The movie "Yojimbo" reminded me Hollywood's "A Fistful of Dollars" which was made 3 years after Yojimbo was produced. The movie thoroughly describes the inside of human beings which are filthy and ugly parts of mankind and it was exposed in the film. Seibei's evil madam wife, flattering the inspector, lost wife for gambling, and force their own son to kill people for the money and power over the territory. All these madness contributed for audiences to have a second thought of how we behave in society. I also found director Kurosawa's interesting attempt in the film. Unusual angles of take and facetious music were well mixed in the boring scenes to make them not boring. For example, the camera had long takes with hauling of sticks when the 'time keeper' announced the time and the music was played whenever he delivers message to people. When the protagonist walked into the town, camera was behind of him to take a long take that shows his back and the whole town. Again, there was a scene that restaurant's owner and the protagonist were looking outside through the window but the camera shot from behind of them to show audiences both actors and what is going on outside. I think it was a quite innovative idea to film in that time of period.
Kurosawa Akira's Yojimbo is a period film that focuses on the uneasiness of Japan in the mid 19th century. To survive in this world, you must live selfishly and do everything in your power to continue to live, even if it means committing crimes including murder. Most of the non-important male characters in the film are drifters and criminals who are hired to protect their bosses and die if need be, but their will to live is much greater than their loyalties. No one (besides the ronin) fights face to face. They either attack when their victim is not aware of what is happening before it is too late or in Uno's case, have a vastly superior weapon. The best scene to demonstrate how survival comes first is the failed stand-off between Ushitora's and Seibei's gangs.
The nameless samurai tricks both sides into fighting an all out brawl, which will hopefully get rid of both gangs. After publicly betraying Seibei, the samurai climbs up a structure to watch the bloodshed (he looked like he needed some popcorn). Both sides had their fighters run towards one another, only to quickly retreat. This dance was repeated many times. None of the fighters showed any honor, but rather an individualistic will to live. None of the gangs went within striking range of the other side's weapons, while cowering yet making angry faces to show how 'fierce' they are. The bird's eye view of the fight gave off the feeling of their worthlessness as fighters. We are looking down at them as they pathetically run towards then away from each other, and laugh just as the anonymous samurai does from his high post. The final shot before the announcement of the inspector's arrival is done from the ground up, giving us a clear view of the gangs' frightened faces. No blood was shed, because nobody was prepared to die for their bosses. Survival comes before honor and loyalty.
In the opening scene of Yojimbo, there was a long take of the protagonist’s back. At first, I was wondering why they would create a scene such as this, but it created an effect of the audience following him to the area of conflict. This is much like how he influenced the two gangs, as both see him as a “master” of some sort. Both sides wish to hire him to defeat the opposing gang.
Throughout the movie, the restaurant owner and samurai constantly peeks through the window to spy on the opposing gang, or on the government. For the samurai, he is obviously spying, but for the other characters such as the restaurant owner, they are expressing fear. What was confusing to me was that why did the director choose to shoot the Seibei’s side hiding, when both sides are equally scared of one another. It made sense when Unosuke appeared since he was the only one who carried any firearm, the pistol.
What I found funny in the film was the fire scene behind Unosuke that supported his “evil” character. It looked silly to me because of his odd expression. It felt a bit awkward afterwards since that scene was carried out a bit too long.
Kurasawa Akira's movie "Yojimbo" was an interesting one to say the least. I didn't know how serious this movie was intended to be, but I definitely could not take it seriously. The actors facial expressions were so intense and overdone. I think this movie was more frustrating for me than entertaining. I wanted the samurai to hurry and get captured. Not so that the movie would end, but so that the movie would get better. At least I was hoping that it would improve by the end. I did enjoy the samurai's character and him being a nice guy instead of just a cold-hearted killer. It's interesting to think of killing in the same way as the samurai. I feel that he really just did it to better a town ridden with corruption and unnecessary deaths. I actually really enjoyed the old man who helped the samurai house and how it was used to view the different scenes throughout the movie. It almost looked like it was a prison, but more of a place to keep all that was bad outside. I think the comical elements helped make the film more bearable to watch, but if given the choice I would not want to have to see it again.
"Yojimbo" is probably my favorite film we watched in this class so far. I really felt like it had most elements that movies could have: humor, action, suspense, drama, etc. Like I mentioned in my review of "The Host," I liked the integration of heavy humor with an action genre that typically isn't supposed to be big on humor. The silliness of the warriors, especially Inokichi, was great comic relief. But put the comedy aside, and we were still left with a great action film with a great story dealing with honor in a time saturated with gambling and banditry. Our hero at times seemed like a cold, selfish jerk when he demanded so much money, but in the end he gives the money to help reunite and family and help restore peace into a corrupted town.
I also want to point out some similarities I found between this film and the first film we watched, "Rashomon." In both films, the warriors put up a front of being brave and honorable fighters, but as it turns out they are very cowardly and clumsy (see the battle between the bandit and samurai versus the first failed group battle). It made me wonder if this theme of cowardice in warriors is a theme that is prevalent in many Japanese films. Also, with the exception of Orin, the women in these films are depicted as weak, docile, and pathetic (see the prostitutes and captured wife in "Yojimbo" versus the woman in "Rashomon"). Again, I was left wondering if this theme of weak women is prevalent in Japanese films.
I think the theme of the movie was simply rewarding the good and punish the wicked. A wondering samurai walked in a small village that is ruined by fight between two wicked merchants Seibei and Ushitora. The samurai seemed to be gambling to gain more money for himself but he turns out to be actually a good guy who is willing to give up his money to save a family. He destroys Seibei and Ushitora, and the story ends. The fun in this movie is to watch people with various personalities. People in this movie is not simply good or evil but there are various types of good and evil; for example there are dumb evil, smart evil, coward evil, good who pretends to be evil, and etc. I think certainly the main character was the most charming character in the story. The wondering samurai without a name suddenly decide to bring peace to the village and when it is done just walk away, sounds very cool and awesome but he wasn’t like that in the movie. When he tricks Seibei and Ushitora to fight he seemed to be most wicked in the movie, he was pathetic when he got beat up and locked in the room; to escape he was to hide in a chest and crawl on the ground. I like how the movie shows the hero very human like.
Jin Ah Kim “Yojimbo” by Kurosawa Akira proves and shows that the way of storytelling is an extremely important factor in a film. Like in “Rashomon”, Kurosawa managed to build tension throughout in a small space. “Yojimbo” takes place in a small town (only) but the director still succeeds in building excitement as the story goes on. The existence of mise-en-scene is emphasized due to this factor. For example, the setting for most scenes during the film is not large; most location (and the shots within the area) is limited and restricted yet it is difficult to feel boredom visually. Another interesting factor about “Yojimbo” was the numerous characteristics that reminded me of western (cowboy) movies. For example the main character who may be seen as a ‘heroic’ character wanders around places and that fact that he leaves this small town after everything is over reminded me of the typical ‘wanderer’ characters in the western films. The biggest features that look similar to such films were during the scenes when the fighting took place. The two groups of villains always positioned themselves facing each other in the street of the town. Like these factors, many of the visual features reminded me of western cowboy movies (but interestingly enough, I found out that “Yojimbo” influenced some of the western films later on).
Yojimbo seemed like a mixed genre with the characteristics of a Japanese samurai movie with a dash of old Hollywood westerns. This is probably due to the set in which most of the filming is located on that one particular street. Many of the scenes depicting stand-offs are very much like cowboy stand-offs in wild west movies. Not to mention the cinematography in monochromatic colors also added that western charm, however, that might just be my opinion as Japanese films set in this era are predominately made in black and white. Another thing I wanted to touch upon was the samurai's moral characteristics. If I have it right, samurai's are suppose to uphold a sense of right and wrong along with their honor. To me, our main samurai protagonist doesn't seem to uphold this code very well. Especially when in the majority of the film he is playing both sides, even instigating violence instead of peace. This can be seen in the sequence where the samurai breaks peace talks by bating Ushitora's side with the two men he had given to Seibei that had information on Ushitora. It is only when the samurai finds out that Ushitora had taken this woman who has a family that his "sense of honor" and righteousness appears. This doesn't cut it for me. If he had a sense of right and wrong, he would have ended it with the Edo magistrate there before they were bribed. Instead, the samurai comes off as that lone wild man (like so many protagonist in wild western films) in the end walking away after bringing about peace for the town. Manyi Xu
Kurosawa Akira's Yojimbo is an intense period drama features a super-human samurai figure standing amongst a sea full of cowards. Like Kurosawa's other movie Rashomon, this movie also strips down boastful, bragging, "macho" men into cowards who shake from the weight of their swords. Early in the film, there is a scene where Seibei, the leader of one of the gangs, yells at his main men for being fearful of the other gang. Yet, as he scolds them, his shaking hand clamors against the sake bottle that our hero, nicknamed "Sanjuro," is holding. The film also dedicates a lengthy scene where the cowardice of the two gangs are emphasized. As the calm and collected Sanjuro watches amused from above and between them, almost like a god, the two warring clans wag their swords uselessly in front of them, stepping towards each other only to retreat when the other side is seen approaching. The boastful men behave and speak with excessive crudeness and aggression to compensate for what they lack: courage.
The Sanjuro character himself is reminiscent of many now-worn tropes of the cool lone warrior that fights under his own code. He wanders into town, and his motives seem ambiguous, unmotivated by money or power. He kills, as with the men guarding the woman and to demonstrate his strength, but he does not kill without mercy, as shown in the final scene where he spares the life of a young man. He's smart and manipulative and is able to swindle the gang leaders, but he is almost like a Robin Hood figure because he gives the money away to the family that he rescue, and asks for nothing in return. The ronin follows his own moral code, and is not tied down by greed or power, and he is seen leaving the town as quickly as he came upon it.
Yojimbo, directed by Kurosawa Arika, is an interesting and fun movie to watch. I don’t know if the director intentionally made this movie for laughter or about a serious topic. However, I did notice that this movie seems to have a Western influence. Actually, one of the theme in the movie may have been the East meets the West. For example, there was one showdown between the samurai with the sword and another character with a gun toward the end. Also, throughout the movie, whenever a showdown between the two gangs is about to take place, there would be one person shouting out the time after making some noises. Then, the two gangs would walk out and line up against opposite sides. These scenes remind me of a typical cowboy showdown in Hollywood. In addition, I’ve noticed that whenever someone gets killed, especially by the samurai’s sword, blood does not spatter out and there’s no sign of blood anywhere, even on the sword. When I realized this, I was curious why that was the case. I’m not sure if the lack of display of blood was because of the movie was made in 1961 or for another reason. Furthermore, the exaggeration of the different expressions on several of the character’s faces added to the comedy portrayed in this movie.
