Although it lacks the scope of THE SEVEN SAMURAI, THRONE OF BLOOD, and other more widely known films by the celebrated Akira Kurosawa, the 1961 YOJIMBO (also known as BODYGUARD) is one of the most important films of the second half of the 20th Century--and a film that was deeply influenced by American film. Even so, YOJIMBO stands on its own merits: it's a magnificent piece of cinema that will fascinate even those who normally turn up their noses at "movies with subtitles."In theory, the film is based on the 1929 Dashiell Hammett novel RED HARVEST--but transports the basic story to a period in Japan when the Samurai class has fallen on hard times and must seek employment as common body guards. Sanjuro Kuwabatake (brilliantly played by Toshiro Mifune, who appeared in several Kurosawa films) is such a one, a scruffy looking and aging warrior who finds himself caught between warring factions of a Japanese village and responds by playing the two against each other.
One of the film's greatest assets is its visual style. Kurosawa is very clearly influenced by the look of the American western here, and most particularly so, in my opinion, by HIGH NOON. Consequently, YOJIMBO leaps the cultural divide with considerable ease--but Kurosawa uses the images of empty streets and the lone warrior to considerably different effect, presenting him as a dangerous figure who emerges from the dust and the wind to rip wide his foes. But the film does not rely on visual style alone: there is plenty of hard substance here, too. The plot is tightly wound, action-intensive, and laced with a dry and very black humor, and the cast is superlative throughout.
As it borrowed from the American movie western, so did it influence American film in return, most obviously in the form of the popular Clint Eastwood "spaghetti westerns" of the 1970s--where it was essentially remade as A FIST FULL OF DOLLARS. But frankly Clint Eastwood never had it so good: with Kurosawa at the helm and Mifune as the lead, Eastwood's "lone stranger" feels mighty tame in comparison.
The Criterion DVD offers the film in original widescreen and in the best possible condition short of a full digital restoration. As noted elsewhere, there are occasional blips and lines--but honestly the film is so driving that you will barely notice them. The subtitles also seem to be a better translation than I've seen in any other version. YOJIMBO was my introduction to Japanese cinema. I urge you to let it be yours as well.
GFT, Amazon reviewer
Most arm-chair critics do not take into account or acknowledge companies like Criterion need to pay royalties for the right to release films! And the royalty often come with an expiration date. An example of this is Kurosawa's 1985 film RAN was released on DVD and was scheduled to be released on Blu-ray only to have the rights expired. It was reverted back to Studio Canal, who eventually decided to release their own Blu-ray/DVD instead (at the time of this writing). Royalties/licenses are primary reasons why the following 5 titles are missing from this collection to make it COMPLETE:
The Quiet Duel
Dersu Uzala
Ran
Dreams
Rhapsody in August
I'm not an industry insider nor do I work for Criterion so I do not know the business decisions those 5 films aren't included in this collection. Remember, Criterion is business first, film purist second. My guess is it is not for the lack of trying to obtain the rights to release those 5 in this boxset. It's possible that either the license/copyright owners want too much money or there might not have been a great film print to begin with and it would take even longer for a set like this to be released! It's not like Criterion is sitting around with nothing to do =P. So, it isn't really Criterion's fault for not including every single film Akira Kurosawa has directed! This boxset is already monumental for the fact that Criterion took the time to do it in the first place! For that, I am grateful!
Note: Those Who Make Tomorrow (1946) is not included because Kurosawa himself disowned this film because Toho studio forced him to direct it for the sake of union. Google it and you'll find out why. I've seen this film and Kurosawa is correct, it is not even close to being Kurosawa-lite! IMDB lists 31 FULL Length features that Kurosawa has directed, but it should be 30 total.
Now, onto the set itself! Every single film in this set is presented in the usual excellent picture quality and audio presentation Criterion is known for! If you have purchased Criterion products in the past, you already know that they deliver the very BEST technical film presentation than anyone else in the industry. So if you were wondering what if Criterion skimped on quality, I would stop wondering. They did not skimp on anything in this boxset! All grain is preserved and the picture is clear and sharp and audio cleaned up so you can hear everything. Pretty good for 60+ year old film negatives on the early films!
