XXVI. The 30 Films of Akira Kurosawa: Yojimbo [1961] (by Lewis Saul)]

Ed note:  For the next several weeks, composer and film aficionado Lewis Saul has agreed to supply us with in-depth commentary about the films of Akira Kurosawa, now showing in an extended festival at the Film Forum. Even if you're unable to stop by the Forum, we think Lew's insights will deepen your appreciation of these important movies.

Yojimbo [1961]

PLAYING February 3rd at The Film Forum

This is Kurosawa's 20th film.

Interestingly, Galbraith (whose book, after all, is a dual-biography of both Mifune and Kurosawa) begins this chapter ("Mulberries, Camellias, and Cacti" [the "cacti" refers to a film Mifune made in Mexico called Ánimas Trujano {El Hombre Importante} |1961|]) with this statement:

"Mifune's next film would be the picture that deeply etched his screen persona, to both good and bad effect, for the rest of his life." [p. 301].

In fact -- although Kurosawa was already an international star after Rashômon (In the Woods) [1950] -- this film perhaps cemented Kurosawa's reputation, as well. There is no way that Galbraith could overstate the degree to which Mifune became an international superstar after this film became so successful! A career-defining performance!

This movie is simply a blast to watch! One hundred and ten minutes pass and you wonder where the time went!

"The story opens in 1860. Mifune, a ronin named Sanjuro, is seen wandering under the opening titles in tight close-ups. His journey is interrupted by the appearance of a farmer's son (Yosuke Natsuki), a youth sick of the rural life, in want of fame and fortune. His father tries to dissuade him, but the farmer's son wants a 'short and exciting life' and runs off. Soon thereafter, Sanjuro reaches a small, hellish town. Windows slide open, and geisha and thugs stare at him suspiciously.

As he walks down the dusty, windswept road, a diminutive but sprightly man, Hansuke (Ikio Sawamura) runs out and tells Sanjuro that the town is torn by civil strife. Two factions are fighting for control of the village. One is led by the local sake merchent, Tokuemon (Takashi Shimura), and his gang boss, Ushitora (Kyû Sazanka); the other by the silk merchant, Tazaemon (Kamatari Fujiwara), and his henchman, Seibei (Seizaburô Kawazu). For the price of one ryo, Hansuke advises Sanjuro to join Seibei's band. Hansuke says he would like to introduce Sanjuro to him but cannot. He's the town constable.

Sanjuro then sets about -- to his great amusement -- playing one side against the other, until the two sides destroy each other and the town is littered with bodies." [pp. 301-2]

**

Criterion has issued two versions of both Yojimbo (Spine #52) and its sequel, Tsubaki Sanjûrô [1962] (Spine #53); in 1999, at the time of the first release, both films were issued separately; in 2006 they were released separately and as a two-DVD boxed-set.

The 1999 release , although official out-of-print, can still be had for a normal price. (Unlike this, for example!) Here are the primary differences between the two versions:

• The frame is letterboxed into a very small area of the screen -- the ratio is correct, but the screen frame is tiny! The music begins under the "Janus Films" screen; continues with English-only screens; first: "SENECA INTERNATIONAL Presents" and a few seconds later under that "A TOHO COMPANY, LTD. PRODUCTION"; the first Kurosawa image of the mountains (sharp harpsichord) has the English super: "Yojimbo/The Bodyguard" and then the copyright info; Mifune walks into the frame as music begins stately theme; "starring TOSHIRO MIFUNE"; "with [11 cast members]"; "music composed by MASARU SATO"; "director of photography KAZUO MIYAGAWA";"executive producers TOMOYUKI TANAKA/RYUZO KIKUSHIMA"; "screenplay by RUYZO KIKUSHIMA/AKIRA KUROSAWA"; 0:02:13: "produced and directed by AKIRA KUROSAWA" -- [jizo statues {the director's credit appears in the same place in the new version}]: Then the English-only supers continue: "The time is 1860 ... the emergence of a middle class has brought about the end to power of the Tokugawa Dynasty ... 0:02:34 [music stops]: "A samurai, once a dedicated warrior in the employ of Royalty, now finds himself with no master to serve other than his own will to survive ... 0:02:50 "... and no devices other than his wit and sword." 0:03:21: CU stick.