Perhaps, the sword is what makes one a samurai. In Yojimbo, Kannuki mentioned that Sanjuro was nothing without his sword, and true enough, although Sanjuro managed to escape in the end, he could not retaliate when he was beaten up, which formed a drastic contrast to his powerful image at the start of the film. In the end, Sanjuro returned with a dead man’s sword to rescue Gonji, and succeeded in killing the gangsters. Besides seeing the samurai and his sword as one, there was also the notion that only real men should use swords, and “children shouldn’t play with swords”. Most interestingly, the sword and the pistol seemed to be competing icons, with the former symbolizing the righteous and the latter representing the underhanded. This is probably because the attacks of the sword are visible unlike that of the pistol, and the sword is a weapon that requires skill, whereas the pistol can be used by almost anyone. Although the pistol is seemingly more powerful than the sword, Sanjuro managed to beat Unosuke by hurting his hand with a knife. After which, when Unosuke claimed that he felt sort of naked without his pistol, Sanjuro was magnanimous enough to let him hold the pistol but Unosuke attempted to shoot at him. However, he failed to pull the trigger - this was the final success of the sword over the pistol, and the righteous over the underhanded.
There are some interesting points about the cinematography of Yojimbo. Non-diegetic sounds were common, and these sounds provided a strong sense of rhythm to the ongoing actions in the film. Wide-angle lens were used when the different gangs faced each other in a fight, and the sense of depth was obvious when Sanjuro was in the foreground and the others were in the background. There were often objects like shutters and doors to separate the inside from the outside, to block our view of what was really happening, but we were constantly aware of the presence of fearful eyes that were looking out for potential danger. Also, in one of the early scenes, the two gangs standing opposite each other were filmed at eye-level while Sanjuro sitting on the roof was filmed with a tilt; this was probably a hint that the samurai would upset the balance of power in the village.
To be honest, I found Yojimbo really boring and had a hard time trying to keep awake - the first half of the film was going at too slow a pace and there were too many long takes.
Another Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film, Yojimbo, was quite interesting. The movie contain basic concept of hero movie that the good triumphing over the evil by a hero. The director describes the nature of human evil facetiously with weird and abnormal characters of people around the town. It was remarkable that the location of the movie was almost restricted by its town. Within this area the director make it possible to keep tension of the story throughout entire movie. Also he uses various camera action. The scene that the samurai was sitting on the watch tower and Ushitora’s and Seibei’s gangs stand face to face. The camera takes this scene by long takes and the scene was horizontally divided by three portions which maximize its tension. Also the last scene that the restaurant owner was hanged very left and close to screen and probably three Ushitora gang's in the middle of screen and samurai at far from screen and right side.
“Yojimbo” is a story is about the restoration of order and justice in a chaotic and morally bankrupt town. I may be completely missing the mark here, but I think it can in some ways be interpreted as a religious narrative. The protagonist can be seen as a demi-God: a man immune to corruption and sin who possesses superhuman strength, finesse, charisma, and… for lack of a better word, swag. We have no idea who he is, where he comes from, or even what his name is; all we know is that he’s a mysterious outsider who takes it upon himself to rescue the innocent and restore justice to the town. During much of the film he doesn’t even have a face; his body is often chopped up and viewed from behind.
I don’t want to get too Jesus-y, but come to think of it he does do some random good deeds, then is captured and tortured, escapes by hiding in a box with the Chinese character 德printed on it (I don’t know any Japanese but I’m assuming the meaning of the kanji is at least somewhat related to the Chinese meaning of “ethics” or “virtue”), escapes looking like a dead man, sleeps for a couple days, then arises again to save the day and even has mercy on one of the men. On top of this, he’s constantly observing life from the outside in (through the blinds, box, etc). It doesn’t fit perfectly, and I have no idea how the prayer drums or pistol-wielding guy who says “I’ll see you at the gates of hell” fits into this interpretation, but the narrative does seem somewhat symmetrical. Christianity aside, he definitely has some larger than life qualities, for example, he displays extreme mastery of his emotions—at one point he even calmly sips sake while staring down the barrel of pistol. In a similar fashion, he murders six men, rescues a family, then turns calmly around and adjusts his hair. He’s completely un-tempted by money or women, and is mostly concerned only with meeting his basic needs. This emotional control is even more emphasized by a sharp contrast with the other characters in the movie, who are comically expressive. Not only are their facial expressions exaggerated but they cry out for their mothers several times and sometimes even hop around in an absurd fashion (seriously, what are they doing??), and they look even more foolish beside the eternally calm, beard-stroking, clever-remark making protagonist. While the social problems being represented by the people seem fairly obvious, I think it’s important to ask who or what (if anything) the protagonist represents.
Sanjuro is the protagonist in the Yojimbo; he is the one who has stopped the fighting in a small town where competing crime lords vie for supremacy. In Yojimbo, sanjuro is a ronin, which is a samurai also, who is smart, powerful, and warmhearted. he comes to the town and has seen the crime; he decides to stop the tragedy. however, he has not use his superior fencing to stop the fighting; instead, he uses his wisdom to lead these two lordshis to be disappeared. even though Sanjuro is powerful, he is not cold-blooded. he is warmhearted and contains righteousness; he does not kill people blindly. When there is a dog running toward him with a had in its mouth, Sanjuro looks serious and concerned. When the he has captured two men from one of the lords, he does not kill them. Also, at the end if the movie, when the fligher is begging Sanjuro not to kill him, Sanjuro tells him to leave the place and be a better person. these scenes all show that Sanjuro has righteousness inside of him, he does not kill people because he can do it.
The background of the moive happens in 1860, when the government is collapsing, the position of samurai is going downward, they can only become ronins and work as yojimbo for other people. Yojimbo is lament the decline of samurai; loyalty is disspeared, only valiants and righteousness have left.
Kurosawa Akira's Yojimbo has very simple poetic justice story line. The plot could be cliche however, Kurosawa's directing makes this movie interesting.
Instead of directing the movie towards to the storyline, he focuses to the characters of the movie. For example, Yojimbo who haggles over rascals, the master who runs away when fight starts, and husband who bets his wife because he lost all the money... etc. His movie might be seen as action movie, however in my opinion his movie can be more interesting when you focused on each character.
In addition, Kurosawa's filming skills can also be focus of this film. He used stage set usefully and from best angles, he brought the boring seens to be impressively remembered to the audience.
The power of the number three resounds throughout the movie. Why the number three? It may be due to its sense of completeness. As the movie progresses, there is a gradual change. One sees as the obviousness of the number changes and soon, nothing is in threes anymore. The first scene is that of three stones, one larger than the other two. The ronin is then seen with his back turned and on his clothes are three assumingly equidistant dots. He turns and there are only two man-made dots with his head being where the other dot would lie. He happens upon a man and his son, he then makes the third person in the scene. The film continues and repeatedly, the number three is shown and even mentioned in the case of the three coffins. The ronin during these moments can be said to be complete. He almost has no moral compass. He plays with the two feuding sides for his monetary gain and amusement. He worries about nothing. The ronin takes the place of the middle dot or the middle ground. He has chosen no side and both sides fear him. The logical reason is that he is unattached and owes his loyalty to only whosoever he chooses as well as that he is very skilled in the sword. One sees the reluctance and fear of both sides to approach this “untouchable” middle ground as the fight unfolds in broad daylight. As each side approaches the middle where the ronin watches over, they move back again. The change in number occurs when the two gang leaders call a truce. Their members are upset and tear down two of the three signs and stomp on them. Interestingly, they did not pull down the middle one, only the two extremes. It is here that the viewer begins to see a change in the ronin himself. He becomes upset at the husband’s reaction to his wife being taken away by Ushitora (for Toukemon). After this, he destroys the businesses of the major supporters of the gang war. He has chosen a side and it is not one of the players on the field. He is captured and beaten. In order to escape, he hides in a chest. The chest is symmetrical in its decoration but in the middle is a lone lock which happens to be unlocked. No longer does the viewer see a strong presence of the number three. Instead, there is either a lone one or an outstanding figure of a middle object, such as the ronin being carried in a basket between the two other men. When the number changes, a difference in the ronin is seen. One can assume from the very beginning that he was always the middle ground—the most prominent character. But it is when he loses his comfort zone of two extremes, that a transformation is observed. No longer does he fight for monetary gain or amusement. He reverts to the status of samurai, in that he is loyal without being paid.
Hello Professor I spoke to you earlier today about midterm grades and writing responses. I was wondering if you could tell me what my scores were by tonight and how those scores translate into letter grades because the pass/no pass deadline is tomorrow. I could not find your email on the syllabus, but here is my email: because.apple@gmail.com
Yojimbo is an old movie that already has released more than 50 years from now by one of the most popular Japanese director, Kusawa Arika. This movie is about how one samurai who is treated as a 'boss' or 'bodyguard' depending on each situation punishes the enemies in a small town. Although it could be simply one samuray's heroic story, the director tried to emphasaize on the perspective of human being along with the enemmies' psychological weaknesses and crafitiness. As there are several characters with different personalities from Seibei and Ushitora's gangs including the mother who forces his son to kill the enemy for greedy honor of her family, these characters show that how human being can be extremely changed due to the situation and conflicts they face thoughout the story. Also the old man who helps the master including the scenes of taking the injured boss to the safe place, it indicates a didactic theme of the movie as he was the only person who knew the truth of the issue over the family's survival with seven guards' death. Moreover, the character who always have his own gun and act cowardly in the battles gets killed by the boss in the last scene with his own message of how he recklessly dies as he alived, it indicates another didactic theme in the movie. Not only emphasazing on didactic themes in the movie including Seibei and Uchitora's death, As mentioned above, this movie indicates how human being could be cowardly for their own greedy honors which result badly at the end along with the Boss's victory. Lastly, since this movie is about samurais' story in a small town, which could be oppressive or boring to the audience, there are some silly samurais for humors, but also for audiences to concentrate on the story and actions in the battles such as the samurai who helped the old man and disappeared to help his own boss and the young samurai who tried to call his mom when he gets scared by the boss in the last battle.
Teach rewarding the good and punishing the wicked. This is the main lesson that Yojimbo gives to public. This movie represents the various immoralities that even can be easily found in current society which pasted more than 50 yeaes.
In this movie, the samurai has two diffent roles: one as a assasinator and the other one as a body guard. This fact is really interesting in that the role of samura is ambiguous as the government' sovereignty becomes weaker. Nevertherless the director shows us how the Yojimbo has influence on the both ganster group and the town as a settler.