Ok, so there is probably only 1 film that you are wondering how they can squeeze what was once a 2 disc high bitrate release (from the 3 disc edition) down to 1 disc. I'm talking about the Seven Samurai, of course. I have to remind you that Criterion has released that title 3 times (correct me if I'm wrong). The first is the barebone movie only version during the early days of DVDs, it was not even anamorphic I don't think. The second release, Criterion took the video from the first, cleaned it a bit, and added more bonus/extra. There is a progressive improvement, but nothing like the third release (the 3disc edition). This latest edition is the definitive remastering of the film negative that is so sharp and awesome they needed 2 discs (it is an almost 4 hour movie after all). Anyways, back to this set. Did Criterion do Seven Samurai justice by squeezing what was once 2 discs into 1 disc? Absolutely. Why? Improvements in MPEG-2 compression knowledge and technology over the years. MPEG-2 is a VERY mature codec by now. It's been 13+ years since DVDs debuted. Every year or so it has improved more and more, squeezing more quality out of less disk space than previously required. So rest assured everything else is golden here. It's not the *SAME* as the 3 disc, but it also not as poor as the first 2 edition releases. But if you love Seven Samurai like I do, you should already own the 3disc release (or the Blu-Ray ;)
That brings to me to why I gave this 3 stars. Before I purchased this AK 100: 25 Films of Akira Kurosawa boxset, the only Kurosawa Criterion I owned is the 3 disc Seven Samurai DVD because I had been waiting for a boxset like AK 100 to come along! The Seven Samurai is my favorite film of all time and Akira Kurosawa is my favorite director of all time, but I never bought AK movies on DVD because I've been waiting for a "definitive" Criterion collection to complete the collection all at one fell swoop. Unfortunately, Criterion did not release this set with those intentions in mind. This boxset included is only the films themselves and nothing more. Some of the films that were previously released like Hidden Fortress had bonus features. In my dream, I wished that Criterion included *ALL* previous double disc and the entire bonus content releases for ALL the AK films that they have. That would have made this more like $500-700 though. I know that would have been priced way out of my price range!
Which makes me wonder who this set is target. I know one of the audiences they want to bring in are people who have never purchased any AK films. It would seem like I am their target... yet I am disappointed because they didn't include all the PREVIOUSLY released bonus/extras! Before I got this, I assumed that this boxset would include EVERYTHING, my 3 disc Seven Samurai, all of the Criterion AK movies that have been released and previously unreleased material with even MORE bonus material. Instead I'm left with JUST THE FILMS themselves, which isn't bad at all! They are excellent films! It's just I feel cheated now because I'm expected to be brought upto speed w/the rest of the AK collectors (over the years) who have purchased the single disc editions for the bonus/extras. Instead, I'm left with the impression that Criterion is basically saying: "you should have been buying those AK Criterion releases all along, we were never going to include the bonus/extras in a boxset you silly goose!"
Those that have been collecting every single AK releases by Criterion will not buy this set. They will probably wait for the eventual Essentials/Eclipse package that will include the ones that they are missing (the early films especially). Or they can wait for the individual releases.
Hope this review is helpful for those who either don't have any AK films or have some or have all of them so far.
Buy Yojimbo (The Criterion Collection) (1961) Now
As there is so much written about this Box I want to share my opinion on it too !First of all you already know that these DVDs are plain film,no extras!For a price around 300 dollars that's absolutely unacceptable,even though the films themself are pure masterpieces!
So my 5 Star-Rating only concerns the films,but not this poor release.
But even if the films don't contain any bonusmaterial,why are they also don't feature optional soundtrack-versions like a few of the individual Criterion-Releases have?
For instance the individual Release of "Rashomon" (Spine No. 138)also contains an optional english dubbed soundtrack.
The individual Criterion-releases of "The Hidden Fortress" (Spine No.116) , "Yojimbo" (Spine No.52) and "Sanjuro" (Spine No.53) also contain an optional 3.0 Soundtrack,while the releases in this box are only monaural. The individual release of "Throne of Blood" (Spine No. 190) contains 2 different subtitles to choose. One from japanese film translator Linda Hoaglund,the other from Donald Richie.The DVD in this box only features the Donald-Richie-Subtitles.
And of course the film "Dodes'ka-den".....While in 1995 released on Criterion-Laserdisc (LD 291)with a 1,66/1 format,the later DVD-Release was cut to a 1,33/1 format (The individual release (Spine No. 465) as well as the DVD in this box)!
And don't let anyone fool you by telling you how good the quality of the picture and sound are.The 4 early films that are released here for the first time ("Sanjiro Sugata part 1 and part 2","The Most Beautiful" and "Those who Tread on the Tigers Tail")have a poor picture and sound quality.In fact even someone who's able understanding the japanese language can't watch the films "Sanjiro Sugata Part 1 and 2" without subtitles.The soundtrack is to poor to understand the whole film.
The 5 films that have already been released as Eclipse Series 7 ,Postwar Kurosawa("No Regrets for Our Youth","One Wonderful Sunday","Scandal","The Idiot" and "I live in Fear") have a better picture and sound then those four films mentioned before,but still not the ultimate.I got better releases of some of these five films from other countries in my collection.
But the other 15 films that are also individually available from Criterion do have a brilliant picture and sound !!!
At last one really positive thing is that this collection contains the 3-hour japanese cut of the film "Kagemusha",not the 2 and a half hour international cut that's avalable all over the world.
Sad Thing is that "The Quiet Duel","Dersu Uzala","Ran" and "Dreams" are not included in this box(I Love those films !).
As some other reviews already stated,the missing of "Rhapsody in August" is Ok.(I don't like That film!)
