Yojimbo (1961)

In the words of Jean, The Yojimbo is a badass. Amid the cowardice and foolishness that is rampant in the overrun town, he is a beacon of hope who fights on the side of justice, although no one knows it when he first arrives. He is a Western archetype in Japanese clothing, a nameless loner who only refers to himself as “Kuwabatake Sanjuro” (“Mulberry field, Thirty-something”) and who comes to save the helpless town.

Sanjuro is a stark contrast to the criminals who have taken the town captive. My favorite depiction of these criminals is during the scene in which Sanjuro sits on a platform, watching the two gangs confront each other. When one gang moves forward, the other gang cowers back a little, and they continue this until they are stopped by news of the approaching inspector, much to the humorous relief of the gangs. This scene is an interesting commentary on courage, Sanjuro’s honor intact as he watches the pathetic scene below him. This theme of courage is one of the more notable themes in the film as everything the gangs do relates back to courage (or lack thereof). Similar to the above mentioned scene, the gangs avoid physical confrontation when they can, resorting to the destruction of property (burning the silk building, leaking the sake containers, etc.) and scare tactics (abducting the woman). Gonji the innkeeper is particularly clever when he uses the gang member Inokichi’s pride against him by convincing him that he needed someone courageous to help him carry a dead body to the cemetery, at which he had seen ghosts; Inokichi doesn’t realize that his fake display of courage is actually helping the enemy.

The ultimate figure of cowardice in the film is Unosuke, the brother of one of the gang leaders. He appears almost invincible with his gun (also a symbol of East versus West and old versus new), but to pit swords against a gun is truly cowardly. His gang defeats the other gang, and they go after Sanjuro in the end. Where there should have been a fair duel scene—Sanjuro and Unosuke, swords drawn, facing each other in a deserted street—there is a display of dishonor as the gun-wielding Unosuke leads an entire gang against the lone Sanjuro. But because Sanjuro is a badass, and he kills Unosuke, but not before he can make one last disgraceful action. He tells Sanjuro with his last breaths that he feels naked without his gun and that he cannot go to the other world without it; this final wish becomes an attempt to shoot Sanjuro before he dies, but the audience gets the sense that Unosuke was not lying when he said he needed his gun. This man, completely dependent on a gun, is the very anti-Yojimbo.

Courage and honor are also directly connected to the portrayals of parents and their children; a rather ingenious connection brings the movie full circle. Sanjuro sees a son run away from home in the beginning of the film; the son tells his father that he would rather “live it up and die young” than work a grueling life on the farm like his family does. Sanjuro faces this young man at the end when he defeats the gang; rather than kill the son, however, he tells him to go back to the farm to live a life of eating gruel with his parents. The father in this case represents the good side of parenting, encouraging his son to work hard and honestly in the farm, whereas the conniving Orin sees courage in a different light. When she and her husband first make the offer to hire Sanjuro for their side, she expects her son to kill him afterward so that they can keep their money. She believes that her son’s honor lies in the men that he kills, but when he reminds her that he has killed before, she snaps, “Kill one or a hundred, you only hang once.” However, her son can do nothing to impress her as she continues to reject him throughout the film. The farm father and Orin represent many different contrasts—good versus bad, farm versus city, poor but content versus rich and insatiable—but they most obviously disagree on the definition of honor.

I liked this movie because I got the humor and cool action of a western without the “cowboys and Injins” nonsense. I also didn’t have to hear that drawl that I get enough of where I’m from. Plus there were swords. And a dog carrying a severed hand. Top that.