The one thing that might be disappoined is that the story is too obvious-anyone can expect the result of the movie! So it is contrast to modern tendency whcih mostly arises audience interest by showing them reversal. It was, however, enought to be called a masterpiece of Japanese movie because the movie's efficient set utilization and overall dedicate film structe maximize the production ability. Thus, Yojimbo bears comparison to be called a artisic moive.
Although Yojimbo depicts the most Japanese symbolic figure, samurai, as their protagonist in jidaigeki(時代劇), the major plot and the atmosphere of the movie seem to parallel with Hollywood movies in the past, showing how much Kurosawa Akira was affected by the Western movies. However, the major differences between the common Western films that feature heroes and Kurosawa Akira’s films are the depiction of the characters and variety of themes hidden in the movie. In Yojimbo, Sanjuro is a ronin who cannot just ignore the wrong-doings of the evil, but he also is humorous and knows how to keep his composure even at the critical time of life and death. He is a master of swordsmanship, which just makes him the perfect character from the scratch. However, he displays quite humane and realistic characteristics especially in the scene where he is continually knocked out by the big opponent from Seimei’s side. When he escapes from Seimei after he comes out from the box, he crawls around everywhere, which does neither seem very heroic nor stylish. He also does not recover right away and even tries to fight the evil with sashimi knife when he gets angry after hearing the news that Gonji got captured while he was bringing food to the samurai.
Also, this movie shows how Japanese traditional culture is fading away as the Western modern culture comes in to Japan by using a powerful comparison between gun and a samurai’s sword. Unosuke who uses gun as his main weapon would not have possessed his control of the power if he did not have a pistol. A gun shot happens instantly, and Sanjuro also acknowledges the fact that he would not have time to draw a sword to fight with the man, and he gets captured by Unosuke when they talk about Kohei and the woman. Sanjuro eventually wins the final battle, but he also fades away from the town like what ronin is supposed to be like; he comes and goes to different places like a wind. Japanese still value the idea of samurai and bushi-dou (武士道), but they also cannot simply neglect the changing flow of the time and its periodical differences.
Aside from the film being in black and white, the first aspect of the film that really catches my eye (or ear, rather) is the music. The music is a bit prominent from the beginning of the film, but as it goes on in its repetitive manner it becomes seemingly less and less important. Appreciated are the use of drums throughout the score, a sort of droning on and on accompanied by lots of reed sounds; also noticed is the prominent use of the major second and minor third intervals. I questioned whether or not this had any precise meaning behind it, but could not hypothesize one myself. There is something to say about a score that stays "home" in its style dedicated to the film, but also criticism should be noted when it is so "dedicated" that it's borderline... monotonous.
The film had a lot of humor throughout it, but it was hard to discern whether many parts were supposed to actually be humorous or serious. Nonetheless, I feel I appreciate all films when they contain humor. However, you can't watch this film without having something to say about the overacting and extreme facial expressions throughout the work. This came a little too often, particularly because the film was so long and seemed to go nowhere fast.
The final observation I had was during the scene when the samurai was in the barrel and they were carrying him (end of the film). I couldn't help but notice that the barrel was exceptionally whiter than everything else in the picture. Even though the film was in black and white, I found myself questioning whether or not this choice of a whiter color had any meaning behind it.
Yojimbo, directed by Akira Kurosawa, is a film about two crime lords competing for control of a small town. I personally didn't enjoy the film because of the slow pace. However, I understood the overall theme of the film even though it wasn't a personal favorite of mine. Yojimbo represents the breakdown of a society caused by political greed among these two merchants. The control of the town is already in the hands of the silk merchant and sake merchant. Much of the film is about the hiring of a ronin to gain an advantage for control of the town.
Through Yojimbo, one is able to see why Akira Kurosawa is also considered "the most western of Japanese directors". This film has a very "western" feel to it especially considering the camera angles. There are many instances throughout the film where there is a western influence on the camera angles. For example, a camera angle would capture both gangs before a battle. These types of elements represent why Kurosawa is considered a "western" Japanese director.
Akirara Kurosawa’s Yojimbo takes place in a chaotic town, where there are no rules. People, including the merchants and gangsters try to rid themselves of competition and make money as soon as possible. As storyline depicts, Kurosawa had successfully established the film through accumulating violence and murder in a black-and-white film. For an example, in the beginning sequence of the film, the dog walks with a human hand in his jaws. This scenario builds a sudden mood of threat and danger to the story.
Kurosawa has well intended to incorporate foreshadowing to his movie, forming chaotic and violent acts. In addition, Kurosawa foreshadows just how the action will be shown through similar scenes. When Sanjuro confronts Ushitora’s men for the second time before he cuts off one of their arms, the audience immediately realizes there will be actions starting, without the story directly telling them.
In the movie “Yojimbo”, I felt that the samurai was neither good nor bad. Although he wanted to save the town, he was going to be the bodyguard of the man who was going to offer him the most money. It kind of depicts reality; even though people want to do good deeds, at times they are going to be selfish. If the samurai wanted both of the crime lords to be destroyed why didn’t he just kill them in the beginning when he had the ability to all along? In this movie, his intentions were very unclear to me from time to time Even though he wanted to save the town; helping to start the fight between the two crime lords seemed to have caused more innocent deaths. Playing with fire has also gotten him to be beaten up, but in the end we can see that the samurai isn’t that bad after all and had some good intentions.
I think that the music throughout the movie made a lot of scenes more interesting. The music would get louder as if foreshadowing something intense would happen. The long takes in the movie does a good job of portraying the time period in Japan. With many empty roads, things falling apart and people hiding, it really showed how the town was literally dying. While watching this movie, I was surprised at seeing a gun that the brother of one of the crime lord had. Was the gun symbolizing outside influences in Japan during a time of desperation? Or did it have other meanings? In scenes where the gun appears, things also seemed more intense. I also found it surprising that Seibei’s wife was so controlling when most Japanese women are more submissive, she seemed like the one in charge instead of her husband. In a society like Japan, where people are so interdependent, women aren’t as aggressive and a lot more willing to comply. Seibei’s wife is the total opposite of that and it’s almost as if the director is trying to tell viewers that women can also be the boss in many situations.
I found the role of the “warrior” to be unexpectedly refreshing and unconventional in Yojimbo. Rather than solely embodying the characteristics typically ascribed to a warrior, the protagonist also utilizes his skills to help those in need. Although he certainly capitalizes on the selfish and vindictive objectives of Seibei and Ushitora, the warrior works in ways to gradually benefit the village, as demonstrated by his rescuing of the beautiful woman and her family, in addition to his leaving town after eradicating the town’s gangs. I thought the movie did an interesting job of looking into the human psyche by comparing and contrasting certain aspects and qualities of different characters. The movie was not quite what I anticipated, as I thought the film would be very similar to Kurosawa’s Rashomon, but was rather an interesting blend of genres, including qualities typically present in classic Hollywood westerns.
This film appears to convey the idea of the power of talk. It seems that mere talk and speculation is enough to foster hatred/awe in people. With just a few suggestions put forth by the samurai, the two enemies pit themselves against each other without checking the facts. This also demonstrates the superficiality of people, who are easily swayed by mere flattery and goading.
Also, the two enemies and the mayor strive to appear normal when the government official arrives, thus bringing into the notion of using facades to cover up weaknesses such as cowardice or imperfections. The notion of false fronts is also explored in the film, where the samurai and the old man take up false fronts of being fierce and mean; but are actually ‘good people’. Seibei, Ushitora, and their men all put on false fronts of being ‘macho’ as well, where in actuality, they are all cowardly and just hiding behind the power of words. Like the samurai then, the audience derives pleasure from watching their futile attempts to appear strong.
While the overall plot is interesting, the film gets boring after awhile due to the predictability of the plot and relative lack of action. Halfway through the film, we know that the samurai will continue goading the two enemies and that both parties will die in the end. Also, there are little action scenes, and where there are, the action usually ends with just a few swishes of the sword. Perhaps except for the last part of the film when the samurai returns to save the restaurant owner then does the pace of the film pick up and feels more like an action film.
Yojimbo was an interesting film to say the least. It combined several different elements that I was not expecting, such as the comedic relief provided by several of the characters who seem to occupy an outwardly important role like the town official and Inokichi, one of Ushitora’s men. As in Rashomon, Kurosawa raises the issue of doubt in human integrity, with the townspeople embroiled in gang conflicts over gambling and the likes. With each one of the characters, Kurosawa reveals facets of the human nature that seem to betray the code of honor that people, especially samurais, should uphold. All of the gang members were ostensibly tough people, but when it got to the actual fighting they were all cowards. And the leaders of those gangs were easily manipulated by an outsider, the samurai, who exploited their selfish desires against one another for what seemed like his own personal show. The entire film felt like the covertly honorable samurai’s puppet show, so I was interested in the film and what it had to reveal about people, but it wasn’t necessarily groundbreaking for me. One thing I did enjoy, however, was the full circle it made with the scene with the farmer’s son in the end. The son, who ran away from home for a more exciting life, was too scared to even protect himself. And seeing this, the samurai saved the farm boy and used his own line against him saying “go home to your mother and live a long life eating gruel,” which I thought was clever and put a nice cap on the film.
Yomjimbo is another film of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It was interesting movie to talk about. The Samuri tried to stop the fighting between two gangs and he was smart to be manipulate this two gangs. I believe director tried to describe that human is so much more evil than we thinks. The background of movie was interesting part too where is restricted and limited. The various camera angle was a big part of this movie that can goes well. They kept movie is not boring and entertaining as well. Each character 's facial experssion was interesting too.
While watching the film “Yojimbo,” the aesthetic direction strongly reminded me of a cowboy movie, as if our class was watching a movie about gun-slingers ready to shoot it out in a sundown town. The other prominent visual aspects of the film was it’s use of aerial shots and wide shots. Together these components set the visual tone of the movie.
The wide shots and aerial shots that capture the actors as well as the setting give the viewer a perspective of the actors and town that is both revealing of the character of the the opposing gangs and the condition of the town. The wide/ aerial shots actually make the town into one of the characters, showing how the gangs have affected it, how people interact with it. The character of the town reminds me a lot of the old man, worn out, longing for peace again and bitter at those who have left both the old man and the town jaded. In addition the wide/ aerial shots during the confrontations between the gangs show their cowardly nature; how they are so willing to condemn the other side but afraid of confrontation. However this gradually changes as Yojimbo begins to sabotage the gangs from within as can be seen in the “Smoke out,” scene when the fear of confrontation is no longer present as the end of one of the gangs can be easily seen.
The present cowboy tone is very apparent as the protagonist enters the town for the first time. Yojimbo walks into the town with a confidence in his stride and posture as if he were untouchable and tells the old man that he will get rid of the gangs, not try, but will. The way these events are portrayed are very similar to how cowboy movies make a lone gun-slinger appear super human. The visual portrayal of this as well as the thematics of it is extremely transferable to the spaghetti western.
