Word: samurais
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...OCCURS SOMETIME during the 1860's, just after the samurai warrior class has lost its privileged position in Japanese society. As the credits cease rolling, the camera focuses on an unshaven samurai (Toshiro Mifune) standing alone in the middle of a crossroads. He dispassionately scratches his back then tosses his walking stick. And, without a backward glance he follows the road it indicates...
...isolated town being destroyed by rival factions, a beautiful woman in distress and finally, a showdown--Japanese style. However, Yojimbo goes beyond all this and so avoids the mediocrity of a morass of cliches. Akira Kurosawa, the director, who focused world attention on Japanese cinema with Rashoman and Seven Samurai, succeeds in Yojimbo without resorting to either didacticism or melodrama. Violence accompanies comedy and through this incongruity. Kurosawa states that even in its evilest moments, the human animal is funny. Perhaps, Kurosawa believes that only then is man funny, for in the film, when the evil is vanquished...
Except for Mifune's role, the characters are either totally good, or totally bad. This is a necessary simplicity because in the god-like justice the samurai metes out, there can be no hesitation, no doubts about his way's being best, no room for speculation about possible reformation...
Warrior Arts of the Orient, a demonstration of Aikido, Iaido, Sai, Kung-Fu, Tai Chi Chuan, and the Samurai sword. John Hancock Hall...
...Seven Samurai. Akira Kurosowa's Japanese masterpiece (1954) about mixing of mental and physical skill to win battles in 16th century Japan. Film Odyssey, 8:30 Feb. 11. Channel...