I love both Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars about equally. But I love Ennio Morricone's score for A Fistful of Dollars the best. So I made this out of curiosity.
Lol. Quentin Tarantino wrote a variation of this line for Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill, Part 1, when she spanks the young Crazy 88 henchman with the flat end of her sword.
1:36 I love the way the smile is wiped off his face by Mifune's courageous march. "I have a gun!" *keeps walking* ... "Ummm, I have a gun??"....*keeps walking* " Shit, this dude means business".... *keeps walking* "i REALLY should have practiced my long distance running when I was younger..."
What I love is that during the whole advance, Toshiro Mifune's face doesn't move a muscle... He shows no emotion whatsoever, so absolutely sure is he that he can beat the thugs, that he doesn't need to show them anything, while as yoou remarked, with each step, the chief thug becomes less and less sure of himself.
In college I took a Japanese film class in which we watched both films simultaneously. Fistful of dollars is pretty much a shot for shot western remake of this movie.
+MrArmystrong85 only thing I can see differently is in FOD the fight is more built up and slow paced and Ramon was the last one to die, here it seems more fast paced and the Ramon character (Unosuke) is killed first.
+MrArmystrong85 i know. this is why i could never give sergio leone his credit due. he did the same thing with the magnificent seven. even though he created the "spaghetti western", i always felt he did it off the back of kurosawa kurosawa was revolutionary and brought upon a style of filmmaking that was emulated very earlier on. even tarantino has emulated him a lot.
+MrArmystrong85 I liked the Bruce Willis remake (Last Man Standing), though it didn't get much attention at the time. Unlike in "A Fistfull of Dollars", due acknowledgement to the Japanese original appeared in the credits.
I understand that a lot of people look at something like this as a cinematic thing or as a comparison between film from the west and the east but this is something that really, really helped me through a lot of difficulty in my life. Sanjuro's unflinching expression in the face of impossible and overwhelming odds along with Morricone's music that I've always associated through my childhood with the stoic and lone characters in western movies with Clint Eastwood. I found this video and have always turned to it recently, in times of childish need, i guess. It's reinforced me in a stupid way, so I like it.
In my dream I see something- UNDER the vast blue sky on a magnificent green field, on two opposite corners,two persons are seen approaching.One is on a brown horse,the other is on foot.They are coming closer to each other.The rider is tall,has brown eyes,cigar is held between his lips,his green shawl is wrapped around his necks.The other man is dressed as a traditional oriental with a katana tied to his belt. The two men stood face to face....then.....the man on foot just smiled and walked on.The rider reciprocated too with a smile and then tipped his poncho to another.
As much as I prefer Yojimbo over Fistful, this works really well! That's not to say I don't like Fistful, I do, but Yojimbo is just so much more compelling to me!
How about thinking of a vast dusty,rocky landscape, a horse rider with poncho hat on his head and cigar lit between his lips seen coming forward. At the same time the camera looks at the opposite direction, another man in samurai attire witha katana hanging from his waist walking forward in a slow rhythmic steps. How'd it be ended? What do you think?
They thought Sanjuro will fallback and will be intimidated but he did not. What a great scene. Once he took down the guy with the gun, the rest was too easy for the master swordsman.
I love Sergio Leone's great works, but I also dig into Yojimbo' s original score by Japanese maestro Masaru Sato. A bit Gershwin-like soundtrack, with slight humor, matches better to this masterpiece movie.
absolutely. the score from Yojimbo is genius. not to say that sergio leone and ennio morricone aren't genius, but i do prefer yojimbo to fistful of dollars. i think it still irks me that unlike the magnificent seven & 7 samurai, fistful of dollars doesn't once mention anywhere in the credits that the film is pretty much shot for shot plagiarism of yojimbo, and even steals lines word for word in some spots (i'm thinking of the "get three coffins ready... no, better make it four." scene.)