Obviously, the new 2006 version is a delight to watch. Hard to believe what we put up with for seven years! The new DVD:

• All new, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Optional Dolby Digital 3.0 soundtrack, preserving the original Perspecta simulated stereo effects
• Audio commentary by film historian and Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
• A 45-minute documentary on the making of Yojimbo, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
• Theatrical trailer and teaser
• Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Alexander Sesonske and notes from Kurosawa and his cast and crew

This booklet is really packed with fantastic stories -- by Kurosawa himself, and important cast and crew such as Tatsuya Nakadai (who plays Onosuke), DP Kazuo Miyagawa (the cinematographer on Rashômon) and Teruyo Nogami (arguably, Kurosawa's most important assistant). A few gems:

"Nakadai: 'Mifune's Sanjuro and your Unosuke are like a stray dog and a snake,' Kurosawa told me. 'Some films place the hero above the villain from the beginning, but that's just boring. If you're going to set two characters against each other, they should be of equal strength . . . No, the bad guy should be made to look even stronger.' Kurosawa flashed me a really cool smile when he said this." [DVD booklet].

Miyagawa's comments -- some of them quite technical -- are nonetheless incredibly revealing.

Nogami talks about the "scarf." The scarf Onosuke wears is, of course, totally inappropriate for the time period -- or is it? "Kurosawa said, 'Hey, why not try wrapping something around your neck?' The rest of us thought it was a bit too much to have a scarf in a period piece, but Kurosawa said, 'Go ahead, give it a shot,' so the wardrobe section tried various pieces of material until, finally, the red plaid scarf was selected. 'Why not?' Kurosawa laughed when it was all decided. 'There were already foreigners in Japan, so Unosuke must have gotten it off one of them!' There's no doubt the effect of that scarf was huge, since it perfectly matched the stylish, yakuza-like side of Unosuke's character."

Remarks derived from Prince's commentary are marked [SP].

