Word: yojimbo
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...expression of one person's vision through another's physical force--was primal in the work of Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, whose lithe, feral magnetism animated the great Japanese director's most vigorous parables. The titles in this Criterion package are legendary: The Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. These ferocious epics were often adapted into better-known films in the West--The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, Star Wars--none of which matched the artistry and machismo of the originals...
There have also been productive interferences: The French New Wave loved American film noir; Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story takes off from Leo McCarey; Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo morphed into Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More...
...classic samurai film Yojimbo, rival factions bid for the services of a mercenary who has wandered into town. To which side will this mysterious swordsman give his allegiance? Kazuo Matsui is baseball's yojimbo, a free agent from Japan with more suitors than a Muromachi-era princess. No fewer than nine major league teams-including rivals the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox-are reportedly in the running for the services of the 1.75-m shortstop. The question brewing on hot stoves on two continents is not just where this bat-and-glove for hire will wind...
...with Rashomon, a work of tremendous moral and cinematic force whose influence on Western filmmakers is immeasurable. This was the first in a series of masterpieces from Kurosawa in the '50s and '60s, one more startling than the other: Ikiru, The Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, High and Low; in his work, the CinemaScope frame always threatens to explode with odd tensions and latent energies. It is perhaps Ikiru, about a man with cancer who searches for meaning in life, that had the greatest impact on me. Seeing this film was one of the most intense...
...Mitaka, Japan. In his 16-film collaboration with director Akira Kurosawa, Mifune came to embody the heroic, archetypical loner with his rough features and angry intensity. America had cowboys; Japan had Mifune, wielding a sword and his trademark glare in the Oscar-winning Rashomon, The Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. Although Mifune often played the Pacific enemy in American films like Midway (1976), his menace needed no translation. It was his Japanese films that stuck with audiences, inspiring such imitators as Clint Eastwood and even Jim Belushi...