Yojimbo is a 1961 film directed by Akira Kurosawa and is about a samurai who cleans up a town terrorized by two conflicting gangs. Written plainly, the film seems simple and clear-cut, but Kurosawa successfully keeps the movie interesting by making use of space within long takes. One scene involves the samurai and the old man having a discussion and watching Tazaemon interact with some men in the background. I thought that making use of the larger characters foreground while focusing on the more important events in the background as the camera pans back and forth was good use of the two spaces. Similarly, another scene has the samurai trying to crawl to the door while the two guards play some game together. The guards are in the foreground, but the focus is on the samurai in the background slowly making his way over as the camera pans over the long take. Usually, in films today, there may be multiple cuts between areas in the background and the characters watching the scene unfold, so it is nice to see seamless takes done so well.
I noticed that the music in Yojimbo is a lot more dynamic with jazzy instruments compared to what seemed like constant drum pounding in Kurosawa’s other film, Rashomon (1950), which we watch the first week of class. Along with this, action scenes are better choreographed and more interesting overall compared to the excruciating long random banter between the bandit and samurai of Rashomon. Particularly, the sequence of the confrontation at the end is one example. It is not very long, but the swiftness of the scene fits the “two-bit samurai’s” character as a great swordsman, which adds to his amiability as the protagonist.
The film "Yojimbo" reminds me of Hong Kong action films directed by Xu Ke in several ways, such as the combination of action and comedy, unconventional female characters, and the extensive use of traditional eastern music elements in sound effect. It seems that many later films around the world were influenced by "Yojimbo". I enjoyed watching this film, and I was especially impressed with the depiction of women characters in this film as well as the sound effects. Obviously, "Yojimbo" is telling a story about how the protagonist Sanjuro managed to terminate the power of two gangs in the town and thus the whole story is quite male-dominated. However, Kurosawa expressed very powerful cinematic messages through female involvement in "Yojimbo". First, Seibei's wife actually plays vital role in decision making of the Seibei gang. When Sanjuro first came to the Seibei gang, Seibei's wife not only interrupted the conversation between Sanjuro and Seibei in a rude manner but also told Seibei to kill Sanjuro once they defeated Ushitora gang. In many scenes throughout the film, we can tell that Seibei's wife had leading roles in both the whorehouse and the gang in general. This on one hand challenges the traditional patriarchal viewpoints on women. On the other hand, it overthrows the conventional weak and nice profile of women in cinematic works. The other female character, Kohei's wife, represented a totally different view on women. She was captured by one and another like an object rather than human, and she has her devotion and loyalty to her family. The sharp contrast between the two women characters is quite fascinating. Also, I want to mention the sound effect in this film. Though I have not yet confirmed the musical instrument, but the drum-based melody was used by Kurosawa to create both tension and comedy effects. This melody appeared in most of the scenes. This sound effect created the feeling that Sanjuro used his charisma to treat the whole thing like a game, with both leisure and tension. Interestingly, when Kohei's wife came out, the music was changed into a more emotional one. It symbolizes that even someone like Sanjuro can be touched and pay sympathy to the woman. Finally, I want to reflect on the character of Sanjuro in the context of heroism. He definitely acted as a hero to overcome all the difficulties and get the town back to peace. However, he is aloof and imperfect. He came to the town by himself, and then left by himself. He and Gonji got alone well, but he was not further attracted to the friendship. Also, he spoke dirty words from time to time. When he was trying to push the Kohei family to escape, he still cursed them as stupid. Sanjuro was actually depicted as a little bit self-centered, without consideration of small details and the feelings of others. However, he acted as the hero who is capable of saving people from suffering. This type of hero was adopted by many later films as well. Shangqing Li
The original meaning of 用心棒, YoJimbo must have more meaning than an English word, bodyguard. Furthermore, Kurosawa Akira depicts how the spirit of Samurai lasts in the time of disorder with the counterculture figure as the protagonist in this film, YoJimBo. Nevertheless, this nameless samurai character (Yojimbo? Sanjuro?) is not even a perfect hero type but a macho wanderer who takes advantage from the fight between two groups. And these humane qualities of Yojimbo such as his laughter, crawling escape and the sasimi knife, create a caricature to balance with the heavy subject-matter of the film.
Not surprisingly, Kurosawa presents each frames and shots beautifully as much as well painted black and white painting. The most interesting thing to me was that I could not know whether the restaurant owner is alive or dead at the scene the bottom of the restaurant owner, so called Oyaji is hanging on the top left until Yojimbo comes for his revenge with his outrageous sandstorm. I was not sure how those few people will renew their villige after that many of death and huge damage however, all the villains are defeated and the good people continue their live.
This film reminded me a lot of a Western film. It included a lot of elements that would typically appear in most Western films (including the somewhat lame fight scenes). It included elements such as the main character having a toothpick in his mouth (reminds me of a cowboy), two sides slowly walking towards each other in a fight in the middle of a deserted street lined with buildings, and a character that upholds justice in some way (freeing the woman). It includes the things that are common to Westerns but it doesn't include the idea of civilization versus the wild explicitly (most of the film's setting was in a town). Another thing that I found interesting was the music. It didn't seem to fit the setting of the movie, which was Edo Japan. The music was much more upbeat that the typical music presented in action films. The music style was similar to that of silent films. In scenes without dialogue, the music would provide the emotion, much similar to the way that music in silent films do. The music when the girls were dancing was also something that stood out. It was much more fast-paced and had a heavier beat that traditional Japanese dance music. The combination of these elements made the movie really interesting and it makes it easy to spot the director's style, who was known for being the most Western of the Japanese filmmakers of that time.
Watching Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo was like watching an old Western movie about cowboys. The boarded up town and the two different sides lining up in the street ready to fight were similar to western scenes where the dust ball rolls by and the two men draw their guns. Although I did not particularly enjoy the film, I thought it was interesting to see this western styled movie from a Japanese director.
I think this film had similarities to Kurosawa’s Rashamon, such as themes of human fallibility, sin, and corruption. Both films also seem to focus on truth, show patriarchal power in society, and have similar camera movements and rhythm. Yojimbo however seemed to focus on the corruption in society. It shows how chaotic a town could be without any government structure while it also represents corruption in politics and the terrible extent some will go in order to be the top authority. This film also seems to have more of a variety of characters from brave fighters to ignorant men to women prostitutes, the characters were full of different personalities that, I think, kept the film more entertaining than the story line itself.
I was curious about the meaning of the title 'Yojimbo' and I researched it and found out that 'Yojimbo' means contractor or a bodyguard in Japanese. When I found out the meaning, I thought about the main character samurai that contracts with the town's chief and made the two harmful crew destroy theirselves by weakening them. Anyway he saved the town and protected their peace however and that can lead the meaning as a bodyguard too. I thought that the actor's acting was really intersting, which seemed over-action to me, and that made some Japanese-style humor itself. Also I thought about the farcical installation, that made the movie more humorous and interesting. The lesson of punitive justice was a bit too accurate and tedious message to me, but anyway considering this movie as an old film, I thought that the movie was well-made with all the basic fundamentals fulfilled. Lastly, I liked the nuance of criticizing the bureaucracy most, expressed by the main character's free and cool attitude.
The job, samurai contains many meaningful significance since long time ago in Japan. They were trustworthy bodyguard, dirty job, and main power of authority in Japan. In this movie'Yojimbo', samurai was executor of justice by protecting people from ruthless behavior of gangs confliction. Peculiar points about this movie that I couldn't easily see from other Japanese movies are samurai's humorous attitude and ridiculous sound effect. Samurai was using both conflicting group's weakness and divide them each other. He wants to hide what he have done to save poor people and acted like he is not related to it. I believe he wants to say that justice should be accomplished without anyone's notice. His several humourous reaction probably have gave good impression of samurai to audience. In addition, when samurai did some humor, ridiculous sound effect always followed with it. I guess the sound effect was made with traditional Japanese instrument. I have never heard of it. Also, it was not made with artificial machine sound. It was clear sound maded by musician's real perform. It was very sophiticated and impressive.
Yojimbo As the director Kurosawa is regarded as a one who was influenced by Hollywood production style, it seemed he integrated the style of limited setting (one town) and repetitive appearances of actors (silk and sake merchants) from Western style with traditional “samurai-hood” of Japan. Along with few neutral characters, I saw a beginning of purification and restart of the town at the advent of the Samurai, whose actual name is unknown (this scene reminded me of an advent of Clint Eastwood from “A fistful of Dollars”). The scene where two groups of merchants were about to fight, this manifested that two gangs are just cowards inside, bluffing off outside. I thought this funny scene for two minutes has developed that a samurai character is very important and recruits elements from past (the tradition), and other modes of film constitutes a vital genre of samurai (Silver reading). The style of black and white with very old and traditional clothing of merchants and a samurai brings a lot of importance of director’s analysis and integration of past and developing film techniques. But visually, despite the facts that examples of the Samurai slaying people does contribute to develop the character of him, this does not necessarily build up a clear genre. Because I could clearly recognize the theme of the movie utilized, as tool, samurai and merchants to show a corrupted and a chaotic society is saved by unknown figure, in reality maybe a power of nature to have a new fresh start (as Samurai indicated). In the reading, it says, “Kurosawa helped to bring the genre to maturity not merely by injecting it with wry humour but also by fashioning heroes more intent on anonymity than vainglory, more concerned with concealing their martial abilities than displaying them.” This is an important approach that Kurosawa took on Japanese Film, since he actually stirred up his effort to show how actually samurai fights and the blood falling and cutting body parts occur. Only very flaw can be the blood scenes where black and white tones did not quite catch the bloods (it would have been a great scene when the color of red are only color in the screen when bloods comes out). Overall, techniques of taking a short scroll on each sides of merchants, and one main Samurai in the center as many as possible, Kurosawa regarded the display of characters in the order of importance and this clearly made easier and obvious to understand the plot of the story.
The movie "Yojimbo" reminded me Hollywood's "A Fistful of Dollars" which was made 3 years after Yojimbo was produced. The movie thoroughly describes the inside of human beings which are filthy and ugly parts of mankind and it was exposed in the film. Seibei's evil madam wife, flattering the inspector, lost wife for gambling, and force their own son to kill people for the money and power over the territory. All these madness contributed for audiences to have a second thought of how we behave in society.