• First, a note on the music. Masaru Satô's score is wonderful. I can only infer that Kurosawa left him alone and approved of everything without interference. It would not always be so.
• From the start, his score contains some fascinating instrumental choices -- low saxophones (tenor, baritone), drums, especially bongos -- and, best of all, the lonely melancholy tone of the alto flute!
• Just as the film title comes up over the mountains, he adds the one instrument that makes this score unique: the harpsichord! You will hear it throughout the film, used in many different ways -- lonely icy plunks, or harsh, needle-sharp jabs and stabs ...
• As Mifune starts to walk, the score moves into a jazzy groove. (I have read that Henry Mancini was one of Satô's influences. If so, it is not the kind of "influence" that Brahms and Haydn had on him, several years down the road!)
• Even so, however, if you listen very carefully you can hear that Kurorsawa probably did have his way with Satô in one small way. First, think back to Rashômon (In the Woods) [1950]. Remember the bolero which accompanied the woodcutter's stroll through the forest? Remember how much that sounded like Ravel's Bolero? It didn't annoy you as much as it did me? Fair enough. Here (0:02:11), the music which accompanies Sanjuro's cocky strut is a kind of bolero too -- although there is little "literal" resemblance until this moment when the oboe enters. You can hear the similarity to the Ravel, and I doubt it was accidental.
• The opening is as powerful as any in the Complete Thirty. Behind the white title credit looms a massive snow-capped mountain, which encompasses the entire frame. Mifune walks into the frame, quite close, shrugs his shoulders and scratches himself (two gestures repeated throughout this film and its sequel!). The camera follows him -- still extremely close -- from behind, as he continues to saunter down the road ...
• 0:02:27. The camera suddenly pans down to his feet. Notice the Jizo statues (0:02:43) -- director's credit ...
• He throws the stick and follows the direction in which it points. Notice how Kurosawa films this -- in a wide shot, followed by a medium and then a close-up on the stick and Mifune's feet as he follows it (back to camera) to the unknown adventures which lie ahead!
• Kurosawa reverses field and two new characters burst into the frame as Mifune walks towards us: a man and his son, who is leaving home seeking fame and fortune (he will join the Ushitora gang) as the father tries to hold him back. The historical background behind this trend of farmers seeking to discover a shortcut to prosperity is nicely explained in the commentary [SP].
• Eijirô Tôno makes his appearance here as Gonji, the most important role he ever played in his seven Kurosawa films:
• • 1) Nora inu (Stray Dog) [1949] -- Husband of Yusa's sister
  • 2) Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai) [1954] -- Kidnapper
  • 3) Ikimono no kiroku (I Live in Fear/Record of a Living Being) [1955] -- Old man from Brazil
  • 4) Donzoko (The Lower Depths) [1957] -- Tomekichi the tinker
  • 5) This film [1961] -- Gonji
  • 6) Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low) [1963] -- Factory worker
  • 7) Akahige (Red Beard) [1965] -- Goheiji
• The coffin-maker is an obvious homage to the famous Fred Zinnemann western, High Noon [1952].
• Prince brilliantly discusses the "economic" war behind the gangsters' facade -- in other words, the two wealthy merchants who are pulling all the strings from the shadows. We meet both sets of gangsters before we meet either of these evil merchants [SP].
• 0:12:59. This spectacular scene begins when Sanjuro follows Gonji into another room where Gonji is looking outside through a window. Sanjuro moves directly behind Gonji -- blocking him from the camera -- and the frame forms a two-shot: Sanjuro on the left and the window on the right, which frames our new characters, Ushitora's brother, Inokichi (Daisuke Katô) and a few other guys from the gang. Then, Kurosawa pans left to include the coffin-maker (Atsushi Watanabe) and we now have a three-shot. It is subtle, but extremely beautiful.
• Re: the wide-screen format: "Miyagawa felt that wide-screen film was like emakimono, the narrative picture scrolls of Japan's 12th and 13th centuries, which often portrayed multiple events within composition, using architecture to mark off separate incidents" [SP].
• Around the 17-minute mark, Prince discusses how Mifune is really a Kurosawa stand-in here for all of AK's delightful fantasies about getting rid of gangsters and evil rich men. "Sanjuro sometimes acts like a film director, arranging scenes" [SP].
• 0:19:00. For a technical description of the mayhem Sanjuro commits here, see [SP].
• 0:19:35. Prince is hysterical. "Down goes the arm!" But he does point out what may not be so obvious to today's viewer -- that this sort of thing was "unprecedented in 1961." There had never been anything like this played for laughs. And people did (and do) laugh! [SP]
• The arm -- like the hand in the dog's mouth -- is pretty darned realistic for a 1961 prop! You can freeze frame right about here and capture (I wish I had the equipment) a nice shot of the gangster who just got his arm cut off, which is lying on the ground, still holding the sword, with the lower bodies of a large crowd behind him. Completely Epic.
• Interested in how the coinage (ryo) is figured? Prince elucidates. For example, I never knew that Edo was "gold-only" while Kyoto and Osaka used both silver and copper, as well [SP].
• 0:21:36. Seibei's wife, Orin (Isuzu Yamada [Yamada appeared in only three Kurosawa films {Kumonosu-jo |Throne of Blood| \1957\; Donzoko |The Lower Depths| \1957\} and this picture], but she had important roles in all three and turned in really magnificent performances), pulls him out of the room without even bothering to introduce herself to Sanjuro. Remember, Sanjuro is the "magic samurai" who represents Kurosawa -- so here he simply picks himself up and steals into the other room to eavesdrop on their conversation -- as opposed to just cutting directly to Seibei and wife and son!
• Orin is not such a nice mommy. " ... whether you kill one or 100, you only hang once!" 
