A blockbuster in spirit, if not in name, Yojimbo is perhaps one of the smartest movies I've seen yet. By blending crisp direction, melding humor, action, and cool-as-ice heroes, fleshing out peripheral characters that could have ended up as flat caricatures, and leaving us wanting so much more, Kurosawa seems to have made a movie for anyone with an ounce of testosterone in them.

On the surface, the tale is about two warring gangs in an all-but-walled-off city. Examining aspects of the gang war, we are witness to the effect on business, warfare, and the feeling of helplessness by the rest of the population. I understand the story was loosely adapted from a 1931 Dashiell Hammett novel, but can not…

Part 27 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Japanese origin as per its listing on imdb.

Forgive me lords of cinema but I just didn't enjoy this classic as much as I think I was supposed to. Pretty universally loved, Kuroswa's tale of Sanjuro the ronin and how he cleaned up the town with no name left me frustrated more than anything.

Of course it is a well told story with excellent visual style, it is Kurosawa, but it sure does amble along at its own pace with a series of unnecessary plot points that meander all over the place, half an hour less and…

Yojimbo and Sanjuro are the films that gave Toshiro Mifune his most iconic roles, arguably the coolest in movie history. His name in these films, Sanjuro Kuwabatake / Tsubaki Sanjuro, which I loosely translated into «Bachelor Ryefield», is something he invents on the spot. Sanjuro means something like approximately 30 years, but he is soon to add that he's closing in on forty. He finds his surname by looking out the window. Such scenes make movie history.

The story of Yojimbo, I dare say, is well known. The ronin Sanjuro strolls into a small town where he soon finds that there are two gangs fighting to control it. By some clever scheming he manages to get himself employed at both…

I continue to slowly but surely dive deeper and deeper into Akira Kurosawa's filmography and also continue to be unquestionably impressed. Although probably not as much of a widely-recognized milestone as some of his previous works, Yojimbo is quite possibly the most entertaining movie of Kurosawa's I've seen thus far.

When a wandering ronin, Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune), enters a small town, he quickly discovers that a gang war is preventing inhabitants and merchants from leaving a peaceful life. Going against a restaurant owner's warnings, the masterless samurai decides to clean the town of all the hooligans terrorizing it by simply playing both sides to get the two gangs to kill each other off.

It probably goes without saying, but Mifune…

Try as I might, I just can’t seem to get into Yojimbo. I didn’t like it when I watched it a few years ago. I had trouble paying attention when I watched it just a few days ago, so I tried again a few days later, and it still didn’t capture me in the way that Sanjuro did.

It is a beautiful film - Kurosawa is a master of depth of field, and composes some of the most interesting shots. Just look at this shot, where the two sides are battling. The ronin sits atop the tower, in the far distance, watching the rival gangs fight. At first you see the men in the background, two diagonal lines moving back…

Part 27 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Japanese origin as per its listing on imdb.

Forgive me lords of cinema but I just didn't enjoy this classic as much as I think I was supposed to. Pretty universally loved, Kuroswa's tale of Sanjuro the ronin and how he cleaned up the town with no name left me frustrated more than anything.

Of course it is a well told story with excellent visual style, it is Kurosawa, but it sure does amble along at its own pace with a series of unnecessary plot points that meander all over the place, half an hour less and…

Watched to celebrate my friend Oliver joining Letterboxd. Kurosawa is a director I like and respect obviously, but the acclaim and greatness basically eludes me. Seven Samurai and Rashomon I found ok, but didn't love, and the less I say about Ikiru, the better - but that's a discussion for a different day. I'm still far from being sold on Kurosawa as one of the greatest ever, but let's just say that with this film, I'm starting to at least see the argument.

The moment that perhaps ever so slightly pushed me in the direction of swaying to Team AK was towards the end - a brilliant widescreen shot of our protagonist walking into the open, with dust willowing behind…

I continue to slowly but surely dive deeper and deeper into Akira Kurosawa's filmography and also continue to be unquestionably impressed. Although probably not as much of a widely-recognized milestone as some of his previous works, Yojimbo is quite possibly the most entertaining movie of Kurosawa's I've seen thus far.

When a wandering ronin, Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune), enters a small town, he quickly discovers that a gang war is preventing inhabitants and merchants from leaving a peaceful life. Going against a restaurant owner's warnings, the masterless samurai decides to clean the town of all the hooligans terrorizing it by simply playing both sides to get the two gangs to kill each other off.

It probably goes without saying, but Mifune…