This is, without a doubt, one of your best videos, and one of the best video essays of 2020. Like holy shit, man, you have set the bar way too high here

Yojimbo also has a lot in common with Buchanan Rides Alone, the classic Randolph Scott western.

Do we really know that Kurosawa was criticizing "western influence" with these guns? First of all, he supposedly said that being accosted by American censors on his movie "Stray Dog" was the only time he wished Japan had won World War II. It's also obvious given how much he liked John Ford movies that he was arguably more susceptible to western influence than most Japanese at the time, to the point where they didn't really want to fund his movies.

Has anyone seen "Red Sun"? It was a 1971 western starring Toshiro Mifune and Charles Bronson in which a Japanese Samurai travels to the old west and joins forces with Bronson the gunslinger to take on the bad guys.

Its me or does anyone else wanted for both characters to have a team up film or story were they both are hired for the same job and it like buddy cop film where both guys learn from eachother and grow ro respect the other martial skills and become not quite friends but close enough

Ah yes, my favourite two Legendary Anti-heroes, Yo Jimbo and Man With No Name... This two will never get old to me

13:11 Swan vs. Luther in The Warriors (1979)

I’ve never heard anyone ask “how much do you make” I’m pretty sure that’s known to be bad manners

Toshiro Mifune was so cool in that movie

"Get three coffins ready"

always great matt, this reminds me that i feel that mandalorian has a tone of reference to the work of sergio leone and akira kurosawa

So when Leone does it, it's "inspired by" and "homage to", but when I do it, it's plagiarism? Pfft life ain't fair

Great movies, great analysis. Have you seen Walter Hill’s ‚Last Man Standing‘ with Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken? While it can‘t hold a candle to this masterpieces, I still consider it a guilty pleasure and interesting remake of those movies.

There was one I liked in that Japanese samurai lone Wolf protecting his son and himself ! I have those movies DVDs , his performance is very good 🎬🎥📽️🎞️👏🏆

Is there any service or source that i can watch both movies?

The western and samurai movies are one and the same. Great video review cover more Kurosawa especially throne of blood and seven samurai

When Clint Eastwood first saw Yojimbo not long after its initial release, he told friends that it would make a great western, but no one who have the guts to make it.

I noticed a piece from one of the Trinity movies in the Spaghetti Western montage. While I loved the films, that's like slipping an Austin Powers clip in with James Bond movies. Heck, maybe even Archer.

Sergio Leone se baseou no roteiro de Yojimbo mesclando a história de Servo de dois senhores de Carlo Goldoni, todavia criou um estilo diferente. Tem apenas alguns planos parecidos. Leone revisou os planos do filme de Kurosawa e criou outro estilo de filmar.

Fistful of Draper!

Clint is just the coolest looking cowboy

Little known fact the Walter Hill film last man standing is a gangster film version of yojimbo

And this is how STAR WARS was born. It's nothing more than a western with swords.

Kurosawa changed the jidai-geki Leone changed the western Two genius

This was fantastic

Fun fact: even that Man with No Name smokes, Clint have never smoked.