Yojimbo (1961)

There's a particular kind of confidence that comes with sitting down to watch a Kurosawa film. You're not hoping it'll be good. You know it's going to be good. With Yojimbo, that confidence is rewarded in full, and then some. This is one of those films so perfectly constructed, so irresistibly entertaining, that it's been remade, reworked and outright stolen from more times than most directors could count. A Fistful of Dollars. Last Man Standing. The basic skeleton has turned up everywhere, and yet the original still feels utterly alive more than six decades on.

The premise is beautifully simple. A wandering, masterless samurai strolls into a town being torn apart by two feuding criminal factions, sizes up the situation in about thirty seconds, and decides to play both sides against each other for his own amusement and, eventually, profit. It's a con-artist story dressed up as a samurai film, and it works because Toshiro Mifune is absolutely, unequivocally fantastic in the lead role. I don't think I've ever seen Mifune in a film where he wasn't magnetic, and this might be his most magnetic performance of the lot. Every twitch of his shoulders, every scratch of his beard, every sidelong glance radiates a kind of lazy, dangerous intelligence. He's a man who's already three moves ahead, and he wants you to know it, and somehow that never tips over into smugness. It's an extraordinary piece of physical acting.

And Kurosawa, directing him, is working at the height of his powers. The framing, the pacing, the way tension gets wrung out of a single long street with two groups of men eyeing each other from opposite ends, it's filmmaking that feels completely assured. I've said before that Kurosawa might be the greatest director who ever lived, and nothing about Yojimbo makes me want to walk that back. If anything, revisiting his films in sequence only deepens the admiration. I'd point anyone who hasn't explored his work yet toward Ikiru (1952) and High and Low (1963) as further proof that the man was operating on a different level entirely.

Now, I should be honest about the bits that don't entirely land, because this isn't a perfect film. Some of the supporting players, particularly a few of the more broadly comic characters among the gangsters, are essentially caricatures. They mug, they flail, they exist to be ridiculous. In isolation, played straight, that might grate. But Yojimbo is a film that's in on the joke. It's goofier than people sometimes give it credit for, and I think that's part of its charm. Kurosawa isn't making a solemn meditation on violence and bushido here. He's having fun. The whole thing has a gleeful, almost roguish energy, and once you tune into that frequency, even the broadest comedy strokes feel like they belong.

What's remarkable, really, is how well the tonal juggling act holds together. Scenes of genuine menace sit right next to moments of slapstick absurdity, and it never feels jarring. That's down to Mifune anchoring everything. However daft things get around him, he stays completely credible as someone you wouldn't want to cross. The violence, when it finally comes, is quick and brutal in a way that reminds you this is not a pantomime.

If you've seen Sanjuro (1962), the direct follow-up, you'll know that Kurosawa and Mifune returned to this character almost immediately. Sanjuro is a fine film in its own right, but revisiting Yojimbo makes clear just how special the original is. The setup is sharper, the stakes feel more finely balanced, and the central performance has an energy that's harder to define and impossible to look away from.

A near-masterpiece, and essential viewing. Four and a half stars.

Rating: ★★★★½  | Year: 1961  | Watched: 2025-04-13

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Akira Kurosawa: High and Low (1963) · Stray Dog (1949) · Throne of Blood (1957) · Ikiru (1952)
More with Toshirō Mifune: High and Low (1963) · Stray Dog (1949) · Throne of Blood (1957) · Sanjuro (1962)
More from Japan: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Blue (1993) · The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
More from the 1960s: Viy (1967) · Persona (1966) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · Daisies (1966)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)