ReplyDeleteI also found director Kurosawa's interesting attempt in the film. Unusual angles of take and facetious music were well mixed in the boring scenes to make them not boring. For example, the camera had long takes with hauling of sticks when the 'time keeper' announced the time and the music was played whenever he delivers message to people. When the protagonist walked into the town, camera was behind of him to take a long take that shows his back and the whole town. Again, there was a scene that restaurant's owner and the protagonist were looking outside through the window but the camera shot from behind of them to show audiences both actors and what is going on outside. I think it was a quite innovative idea to film in that time of period.
Kurosawa Akira's Yojimbo is a period film that focuses on the uneasiness of Japan in the mid 19th century. To survive in this world, you must live selfishly and do everything in your power to continue to live, even if it means committing crimes including murder. Most of the non-important male characters in the film are drifters and criminals who are hired to protect their bosses and die if need be, but their will to live is much greater than their loyalties. No one (besides the ronin) fights face to face. They either attack when their victim is not aware of what is happening before it is too late or in Uno's case, have a vastly superior weapon. The best scene to demonstrate how survival comes first is the failed stand-off between Ushitora's and Seibei's gangs.
ReplyDeleteThe nameless samurai tricks both sides into fighting an all out brawl, which will hopefully get rid of both gangs. After publicly betraying Seibei, the samurai climbs up a structure to watch the bloodshed (he looked like he needed some popcorn). Both sides had their fighters run towards one another, only to quickly retreat. This dance was repeated many times. None of the fighters showed any honor, but rather an individualistic will to live. None of the gangs went within striking range of the other side's weapons, while cowering yet making angry faces to show how 'fierce' they are. The bird's eye view of the fight gave off the feeling of their worthlessness as fighters. We are looking down at them as they pathetically run towards then away from each other, and laugh just as the anonymous samurai does from his high post. The final shot before the announcement of the inspector's arrival is done from the ground up, giving us a clear view of the gangs' frightened faces. No blood was shed, because nobody was prepared to die for their bosses. Survival comes before honor and loyalty.
Yojimbo
ReplyDeleteTina Kim
In the opening scene of Yojimbo, there was a long take of the protagonist’s back. At first, I was wondering why they would create a scene such as this, but it created an effect of the audience following him to the area of conflict. This is much like how he influenced the two gangs, as both see him as a “master” of some sort. Both sides wish to hire him to defeat the opposing gang.
Throughout the movie, the restaurant owner and samurai constantly peeks through the window to spy on the opposing gang, or on the government. For the samurai, he is obviously spying, but for the other characters such as the restaurant owner, they are expressing fear. What was confusing to me was that why did the director choose to shoot the Seibei’s side hiding, when both sides are equally scared of one another. It made sense when Unosuke appeared since he was the only one who carried any firearm, the pistol.
What I found funny in the film was the fire scene behind Unosuke that supported his “evil” character. It looked silly to me because of his odd expression. It felt a bit awkward afterwards since that scene was carried out a bit too long.
Ren (Karen) Curry
ReplyDeleteKurasawa Akira's movie "Yojimbo" was an interesting one to say the least. I didn't know how serious this movie was intended to be, but I definitely could not take it seriously. The actors facial expressions were so intense and overdone. I think this movie was more frustrating for me than entertaining. I wanted the samurai to hurry and get captured. Not so that the movie would end, but so that the movie would get better. At least I was hoping that it would improve by the end. I did enjoy the samurai's character and him being a nice guy instead of just a cold-hearted killer. It's interesting to think of killing in the same way as the samurai. I feel that he really just did it to better a town ridden with corruption and unnecessary deaths. I actually really enjoyed the old man who helped the samurai house and how it was used to view the different scenes throughout the movie. It almost looked like it was a prison, but more of a place to keep all that was bad outside. I think the comical elements helped make the film more bearable to watch, but if given the choice I would not want to have to see it again.
"Yojimbo" is probably my favorite film we watched in this class so far. I really felt like it had most elements that movies could have: humor, action, suspense, drama, etc. Like I mentioned in my review of "The Host," I liked the integration of heavy humor with an action genre that typically isn't supposed to be big on humor. The silliness of the warriors, especially Inokichi, was great comic relief. But put the comedy aside, and we were still left with a great action film with a great story dealing with honor in a time saturated with gambling and banditry. Our hero at times seemed like a cold, selfish jerk when he demanded so much money, but in the end he gives the money to help reunite and family and help restore peace into a corrupted town.
ReplyDeleteI also want to point out some similarities I found between this film and the first film we watched, "Rashomon." In both films, the warriors put up a front of being brave and honorable fighters, but as it turns out they are very cowardly and clumsy (see the battle between the bandit and samurai versus the first failed group battle). It made me wonder if this theme of cowardice in warriors is a theme that is prevalent in many Japanese films. Also, with the exception of Orin, the women in these films are depicted as weak, docile, and pathetic (see the prostitutes and captured wife in "Yojimbo" versus the woman in "Rashomon"). Again, I was left wondering if this theme of weak women is prevalent in Japanese films.
-Andrew Park
I think the theme of the movie was simply rewarding the good and punish the wicked. A wondering samurai walked in a small village that is ruined by fight between two wicked merchants Seibei and Ushitora. The samurai seemed to be gambling to gain more money for himself but he turns out to be actually a good guy who is willing to give up his money to save a family. He destroys Seibei and Ushitora, and the story ends.
ReplyDeleteThe fun in this movie is to watch people with various personalities. People in this movie is not simply good or evil but there are various types of good and evil; for example there are dumb evil, smart evil, coward evil, good who pretends to be evil, and etc. I think certainly the main character was the most charming character in the story. The wondering samurai without a name suddenly decide to bring peace to the village and when it is done just walk away, sounds very cool and awesome but he wasn’t like that in the movie. When he tricks Seibei and Ushitora to fight he seemed to be most wicked in the movie, he was pathetic when he got beat up and locked in the room; to escape he was to hide in a chest and crawl on the ground. I like how the movie shows the hero very human like.
Jin Ah Kim
ReplyDelete“Yojimbo” by Kurosawa Akira proves and shows that the way of storytelling is an extremely important factor in a film. Like in “Rashomon”, Kurosawa managed to build tension throughout in a small space. “Yojimbo” takes place in a small town (only) but the director still succeeds in building excitement as the story goes on. The existence of mise-en-scene is emphasized due to this factor. For example, the setting for most scenes during the film is not large; most location (and the shots within the area) is limited and restricted yet it is difficult to feel boredom visually.
Another interesting factor about “Yojimbo” was the numerous characteristics that reminded me of western (cowboy) movies. For example the main character who may be seen as a ‘heroic’ character wanders around places and that fact that he leaves this small town after everything is over reminded me of the typical ‘wanderer’ characters in the western films. The biggest features that look similar to such films were during the scenes when the fighting took place. The two groups of villains always positioned themselves facing each other in the street of the town. Like these factors, many of the visual features reminded me of western cowboy movies (but interestingly enough, I found out that “Yojimbo” influenced some of the western films later on).
Yojimbo seemed like a mixed genre with the characteristics of a Japanese samurai movie with a dash of old Hollywood westerns. This is probably due to the set in which most of the filming is located on that one particular street. Many of the scenes depicting stand-offs are very much like cowboy stand-offs in wild west movies. Not to mention the cinematography in monochromatic colors also added that western charm, however, that might just be my opinion as Japanese films set in this era are predominately made in black and white.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I wanted to touch upon was the samurai's moral characteristics. If I have it right, samurai's are suppose to uphold a sense of right and wrong along with their honor. To me, our main samurai protagonist doesn't seem to uphold this code very well. Especially when in the majority of the film he is playing both sides, even instigating violence instead of peace. This can be seen in the sequence where the samurai breaks peace talks by bating Ushitora's side with the two men he had given to Seibei that had information on Ushitora. It is only when the samurai finds out that Ushitora had taken this woman who has a family that his "sense of honor" and righteousness appears. This doesn't cut it for me. If he had a sense of right and wrong, he would have ended it with the Edo magistrate there before they were bribed. Instead, the samurai comes off as that lone wild man (like so many protagonist in wild western films) in the end walking away after bringing about peace for the town.
Manyi Xu
Christina Ho
ReplyDeleteKurosawa Akira's Yojimbo is an intense period drama features a super-human samurai figure standing amongst a sea full of cowards. Like Kurosawa's other movie Rashomon, this movie also strips down boastful, bragging, "macho" men into cowards who shake from the weight of their swords. Early in the film, there is a scene where Seibei, the leader of one of the gangs, yells at his main men for being fearful of the other gang. Yet, as he scolds them, his shaking hand clamors against the sake bottle that our hero, nicknamed "Sanjuro," is holding. The film also dedicates a lengthy scene where the cowardice of the two gangs are emphasized. As the calm and collected Sanjuro watches amused from above and between them, almost like a god, the two warring clans wag their swords uselessly in front of them, stepping towards each other only to retreat when the other side is seen approaching. The boastful men behave and speak with excessive crudeness and aggression to compensate for what they lack: courage.
The Sanjuro character himself is reminiscent of many now-worn tropes of the cool lone warrior that fights under his own code. He wanders into town, and his motives seem ambiguous, unmotivated by money or power. He kills, as with the men guarding the woman and to demonstrate his strength, but he does not kill without mercy, as shown in the final scene where he spares the life of a young man. He's smart and manipulative and is able to swindle the gang leaders, but he is almost like a Robin Hood figure because he gives the money away to the family that he rescue, and asks for nothing in return. The ronin follows his own moral code, and is not tied down by greed or power, and he is seen leaving the town as quickly as he came upon it.
Yojimbo, directed by Kurosawa Arika, is an interesting and fun movie to watch. I don’t know if the director intentionally made this movie for laughter or about a serious topic. However, I did notice that this movie seems to have a Western influence. Actually, one of the theme in the movie may have been the East meets the West. For example, there was one showdown between the samurai with the sword and another character with a gun toward the end. Also, throughout the movie, whenever a showdown between the two gangs is about to take place, there would be one person shouting out the time after making some noises. Then, the two gangs would walk out and line up against opposite sides. These scenes remind me of a typical cowboy showdown in Hollywood. In addition, I’ve noticed that whenever someone gets killed, especially by the samurai’s sword, blood does not spatter out and there’s no sign of blood anywhere, even on the sword. When I realized this, I was curious why that was the case. I’m not sure if the lack of display of blood was because of the movie was made in 1961 or for another reason. Furthermore, the exaggeration of the different expressions on several of the character’s faces added to the comedy portrayed in this movie.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, the sword is what makes one a samurai. In Yojimbo, Kannuki mentioned that Sanjuro was nothing without his sword, and true enough, although Sanjuro managed to escape in the end, he could not retaliate when he was beaten up, which formed a drastic contrast to his powerful image at the start of the film. In the end, Sanjuro returned with a dead man’s sword to rescue Gonji, and succeeded in killing the gangsters. Besides seeing the samurai and his sword as one, there was also the notion that only real men should use swords, and “children shouldn’t play with swords”. Most interestingly, the sword and the pistol seemed to be competing icons, with the former symbolizing the righteous and the latter representing the underhanded. This is probably because the attacks of the sword are visible unlike that of the pistol, and the sword is a weapon that requires skill, whereas the pistol can be used by almost anyone. Although the pistol is seemingly more powerful than the sword, Sanjuro managed to beat Unosuke by hurting his hand with a knife. After which, when Unosuke claimed that he felt sort of naked without his pistol, Sanjuro was magnanimous enough to let him hold the pistol but Unosuke attempted to shoot at him. However, he failed to pull the trigger - this was the final success of the sword over the pistol, and the righteous over the underhanded.