@@kameshimayama2195 Korsawa sued Leone and won 20% of international gross of fistful of dollars. Love Leone's work but he acted like a theif with no honour plagiarising Kurosawa's work while giving no credits
Just to let everyone know - the samurai with the pistol is: Tatsuya Nakadai who stared in many films with Kurosawa and was the main actor in: Sword of Doom. Check it out.
Kurosawa had a thing to create more dramatic effect by using natural phenomena like weather (rain, winds, thunderstorms, even blazing sun to emphasize draught or barrenness). His love for landscapes also implied that the scenery was also 'part of the main cast'.
+anlongv the 'thing to create dramatic effect' you're referring to is motion. the reason kurosawa films are so fun to look at is because every shot is full of motion. even when the actors are silent and still, the screen will be full of the motion of the rain or the dust in the wind. it's a big part of what makes kurosawa films so genius.
Correct, the contrast makes up for the stillness, because otherwise the film would be plain and too contrived. It makes a film more natural and realistic.
Here's a fun factoid (which I hope is actually correct) The leader of the gang, the man with the revolver is the same actor who played Lord Hidetora the main character in 'Ran'.
Split screen/ Picture in Picture in Picture: "Fist Full of Yojimbo Standing"... Watch your brain melt. Best 3 identical movies ever. New Oscar: Best Actor in a multigenerational remake: Clint Mifune Willis...
I used this video as inspiration to make one of my beats, mixing japanese sounds with the main theme of A Fistful of Dollars. The connection between spaghetti western and the old classic Samurai movies is so cool.
A living anime doesn't exis... GOD! Seeing the characters, it's like they came directly from an anime. And the Morricone's soundtrack... IT BECAME PERFECT!
There's no anime where the protaginist is a bearded badass, when they try, it's a clean shaven teen who spurts people's blood out trying to impress the audience and nosebleeds when he sees tiddies for the first time. Another reason to hate anime. The lack of manly stuff.
@@oskardirlewanger6083 oh, really? I mean, It's not just the soundtrack, the coolness. The carachters at background look to have come from an anime, likewise.
Maybe someone should mention his name; Akira Kurasawa, since he actually created this movie, and a lot of the best films ever made. One of the greatest directors of all time who was sadly ignored for a long time, in this country, because he was japanese.
God damn, that Mifune versus Nakadai is so cool in every movie at that time. Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Samurai Rebellion. Non versus is cool too - High and Low, Sword of Doom.
Close contact with director Akira Kurosawa! The camera time slipped in July 1984 at the shooting site of the movie "Ran". You can meet a master who gives gentle and polite acting guidance to actors who do not scold other than the assistant director. While attending Kwansei Gakuin University, he collaborated with a video cameraman and director as a filming assistant and audio manager at the production site of "Ran". It was an exclusive independent production with permission from Director Kurosawa. Instead of having to pay the accommodation fee, the making of random production right was granted to the Herald movie at that time, and it is out in the world
To have one of the greatest actors directed in a film by the guy who I think is the greatest film director ever, unbeatable combination. That does not really need a film score. Watching a film by Kurosawa is a master class in directing.
Funny how much of Ennio's music from "Fistful" sounds like it would fit a samurai flick. Not the "mariachi" pieces with the trumpet, of course, but just LISTEN to the last two pieces used in this clip!
Morricone was well aware that the "Fistful" tale had Japanese origins, also it's far from being the only "spaghetti" that is rooted in samurai film influence: check the soundtrack for "Blindman" (basically a retelling of Zatoichi) by Stelvio Cipriani for example.
+kingofkilps which is a manga written by the creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, the greatest samurai epic ever written on paper. This is why I never praise Tarantino like everyone else. Like he thinks he is the greatest filmmaker in the game and he isn't. He thinks his style is the most original but it isn't. I like his style but he has some stinkers too. just don't like when he tries to put down other people's work
The fight scene felt lame and chaotic. Some of the henchmen were fleeing, none seem prepared. It's pretty much how fights happen in real life. Awesome!
