MEET AN UNLIKELY HERO : "YOJINBO"

I now invite you to take a step back in time – in more senses than one. First of all, we are back in the ‘60s because we are about to “view” the work of master Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. As far as the storyline goes, we go back even further, to 19th century Japan. If ever there was a schism with day to day life ladies and gents, we are standing right upon it so to speak. Because this is what this film is, a little bit of fun and escapism mixed with a little bit of class and history.
Sanjuro (the charismatic Toshiro Mifune, one of Kurosawa’s favorite actors, for very good reason I might add) is a wandering samurai and a hired sword. He is a master swordsman and therefore in those troubled and dangerous times, unlike most people, he is able to do whatever he likes… On his travels, he happens across a small and very poor village. This little village is in trouble. The son of the old “patron”, who used to run the village, has broken away from his father with his two brothers and has started a rival gang of his own. The war of the two gangs is wreaking havoc on the poverty stricken villagers and the only person actually profiting from the whole thing is the undertaker. Sanjuro decides that this cannot go on and that he must put this mess to rights. Clean-up won’t be pretty by any means, but one thing you can be sure of, Sanjuro will use his own unique methods to do so…
I’m not sure if I even need to point out how much this film has in common with the genre we commonly call a “western” today. To the point that famous spaghetti western director Sergio Leone was greatly impressed by Mifune’s character Sanjuro. It’s all too familiar isn’t it though – at first glance, anyway? A lawless town, rival gangs – full, of course, of dangerous men escaping from the law – the people caught in the middle of them. The nameless tall, dark stranger arriving in town to put things right… Even the joke of the undertaker loving the whole thing can be found in Lucky Luke comics, as people old enough (i.e. me) can testify. Well, if you think you’ve seen it all before, look again. Yes, Yojinbo is a Kurosawa and a genre we have seen before, but by no means does it take itself too seriously. The opening credits and the upbeat music set the tone, and scattered throughout, there are subtle jokes, placed in a way so as to compliment the whole plot without taking it over ,in a way only Asian sensitivity can. I mean, if you ‘re talking about a film that depends so much on “believing” in the goings on (small matters like Sanjuro being able to kill 10 men in 10 seconds) if it takes itself too seriously, you end up just not taking it seriously at all. If, however, the film takes the mickey out of itself ever so slightly, things are sort of… You know, balanced out. The rival gangs and gang members are priceless in many ways and Sanjuro laughs openly at the absurdity of some situations, inviting us to do the same. Then, when our perspective is seemingly closer to his, we can forgive his killing 10 men in 10 seconds. He’s “our guy” in the film, we can cut him some slack.
In short, Yojinbo is a really fun adventure. It is also technically the film I should have mentioned BEFORE Sanjuro that I posted last week - Sanjuro is actually the further aventures of the character... I mean storyline-wise there is no harm in watching one or the other first but one should respect chronology whenever one can I feel - I appologise for the confusion anyway =)