ReplyDeleteThere are some interesting points about the cinematography of Yojimbo. Non-diegetic sounds were common, and these sounds provided a strong sense of rhythm to the ongoing actions in the film. Wide-angle lens were used when the different gangs faced each other in a fight, and the sense of depth was obvious when Sanjuro was in the foreground and the others were in the background. There were often objects like shutters and doors to separate the inside from the outside, to block our view of what was really happening, but we were constantly aware of the presence of fearful eyes that were looking out for potential danger. Also, in one of the early scenes, the two gangs standing opposite each other were filmed at eye-level while Sanjuro sitting on the roof was filmed with a tilt; this was probably a hint that the samurai would upset the balance of power in the village.
To be honest, I found Yojimbo really boring and had a hard time trying to keep awake - the first half of the film was going at too slow a pace and there were too many long takes.
Hui Wen, Tea
Another Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film, Yojimbo, was quite interesting. The movie contain basic concept of hero movie that the good triumphing over the evil by a hero. The director describes the nature of human evil facetiously with weird and abnormal characters of people around the town. It was remarkable that the location of the movie was almost restricted by its town. Within this area the director make it possible to keep tension of the story throughout entire movie. Also he uses various camera action. The scene that the samurai was sitting on the watch tower and Ushitora’s and Seibei’s gangs stand face to face. The camera takes this scene by long takes and the scene was horizontally divided by three portions which maximize its tension. Also the last scene that the restaurant owner was hanged very left and close to screen and probably three Ushitora gang's in the middle of screen and samurai at far from screen and right side.
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ReplyDelete“Yojimbo” is a story is about the restoration of order and justice in a chaotic and morally bankrupt town. I may be completely missing the mark here, but I think it can in some ways be interpreted as a religious narrative. The protagonist can be seen as a demi-God: a man immune to corruption and sin who possesses superhuman strength, finesse, charisma, and… for lack of a better word, swag. We have no idea who he is, where he comes from, or even what his name is; all we know is that he’s a mysterious outsider who takes it upon himself to rescue the innocent and restore justice to the town. During much of the film he doesn’t even have a face; his body is often chopped up and viewed from behind.
ReplyDeleteI don’t want to get too Jesus-y, but come to think of it he does do some random good deeds, then is captured and tortured, escapes by hiding in a box with the Chinese character 德printed on it (I don’t know any Japanese but I’m assuming the meaning of the kanji is at least somewhat related to the Chinese meaning of “ethics” or “virtue”), escapes looking like a dead man, sleeps for a couple days, then arises again to save the day and even has mercy on one of the men. On top of this, he’s constantly observing life from the outside in (through the blinds, box, etc). It doesn’t fit perfectly, and I have no idea how the prayer drums or pistol-wielding guy who says “I’ll see you at the gates of hell” fits into this interpretation, but the narrative does seem somewhat symmetrical. Christianity aside, he definitely has some larger than life qualities, for example, he displays extreme mastery of his emotions—at one point he even calmly sips sake while staring down the barrel of pistol. In a similar fashion, he murders six men, rescues a family, then turns calmly around and adjusts his hair. He’s completely un-tempted by money or women, and is mostly concerned only with meeting his basic needs. This emotional control is even more emphasized by a sharp contrast with the other characters in the movie, who are comically expressive. Not only are their facial expressions exaggerated but they cry out for their mothers several times and sometimes even hop around in an absurd fashion (seriously, what are they doing??), and they look even more foolish beside the eternally calm, beard-stroking, clever-remark making protagonist. While the social problems being represented by the people seem fairly obvious, I think it’s important to ask who or what (if anything) the protagonist represents.
Sanjuro is the protagonist in the Yojimbo; he is the one who has stopped the fighting in a small town where competing crime lords vie for supremacy. In Yojimbo, sanjuro is a ronin, which is a samurai also, who is smart, powerful, and warmhearted. he comes to the town and has seen the crime; he decides to stop the tragedy. however, he has not use his superior fencing to stop the fighting; instead, he uses his wisdom to lead these two lordshis to be disappeared. even though Sanjuro is powerful, he is not cold-blooded. he is warmhearted and contains righteousness; he does not kill people blindly. When there is a dog running toward him with a had in its mouth, Sanjuro looks serious and concerned. When the he has captured two men from one of the lords, he does not kill them. Also, at the end if the movie, when the fligher is begging Sanjuro not to kill him, Sanjuro tells him to leave the place and be a better person. these scenes all show that Sanjuro has righteousness inside of him, he does not kill people because he can do it.
ReplyDeleteThe background of the moive happens in 1860, when the government is collapsing, the position of samurai is going downward, they can only become ronins and work as yojimbo for other people. Yojimbo is lament the decline of samurai; loyalty is disspeared, only valiants and righteousness have left.
Kurosawa Akira's Yojimbo has very simple poetic justice story line. The plot could be cliche however, Kurosawa's directing makes this movie interesting.
ReplyDeleteInstead of directing the movie towards to the storyline, he focuses to the characters of the movie. For example, Yojimbo who haggles over rascals, the master who runs away when fight starts, and husband who bets his wife because he lost all the money... etc. His movie might be seen as action movie, however in my opinion his movie can be more interesting when you focused on each character.
In addition, Kurosawa's filming skills can also be focus of this film. He used stage set usefully and from best angles, he brought the boring seens to be impressively remembered to the audience.
The Power of Numbers in Yojimbo
ReplyDeleteWhitney Phipps
The power of the number three resounds throughout the movie. Why the number three? It may be due to its sense of completeness. As the movie progresses, there is a gradual change. One sees as the obviousness of the number changes and soon, nothing is in threes anymore.
The first scene is that of three stones, one larger than the other two. The ronin is then seen with his back turned and on his clothes are three assumingly equidistant dots. He turns and there are only two man-made dots with his head being where the other dot would lie. He happens upon a man and his son, he then makes the third person in the scene. The film continues and repeatedly, the number three is shown and even mentioned in the case of the three coffins. The ronin during these moments can be said to be complete. He almost has no moral compass. He plays with the two feuding sides for his monetary gain and amusement. He worries about nothing. The ronin takes the place of the middle dot or the middle ground. He has chosen no side and both sides fear him. The logical reason is that he is unattached and owes his loyalty to only whosoever he chooses as well as that he is very skilled in the sword. One sees the reluctance and fear of both sides to approach this “untouchable” middle ground as the fight unfolds in broad daylight. As each side approaches the middle where the ronin watches over, they move back again.
The change in number occurs when the two gang leaders call a truce. Their members are upset and tear down two of the three signs and stomp on them. Interestingly, they did not pull down the middle one, only the two extremes. It is here that the viewer begins to see a change in the ronin himself. He becomes upset at the husband’s reaction to his wife being taken away by Ushitora (for Toukemon). After this, he destroys the businesses of the major supporters of the gang war. He has chosen a side and it is not one of the players on the field. He is captured and beaten. In order to escape, he hides in a chest. The chest is symmetrical in its decoration but in the middle is a lone lock which happens to be unlocked. No longer does the viewer see a strong presence of the number three. Instead, there is either a lone one or an outstanding figure of a middle object, such as the ronin being carried in a basket between the two other men.
When the number changes, a difference in the ronin is seen. One can assume from the very beginning that he was always the middle ground—the most prominent character. But it is when he loses his comfort zone of two extremes, that a transformation is observed. No longer does he fight for monetary gain or amusement. He reverts to the status of samurai, in that he is loyal without being paid.
Hello Professor
ReplyDeleteI spoke to you earlier today about midterm grades and writing responses. I was wondering if you could tell me what my scores were by tonight and how those scores translate into letter grades because the pass/no pass deadline is tomorrow. I could not find your email on the syllabus, but here is my email: because.apple@gmail.com
Best,
Christina Ho (YISS 2013841056)
Sunghun Jeon - Yojimbo
ReplyDeleteYojimbo is an old movie that already has released more than 50 years from now by one of the most popular Japanese director, Kusawa Arika. This movie is about how one samurai who is treated as a 'boss' or 'bodyguard' depending on each situation punishes the enemies in a small town. Although it could be simply one samuray's heroic story, the director tried to emphasaize on the perspective of human being along with the enemmies' psychological weaknesses and crafitiness. As there are several characters with different personalities from Seibei and Ushitora's gangs including the mother who forces his son to kill the enemy for greedy honor of her family, these characters show that how human being can be extremely changed due to the situation and conflicts they face thoughout the story. Also the old man who helps the master including the scenes of taking the injured boss to the safe place, it indicates a didactic theme of the movie as he was the only person who knew the truth of the issue over the family's survival with seven guards' death. Moreover, the character who always have his own gun and act cowardly in the battles gets killed by the boss in the last scene with his own message of how he recklessly dies as he alived, it indicates another didactic theme in the movie. Not only emphasazing on didactic themes in the movie including Seibei and Uchitora's death, As mentioned above, this movie indicates how human being could be cowardly for their own greedy honors which result badly at the end along with the Boss's victory. Lastly, since this movie is about samurais' story in a small town, which could be oppressive or boring to the audience, there are some silly samurais for humors, but also for audiences to concentrate on the story and actions in the battles such as the samurai who helped the old man and disappeared to help his own boss and the young samurai who tried to call his mom when he gets scared by the boss in the last battle.
Teach rewarding the good and punishing the wicked. This is the main lesson that Yojimbo gives to public. This movie represents the various immoralities that even can be easily found in current society which pasted more than 50 yeaes.
ReplyDeleteIn this movie, the samurai has two diffent roles: one as a assasinator and the other one as a body guard. This fact is really interesting in that the role of samura is ambiguous as the government' sovereignty becomes weaker. Nevertherless the director shows us how the Yojimbo has influence on the both ganster group and the town as a settler.
The one thing that might be disappoined is that the story is too obvious-anyone can expect the result of the movie! So it is contrast to modern tendency whcih mostly arises audience interest by showing them reversal.
