It’s Akira Kurosawa’s 100th birthday – and to mark the occasion our next episode will feature a discussion with your genial co-hosts about ‘Yojimbo’, what may be his most entertaining film. I took a look at the new Criterion Blu-Ray at the weekend (it’s released today, along with its companion piece ‘Sanjuro’), and was instantly caught up in the guilty pleasure of watching a gruff/balletic man who seems to conceive of the samurai life as half-jester/half-killer set the wheels in motion to destroy the foundations of an oppressive economic war.
It’s Kurosawa’s statement about how capitalism eroded communitarian ways in Japan, it’s Toshiro Mifune’s statement of how to embody consciously limited aggression, it’s a dog’s statement of how to hold a human hand when there’s been a nasty fight, it’s filled with some of the most elegantly framed images you’ll ever see, it’s propelled by the most thunderous and amusing score this side of a fantasy Ennio Morricone-Marvin Hamlisch collaboration, it’s hugely entertaining, and the Blu-Ray is so clear you can see the hair in people’s ears. Which matters to some people, I guess…There’s also a genuinely fascinating audio commentary from Stephen Prince, locating the film in both the historical context of the story, and the 1960s when Kurosawa made it, a documentary about the film’s production, and the requisite essays and interviews in the handsomely produced booklet. We’ll talk more about ‘Yojimbo’ and ‘Sanjuro’ on the next episode – for now, here’s a thoughtful and fun piece about the first appearance of Mifune’s bodyguard, and a classy comparison for the second.
Gareth, please don't fall into the common trap of confusing “capitalism” with criminal thuggery, particularly in the context of a story set in feudal Japan. In another place and time, you easily could transpose the warring crime lords with drug dealers, city council politicians or union leaders…
Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.