• 0:24:08. This scene is so good that Kurosawa repeats it nearly verbatim in the sequel. Sergio Leone liked it a lot, too. The character Leone and Clint Eastwood created/ripped-off is even called "The Man With No Name."
• This page is really amazing! It charts the similarities of actions between this original and the two non-Kurosawa sequels which followed. Must reading!
• 0:28:35. If you haven't got hold of the satire yet, here it is plain and simple: in a normal "western" the hero would step forward with his gang and confront the enemy gang in grand style. Certainly, the writer might introduce a plot twist or two, but the audience would get their fill of thrilling hero-like chambara ...
• Here, however, Sanjuro -- having already overheard the plot sealing his fate -- drops the 25 ryo on the ground contemptuously and climbs the fire look-out to watch the show.
• 0:47:52. Check out the boat in the water at the bottom of the frame, beneath the steps! You don't expect to see a boat in this movie!
• Sanjuro follows the two Ushitora hoods outside, captures them, and turns them over to Seibei.
• 0:52:06. Satô Mickey-Mouses the scene -- scoring Ushitora's footsteps as he descends the steps, stunned by Sanjuro's news about his talkative men! A brilliant scene -- and as Prince points out, contrary to the "Hollywood book" on such matters! In this case, it works beautifully ...
• 0:56:01. An absolutely astonishing bit of formalistic -- but extremely beautiful -- filmmaking! A wipe right and we are looking at the deserted street at 2:00 AM. Hansuke's clappers signal the onset of action (like a Kabuki play) ... he turns in both directions ... From this slightly elevated crane shot, we see Hansuke scamper away as Seibei (in the distant background) and Ushitora (foreground) saunter out onto the street. Matching cuts of Seibei ("ready, Ushitora?") and Ushitora ("we're coming, Seibei!") ... holding on Ushitora as his hostages are brought out ... cut to Seibei for the mirror image, etc.
• "That was amusing," Sanjuro comments after the scene is over (which we have obviously been seeing through his POV).
• Yoshio Tsuchiya is excellent as Kohei, the sorry gambler who lost his wife to Tokuemon.
• 1:05:21. Sanjuro has just said how he "hates" guys like Kohei. However, as SP says, "we know better." He is about to take direct actions against the gangs for the first time. To rescue Kohei's wife, Nui (Yôko Tsukasa), he puts his plan in motion in this scene with Inokichi and Ushitora.
• 1:07:20. Neat axial cut.
• 1:09:10. Mifune wrecks the room. An amazing scene -- a samurai fighting the inanimate; it's very exciting for some reason!
• 1:11:16. Prince is very funny. As Ushitora and his men rush into the wrecked house, he points out: "[Sanjuro/Mifune] is simultaneously the director and the set designer of this show. (Dead bodies strewn all over the place): ... and you can see how well he's arranged everything." I like it when the commentary makes me laugh [SP].
• 1:12:53. Like a composer orchestrating a huge fanfare, Kurosawa lights up Nakadai's face with a burst of flames from the silk factory! Incredible.
• 1:19:00. Another Prince gem which taught me something I had not previously known. This scene was apparently inspired by Stuart Heisler's 1942 film, The Glass Key.
• 1:25:00. Watch how (as usual) the character (Sanjuro) spots something which we have not yet seen. His eye lights up -- and watch how the lighting on that one eye gets brighter and brighter! It is, of course, the chest in which he will hide. (A few cuts ago, someone said, "don't get any blood on that chest," giving us a subtle heads-up about something upcoming) ...
• 1:27:50. Prince informs that this would be completely obvious to any Japanese viewer -- it refers to the famous Kabuki play "Chūshingura" (or Forty-seven Ronin).
• 1:33:20. Sanjuro as film director? It is quite evident here, as Gonji and the casket maker are carrying him out in a coffin and set him down. "Not here," he says -- he wants a better vantage point! Sanjuro as film director!
• 1:34:00. The sound of sword slashing flesh had never been recorded as it is here.
• 1:38:04. Prince's commentary on this scene with Inokichi and Gonji in the graveyard focuses on how Yojimbo really operates on so many different levels. It is worth quoting:
• • " ... we have our fun, but Kurosawa is being very honest with us here -- and with himself. In reality, samurai like Sanjuro would be the great historical losers in the drama Kurosawa is giving us. The merchant class would take over Japan and the samurai would disappear forever -- so it is fitting that Sanjuro is taken to a cemetery, where Gonji will tell him that he looks more dead than alive. Sanjuro is a spectre. He is a ghost that will be created by history -- and he's also a spectral figure created by Kurosawa's imagination -- a figure of fantasy, given form by the intensity of Kurosawa's wishes that history might have taken a different course and by the depth of his animosity for the political and economic reach of the yakuza in modern Japan" [SP].
• 1:40:11. Kurosawa had a sharp eye and goofs in his films are pretty rare. You can clearly see the black string attached to the knife (which was used to pull the knife out -- the film is then reversed).
• 1:41:22. How about that wipe across Mifune's terrible face here!! 
• 1:41:33. Notice the Mickey-mousing again when Sanjuro first spots Gonji!
• 1:44:00. The entire sequence can be thoroughly enjoyed by using the pause and slow-motion buttons on your DVD! There is so much fast cutting and Mifune himself is so fast that things get blurry.
• 1:44:26. For example, I just noticed for the first time that the very last Ushitora thug that he kills is Jun Tatara, who played the first coolie in Seven Samurai. He is not credited, but I'm quite sure that it is him.
• This is the only film which Kurosawa intentionally used to produce a true sequel. The wartime government had pretty much forced him to make the sequel to Sugata sanshiro (Judo Saga) [1943]. Sugata II shows how disinterested the director really was. Thank goodness for the sequel. It is quite different from this film in many ways -- but it is also great, fun filmmaking and in no way can be considered inferior to this film. Next up -- Tsubaki Sanjûrô [1962]
• There are 19 wipes in this film, all horizontal (9l/15r)