It was, however, enought to be called a masterpiece of Japanese movie because the movie's efficient set utilization and overall dedicate film structe maximize the production ability. Thus, Yojimbo bears comparison to be called a artisic moive.
Grace Chang
ReplyDeleteAlthough Yojimbo depicts the most Japanese symbolic figure, samurai, as their protagonist in jidaigeki(時代劇), the major plot and the atmosphere of the movie seem to parallel with Hollywood movies in the past, showing how much Kurosawa Akira was affected by the Western movies. However, the major differences between the common Western films that feature heroes and Kurosawa Akira’s films are the depiction of the characters and variety of themes hidden in the movie. In Yojimbo, Sanjuro is a ronin who cannot just ignore the wrong-doings of the evil, but he also is humorous and knows how to keep his composure even at the critical time of life and death. He is a master of swordsmanship, which just makes him the perfect character from the scratch. However, he displays quite humane and realistic characteristics especially in the scene where he is continually knocked out by the big opponent from Seimei’s side. When he escapes from Seimei after he comes out from the box, he crawls around everywhere, which does neither seem very heroic nor stylish. He also does not recover right away and even tries to fight the evil with sashimi knife when he gets angry after hearing the news that Gonji got captured while he was bringing food to the samurai.
Also, this movie shows how Japanese traditional culture is fading away as the Western modern culture comes in to Japan by using a powerful comparison between gun and a samurai’s sword. Unosuke who uses gun as his main weapon would not have possessed his control of the power if he did not have a pistol. A gun shot happens instantly, and Sanjuro also acknowledges the fact that he would not have time to draw a sword to fight with the man, and he gets captured by Unosuke when they talk about Kohei and the woman. Sanjuro eventually wins the final battle, but he also fades away from the town like what ronin is supposed to be like; he comes and goes to different places like a wind. Japanese still value the idea of samurai and bushi-dou (武士道), but they also cannot simply neglect the changing flow of the time and its periodical differences.
Yojimbo
ReplyDeleteZachary McCoy
Aside from the film being in black and white, the first aspect of the film that really catches my eye (or ear, rather) is the music. The music is a bit prominent from the beginning of the film, but as it goes on in its repetitive manner it becomes seemingly less and less important. Appreciated are the use of drums throughout the score, a sort of droning on and on accompanied by lots of reed sounds; also noticed is the prominent use of the major second and minor third intervals. I questioned whether or not this had any precise meaning behind it, but could not hypothesize one myself. There is something to say about a score that stays "home" in its style dedicated to the film, but also criticism should be noted when it is so "dedicated" that it's borderline... monotonous.
The film had a lot of humor throughout it, but it was hard to discern whether many parts were supposed to actually be humorous or serious. Nonetheless, I feel I appreciate all films when they contain humor. However, you can't watch this film without having something to say about the overacting and extreme facial expressions throughout the work. This came a little too often, particularly because the film was so long and seemed to go nowhere fast.
The final observation I had was during the scene when the samurai was in the barrel and they were carrying him (end of the film). I couldn't help but notice that the barrel was exceptionally whiter than everything else in the picture. Even though the film was in black and white, I found myself questioning whether or not this choice of a whiter color had any meaning behind it.
Tyler McBride
ReplyDeleteYojimbo, directed by Akira Kurosawa, is a film about two crime lords competing for control of a small town. I personally didn't enjoy the film because of the slow pace. However, I understood the overall theme of the film even though it wasn't a personal favorite of mine. Yojimbo represents the breakdown of a society caused by political greed among these two merchants. The control of the town is already in the hands of the silk merchant and sake merchant. Much of the film is about the hiring of a ronin to gain an advantage for control of the town.
Through Yojimbo, one is able to see why Akira Kurosawa is also considered "the most western of Japanese directors". This film has a very "western" feel to it especially considering the camera angles. There are many instances throughout the film where there is a western influence on the camera angles. For example, a camera angle would capture both gangs before a battle. These types of elements represent why Kurosawa is considered a "western" Japanese director.
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ReplyDeleteAkirara Kurosawa’s Yojimbo takes place in a chaotic town, where there are no rules. People, including the merchants and gangsters try to rid themselves of competition and make money as soon as possible. As storyline depicts, Kurosawa had successfully established the film through accumulating violence and murder in a black-and-white film. For an example, in the beginning sequence of the film, the dog walks with a human hand in his jaws. This scenario builds a sudden mood of threat and danger to the story.
ReplyDeleteKurosawa has well intended to incorporate foreshadowing to his movie, forming chaotic and violent acts. In addition, Kurosawa foreshadows just how the action will be shown through similar scenes. When Sanjuro confronts Ushitora’s men for the second time before he cuts off one of their arms, the audience immediately realizes there will be actions starting, without the story directly telling them.
Eunice Won
In the movie “Yojimbo”, I felt that the samurai was neither good nor bad. Although he wanted to save the town, he was going to be the bodyguard of the man who was going to offer him the most money. It kind of depicts reality; even though people want to do good deeds, at times they are going to be selfish. If the samurai wanted both of the crime lords to be destroyed why didn’t he just kill them in the beginning when he had the ability to all along? In this movie, his intentions were very unclear to me from time to time Even though he wanted to save the town; helping to start the fight between the two crime lords seemed to have caused more innocent deaths. Playing with fire has also gotten him to be beaten up, but in the end we can see that the samurai isn’t that bad after all and had some good intentions.
ReplyDeleteI think that the music throughout the movie made a lot of scenes more interesting. The music would get louder as if foreshadowing something intense would happen. The long takes in the movie does a good job of portraying the time period in Japan. With many empty roads, things falling apart and people hiding, it really showed how the town was literally dying. While watching this movie, I was surprised at seeing a gun that the brother of one of the crime lord had. Was the gun symbolizing outside influences in Japan during a time of desperation? Or did it have other meanings? In scenes where the gun appears, things also seemed more intense. I also found it surprising that Seibei’s wife was so controlling when most Japanese women are more submissive, she seemed like the one in charge instead of her husband. In a society like Japan, where people are so interdependent, women aren’t as aggressive and a lot more willing to comply. Seibei’s wife is the total opposite of that and it’s almost as if the director is trying to tell viewers that women can also be the boss in many situations.
Christine Kim
ReplyDeleteI found the role of the “warrior” to be unexpectedly refreshing and unconventional in Yojimbo. Rather than solely embodying the characteristics typically ascribed to a warrior, the protagonist also utilizes his skills to help those in need. Although he certainly capitalizes on the selfish and vindictive objectives of Seibei and Ushitora, the warrior works in ways to gradually benefit the village, as demonstrated by his rescuing of the beautiful woman and her family, in addition to his leaving town after eradicating the town’s gangs. I thought the movie did an interesting job of looking into the human psyche by comparing and contrasting certain aspects and qualities of different characters. The movie was not quite what I anticipated, as I thought the film would be very similar to Kurosawa’s Rashomon, but was rather an interesting blend of genres, including qualities typically present in classic Hollywood westerns.
Ng Hui Shin
ReplyDeleteThis film appears to convey the idea of the power of talk. It seems that mere talk and speculation is enough to foster hatred/awe in people. With just a few suggestions put forth by the samurai, the two enemies pit themselves against each other without checking the facts. This also demonstrates the superficiality of people, who are easily swayed by mere flattery and goading.
Also, the two enemies and the mayor strive to appear normal when the government official arrives, thus bringing into the notion of using facades to cover up weaknesses such as cowardice or imperfections. The notion of false fronts is also explored in the film, where the samurai and the old man take up false fronts of being fierce and mean; but are actually ‘good people’. Seibei, Ushitora, and their men all put on false fronts of being ‘macho’ as well, where in actuality, they are all cowardly and just hiding behind the power of words. Like the samurai then, the audience derives pleasure from watching their futile attempts to appear strong.
While the overall plot is interesting, the film gets boring after awhile due to the predictability of the plot and relative lack of action. Halfway through the film, we know that the samurai will continue goading the two enemies and that both parties will die in the end. Also, there are little action scenes, and where there are, the action usually ends with just a few swishes of the sword. Perhaps except for the last part of the film when the samurai returns to save the restaurant owner then does the pace of the film pick up and feels more like an action film.
Amanda Kim
ReplyDeleteYojimbo was an interesting film to say the least. It combined several different elements that I was not expecting, such as the comedic relief provided by several of the characters who seem to occupy an outwardly important role like the town official and Inokichi, one of Ushitora’s men. As in Rashomon, Kurosawa raises the issue of doubt in human integrity, with the townspeople embroiled in gang conflicts over gambling and the likes.
With each one of the characters, Kurosawa reveals facets of the human nature that seem to betray the code of honor that people, especially samurais, should uphold. All of the gang members were ostensibly tough people, but when it got to the actual fighting they were all cowards. And the leaders of those gangs were easily manipulated by an outsider, the samurai, who exploited their selfish desires against one another for what seemed like his own personal show. The entire film felt like the covertly honorable samurai’s puppet show, so I was interested in the film and what it had to reveal about people, but it wasn’t necessarily groundbreaking for me. One thing I did enjoy, however, was the full circle it made with the scene with the farmer’s son in the end. The son, who ran away from home for a more exciting life, was too scared to even protect himself. And seeing this, the samurai saved the farm boy and used his own line against him saying “go home to your mother and live a long life eating gruel,” which I thought was clever and put a nice cap on the film.
Yomjimbo is another film of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It was interesting movie to talk about. The Samuri tried to stop the fighting between two gangs and he was smart to be manipulate this two gangs. I believe director tried to describe that human is so much more evil than we thinks.
ReplyDeleteThe background of movie was interesting part too where is restricted and limited. The various camera angle was a big part of this movie that can goes well. They kept movie is not boring and entertaining as well. Each character 's facial experssion was interesting too.
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ReplyDeleteWhile watching the film “Yojimbo,” the aesthetic direction strongly reminded me of a cowboy movie, as if our class was watching a movie about gun-slingers ready to shoot it out in a sundown town. The other prominent visual aspects of the film was it’s use of aerial shots and wide shots. Together these components set the visual tone of the movie.
DeleteThe wide shots and aerial shots that capture the actors as well as the setting give the viewer a perspective of the actors and town that is both revealing of the character of the the opposing gangs and the condition of the town. The wide/ aerial shots actually make the town into one of the characters, showing how the gangs have affected it, how people interact with it. The character of the town reminds me a lot of the old man, worn out, longing for peace again and bitter at those who have left both the old man and the town jaded. In addition the wide/ aerial shots during the confrontations between the gangs show their cowardly nature; how they are so willing to condemn the other side but afraid of confrontation. However this gradually changes as Yojimbo begins to sabotage the gangs from within as can be seen in the “Smoke out,” scene when the fear of confrontation is no longer present as the end of one of the gangs can be easily seen.