But those 5 films are individually available.
"Ran" as Criterion-Collection Double-DVD Spine No.316.But if you want the Criterion-DVD then you must be fast ,it's already OOP (Out Of Print).
Read Best Reviews of Yojimbo (The Criterion Collection) (1961) Here
I love Toshiro Mifune. It's so wonderful to see him play this character. He cracks me up every time he does his little shoulder-twitch character trait. Brilliant!SANJURO delves a little deeper into his samurai character. There's some themes about killing and comparisons of his character to a good sword that should be sheathed. Other than that, it is flat-out adventure on the menu!
Again, Kurosawa is a wonderful story teller. I find his work (the three films I've seen so far -HIDDEN FORTRESS, YOJIMBO, and this one) to be so economical. He can add a wrinkle to the story with one word; one look. He truly transcends the language barrier because the storytelling is so good.
I thought Criterion did another good job with the transfer. The trailer does, indeed, feature Kurosawa directing Mifune in an action sequence, which is interesting. I wish Criterion would use pictures on its chapter lists. When I want to access a certain scene and am unfamiliar with the movie it is hard to do based on chapter names that make no sense to me. Other than that, no qualms about the rest of the DVD.
Next, I'd love to see HIDDEN FORTRESS on DVD. Criterion, are you listening ?
Want Yojimbo (The Criterion Collection) (1961) Discount?
Those looking for redeeming social messages might want to look elsewhere, but if you're in the mood for a violent, stylishly shot, and decidedly nihilistic good time you should be sure to give Yojimbo a look. Presaging the role Clint Eastwood would soon make famous in the Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, not to mention countless action-movie leading men since, Yojimbo helped to introduce the concept of the amoral antihero as main character, as well as give cinema (Japanese or otherwise) one of its all-time most fascinating figures. Played by the great Toshiro Mifune at his glowering, imperious best, samurai-turned-drifter Sanjuro Kuwabatake is one of film history's great protagonists-hard drinker (don't interrupt Sanjuro when he's enjoying his sake), master strategist, seemingly peerless swordsman, and unapologetic self-seeker. He's the kind of guy you can't help but like; even if his actions would be considered reprehensible in most times and places, at least he doesn't proclaim any lofty ideals or lay claim to any moral high ground while killing people. As a samurai with no master and no clan to owe allegiance to, going through a time of flux in Japan, Sanjuro enters a world where old values don't apply and he has only his own survival to think about. Since he's found himself where life is cheap, the movie seems to be saying, Sanjuro's actions, underhanded or not, are as justifiable as anyone else's. Besides, as Sanjuro himself notes, at least the people he kills are even worse than he is.Anyway, as the movie opens, Sanjuro wanders into a town where commerce is at a virtual stop (with the exception of the local undertaker's business, which is thriving) and the factions of two local bosses are fighting each other for dominion. Sanjuro quickly sees there's money to be made off the conflict for anyone with his combination of flexible morality and astonishing skills with a sword, and he just as quickly starts playing the two sides against each other to see which boss will dig deeper to procure his services. As hostilities escalate, there's all sorts of conniving and backhanded maneuvering from everyone involved, with occasional breaks for Sanjuro to slice and dice whatever poor folks get in the way of his objectives. The violence obviously isn't as graphic or realistic as what you'll get from later color movies, but the battle scenes are shot in a nicely frenetic and unflinching manner, even if they consist largely of Sanjuro cutting through his opponents without breaking much of a sweat. At the very least, the fight scenes here are certainly preferable to the constant CGI-fests action fans are subjected to nowadays.
It becomes evident early on that this movie isn't going to be entirely serious (if the bouncy, jokey score doesn't clue you in, the dog running up to the main character with a severed hand in its mouth might), but the comic elements don't subtract from the movie's violent, morally ambiguous nature. If anything, the film's humor plays up the absurdity of the conflict into which the protagonist enters and the principals involved in it. In one scene that's especially indicative of the movie's cynical point of view, Sanjuro excuses himself from a planned battle right before it starts, and proceeds to watch with amusement as the two sides tentatively approach each other and back off over and over, obviously not feeling quite as brave as they did before it actually came time to fight.
All humor aside, though, this is still a technically stunning movie, especially in its visual depictions of its stark 19th-century setting. The cinematography features tons of great, sweeping shots of a town square as desolate physically as it is morally; the final battle is especially well-shot, with the two sides (Sanjuro and everybody else) slowly moving towards each other as the wind blows dust all around them, the score turning darker in order to ratchet the tension up even more.
It's obviously not an easy task to rank this movie among Kurosawa's filmography, although of the several that I've seen I'd put this one a very small notch below The Seven Samurai for the number-one spot. That said, though, in terms of ideas, influence, and sheer coolness of its protagonist, Yojimbo belongs on the short list of the greatest movies of all time. Guy-movie enthusiasts everywhere owe it a watch or two.
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