The present cowboy tone is very apparent as the protagonist enters the town for the first time. Yojimbo walks into the town with a confidence in his stride and posture as if he were untouchable and tells the old man that he will get rid of the gangs, not try, but will. The way these events are portrayed are very similar to how cowboy movies make a lone gun-slinger appear super human. The visual portrayal of this as well as the thematics of it is extremely transferable to the spaghetti western.
Yojimbo is a 1961 film directed by Akira Kurosawa and is about a samurai who cleans up a town terrorized by two conflicting gangs. Written plainly, the film seems simple and clear-cut, but Kurosawa successfully keeps the movie interesting by making use of space within long takes. One scene involves the samurai and the old man having a discussion and watching Tazaemon interact with some men in the background. I thought that making use of the larger characters foreground while focusing on the more important events in the background as the camera pans back and forth was good use of the two spaces. Similarly, another scene has the samurai trying to crawl to the door while the two guards play some game together. The guards are in the foreground, but the focus is on the samurai in the background slowly making his way over as the camera pans over the long take. Usually, in films today, there may be multiple cuts between areas in the background and the characters watching the scene unfold, so it is nice to see seamless takes done so well.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that the music in Yojimbo is a lot more dynamic with jazzy instruments compared to what seemed like constant drum pounding in Kurosawa’s other film, Rashomon (1950), which we watch the first week of class. Along with this, action scenes are better choreographed and more interesting overall compared to the excruciating long random banter between the bandit and samurai of Rashomon. Particularly, the sequence of the confrontation at the end is one example. It is not very long, but the swiftness of the scene fits the “two-bit samurai’s” character as a great swordsman, which adds to his amiability as the protagonist.
The film "Yojimbo" reminds me of Hong Kong action films directed by Xu Ke in several ways, such as the combination of action and comedy, unconventional female characters, and the extensive use of traditional eastern music elements in sound effect. It seems that many later films around the world were influenced by "Yojimbo". I enjoyed watching this film, and I was especially impressed with the depiction of women characters in this film as well as the sound effects.
ReplyDeleteObviously, "Yojimbo" is telling a story about how the protagonist Sanjuro managed to terminate the power of two gangs in the town and thus the whole story is quite male-dominated. However, Kurosawa expressed very powerful cinematic messages through female involvement in "Yojimbo". First, Seibei's wife actually plays vital role in decision making of the Seibei gang. When Sanjuro first came to the Seibei gang, Seibei's wife not only interrupted the conversation between Sanjuro and Seibei in a rude manner but also told Seibei to kill Sanjuro once they defeated Ushitora gang. In many scenes throughout the film, we can tell that Seibei's wife had leading roles in both the whorehouse and the gang in general. This on one hand challenges the traditional patriarchal viewpoints on women. On the other hand, it overthrows the conventional weak and nice profile of women in cinematic works. The other female character, Kohei's wife, represented a totally different view on women. She was captured by one and another like an object rather than human, and she has her devotion and loyalty to her family. The sharp contrast between the two women characters is quite fascinating.
Also, I want to mention the sound effect in this film. Though I have not yet confirmed the musical instrument, but the drum-based melody was used by Kurosawa to create both tension and comedy effects. This melody appeared in most of the scenes. This sound effect created the feeling that Sanjuro used his charisma to treat the whole thing like a game, with both leisure and tension. Interestingly, when Kohei's wife came out, the music was changed into a more emotional one. It symbolizes that even someone like Sanjuro can be touched and pay sympathy to the woman.
Finally, I want to reflect on the character of Sanjuro in the context of heroism. He definitely acted as a hero to overcome all the difficulties and get the town back to peace. However, he is aloof and imperfect. He came to the town by himself, and then left by himself. He and Gonji got alone well, but he was not further attracted to the friendship. Also, he spoke dirty words from time to time. When he was trying to push the Kohei family to escape, he still cursed them as stupid. Sanjuro was actually depicted as a little bit self-centered, without consideration of small details and the feelings of others. However, he acted as the hero who is capable of saving people from suffering. This type of hero was adopted by many later films as well.
Shangqing Li
JiEun Lee
ReplyDeleteYoJimBo
The original meaning of 用心棒, YoJimbo must have more meaning than an English word, bodyguard. Furthermore, Kurosawa Akira depicts how the spirit of Samurai lasts in the time of disorder with the counterculture figure as the protagonist in this film, YoJimBo. Nevertheless, this nameless samurai character (Yojimbo? Sanjuro?) is not even a perfect hero type but a macho wanderer who takes advantage from the fight between two groups. And these humane qualities of Yojimbo such as his laughter, crawling escape and the sasimi knife, create a caricature to balance with the heavy subject-matter of the film.
Not surprisingly, Kurosawa presents each frames and shots beautifully as much as well painted black and white painting. The most interesting thing to me was that I could not know whether the restaurant owner is alive or dead at the scene the bottom of the restaurant owner, so called Oyaji is hanging on the top left until Yojimbo comes for his revenge with his outrageous sandstorm. I was not sure how those few people will renew their villige after that many of death and huge damage however, all the villains are defeated and the good people continue their live.
This film reminded me a lot of a Western film. It included a lot of elements that would typically appear in most Western films (including the somewhat lame fight scenes). It included elements such as the main character having a toothpick in his mouth (reminds me of a cowboy), two sides slowly walking towards each other in a fight in the middle of a deserted street lined with buildings, and a character that upholds justice in some way (freeing the woman). It includes the things that are common to Westerns but it doesn't include the idea of civilization versus the wild explicitly (most of the film's setting was in a town).
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that I found interesting was the music. It didn't seem to fit the setting of the movie, which was Edo Japan. The music was much more upbeat that the typical music presented in action films. The music style was similar to that of silent films. In scenes without dialogue, the music would provide the emotion, much similar to the way that music in silent films do. The music when the girls were dancing was also something that stood out. It was much more fast-paced and had a heavier beat that traditional Japanese dance music.
The combination of these elements made the movie really interesting and it makes it easy to spot the director's style, who was known for being the most Western of the Japanese filmmakers of that time.
Watching Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo was like watching an old Western movie about cowboys. The boarded up town and the two different sides lining up in the street ready to fight were similar to western scenes where the dust ball rolls by and the two men draw their guns. Although I did not particularly enjoy the film, I thought it was interesting to see this western styled movie from a Japanese director.
ReplyDeleteI think this film had similarities to Kurosawa’s Rashamon, such as themes of human fallibility, sin, and corruption. Both films also seem to focus on truth, show patriarchal power in society, and have similar camera movements and rhythm. Yojimbo however seemed to focus on the corruption in society. It shows how chaotic a town could be without any government structure while it also represents corruption in politics and the terrible extent some will go in order to be the top authority. This film also seems to have more of a variety of characters from brave fighters to ignorant men to women prostitutes, the characters were full of different personalities that, I think, kept the film more entertaining than the story line itself.
Jae won Lee
ReplyDeleteI was curious about the meaning of the title 'Yojimbo' and I researched it and found out that 'Yojimbo' means contractor or a bodyguard in Japanese. When I found out the meaning, I thought about the main character samurai that contracts with the town's chief and made the two harmful crew destroy theirselves by weakening them. Anyway he saved the town and protected their peace however and that can lead the meaning as a bodyguard too.
I thought that the actor's acting was really intersting, which seemed over-action to me, and that made some Japanese-style humor itself. Also I thought about the farcical installation, that made the movie more humorous and interesting. The lesson of punitive justice was a bit too accurate and tedious message to me, but anyway considering this movie as an old film, I thought that the movie was well-made with all the basic fundamentals fulfilled. Lastly, I liked the nuance of criticizing the bureaucracy most, expressed by the main character's free and cool attitude.
The job, samurai contains many meaningful significance since long time ago in Japan. They were trustworthy bodyguard, dirty job, and main power of authority in Japan. In this movie'Yojimbo', samurai was executor of justice by protecting people from ruthless behavior of gangs confliction. Peculiar points about this movie that I couldn't easily see from other Japanese movies are samurai's humorous attitude and ridiculous sound effect.
ReplyDeleteSamurai was using both conflicting group's weakness and divide them each other. He wants to hide what he have done to save poor people and acted like he is not related to it. I believe he wants to say that justice should be accomplished without anyone's notice. His several humourous reaction probably have gave good impression of samurai to audience.
In addition, when samurai did some humor, ridiculous sound effect always followed with it. I guess the sound effect was made with traditional Japanese instrument. I have never heard of it. Also, it was not made with artificial machine sound. It was clear sound maded by musician's real perform. It was very sophiticated and impressive.
Yojimbo
ReplyDeleteAs the director Kurosawa is regarded as a one who was influenced by Hollywood production style, it seemed he integrated the style of limited setting (one town) and repetitive appearances of actors (silk and sake merchants) from Western style with traditional “samurai-hood” of Japan. Along with few neutral characters, I saw a beginning of purification and restart of the town at the advent of the Samurai, whose actual name is unknown (this scene reminded me of an advent of Clint Eastwood from “A fistful of Dollars”). The scene where two groups of merchants were about to fight, this manifested that two gangs are just cowards inside, bluffing off outside. I thought this funny scene for two minutes has developed that a samurai character is very important and recruits elements from past (the tradition), and other modes of film constitutes a vital genre of samurai (Silver reading). The style of black and white with very old and traditional clothing of merchants and a samurai brings a lot of importance of director’s analysis and integration of past and developing film techniques.
But visually, despite the facts that examples of the Samurai slaying people does contribute to develop the character of him, this does not necessarily build up a clear genre. Because I could clearly recognize the theme of the movie utilized, as tool, samurai and merchants to show a corrupted and a chaotic society is saved by unknown figure, in reality maybe a power of nature to have a new fresh start (as Samurai indicated).
In the reading, it says, “Kurosawa helped to bring the genre to maturity not merely by injecting it with wry humour but also by fashioning heroes more intent on anonymity than vainglory, more concerned with concealing their martial abilities than displaying them.” This is an important approach that Kurosawa took on Japanese Film, since he actually stirred up his effort to show how actually samurai fights and the blood falling and cutting body parts occur. Only very flaw can be the blood scenes where black and white tones did not quite catch the bloods (it would have been a great scene when the color of red are only color in the screen when bloods comes out).
Overall, techniques of taking a short scroll on each sides of merchants, and one main Samurai in the center as many as possible, Kurosawa regarded the display of characters in the order of importance and this clearly made easier and obvious to understand the plot of the story.