Stream Yojimbo on HBO Max. In feudal Japan, status was everything, but Kambei's nobility is defined by his compassion and selfless heroism, not his hairstyle. Being poor, the village cannot pay these fighters what they are worth, and so those who sign up do so for reasons more than money. Bogue says things to manipulate people and get what he wants. The other warrior to approach Kambei is "The Loon," played by Toshirô Mifune. Or does the Yohimbo have other ideas? Kurosawa may, to some extent, be a prophet without honour in his own country. Once they arrive at the village, a love affair develops between Katsushiro and a peasant girl, Shino. No money from the licence fee was used to create this website. Seven Samurai wasn't the first historical action movie to come out of Japan, but it did help to recontextualize the country's concepts of nobility and heroism in the wake of World War II. Consequently, the film combined the Lover and the Loon into the character of Chico, played by Horst Buchholz, in an attempt to play the character against his own desires. The 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven similarly takes place in an "Old West" setting, but possibly a bit earlier in 1879, a little over a decade post-Civil War. But just as Kurosawa’s samurai movies were influenced by Hollywood westerns, they in their turn have been hugely influential on cinema in the West. Kurosawa framed a story with samurai who were noble, not because of their unwavering loyalty to a lord or skillful swordsmanship, but because of their compassion for the weak and willingness to cross social lines to help their fellow men. In the first scene of the film, Emma's husband, Matthew, stands up to Bogue, who shoots him dead in the street for his troubles. It essentially trades off the samurai/cowboy for the jazzy American gangster. Two gangs are at war with each other and both are eager to hire the samurai as their bodyguard. Comparative Study of Yojimbo, Seven Samurai and The Yakuza, Black Rain. But, in this case, the bandit horde is a force of nature. *In 1980, Battle Beyond the Stars was released as an unauthorized sci-fi adaptation of the tale. Sam Chisolm, played by Denzel Washington, is the man who would become the leader of The (rebooted) Magnificent Seven. The money we make from it is re-invested to help fund the BBC’s international journalism. A one-stop shop for all things video games. But the most helpless were the peasants, simply trying to make a living in a chaotic world. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa is the definition of a seminal auteur. Many of the Samurai in this period (like the majority of the titular seven) had become masterless ronin, wandering jobless and hunted. When the affair is discovered by Shino's father, he is furious, claiming his daughter has been made "damaged goods. I've since seen others that are excellent as well, (The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Ran), but 'Seven Samurai' remains his masterwork as far as I'm concerned. Even audiences that have never watched movies like Rashomon, Seven Samurai, or Yojimbo will be familiar with their influence on western pop culture. Come explore the roots beneath the reboot of the reboot. It proves to Emma that he's tough, so she offers him money to fight for her. borrowed the plot, but gave it a comedic twist. Calvera sees his responsibilities towards his bandit horde as a father's to his children and he sees the bounty on his head as an unjust inconvenience. Despite the similarities in the premise, there are only two archetypes from the Seven that have carried through all the way to the 2016 remake - The Leader and The Master. The Magnificent Seven (1960) personifies the threat with Calvera, played by Eli Wallach. Which gang will Sanjuro side with? Emma Cullen ends the film reminding the audience that the heroics of her seven guns-for-hire would not be forgotten, but perhaps the seven worth remembering are the ones who had the least to gain. Unique Akira Kurosawa Movie clothing designed and sold by artists for women, men, and everyone. Seven Samuraiand all its various adaptations revolve around a group of mercenaries who accept a seemingly impossible job. There I think clearly Yojimbo is better, but Fist is fun. Laughing, the samurai turn "Lord Kikuchiyo" away, but that doesn't stop him from following them all the way to the village. Kurosawa followed Seven Samurai with other chambara pictures, including Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962), but his popularity in the West seemed to work against him in his native land, where there was a certain amount of resentment and suspicion; if Westerners found Kurosawa’s films so appealing, perhaps this meant they weren’t as authentically Japanese as quieter offerings by Mizoguchi or Ozu. While Britt from the original Magnificent Seven borrows a few story beats from Kyuzo, he has very little impact on the group emotionally. It is a happy ending that Katsushiro is not afforded. seven samurai akira kurosawa color, mifune, toshiro mifune, seven samurai, yojimbo, sanjuro, ran, kagemusha, kurosawa, samurai, japan, the throne of blood Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa Toshiro Mifune color Classic T-Shirt Seven Samurai and all its various adaptations revolve around a group of mercenaries who accept a seemingly impossible job. His 1958 film The Hidden Fortress was cited by George Lucas as a major inspiration for Star Wars. Movie remakes of the popular Japanese legend, 47 Ronin, were forbidden by U.S. censors, due to its depiction of loyalty to feudal lords, and many Japanese were glad to see that part of their culture gone. Chico is a crazed kid, aching to prove himself as a heroic fighter, but is eventually revealed as the soft-hearted son of farmers. They’re overheard by a farmer, who conveys the bad news to his fellow villagers. How many of these films have you seen? One major difference is that the Mexican village representative, Hilario, played by Jorge Martínez de Hoyos (Cronos), doesn't have a tragic backstory with the bandits that comes into play later. 3:38. On the same note, what about Yojimbo vs A Fistful of Dollars. The impending raid on the helpless villagers isn't personal - it simply is. Seven Samurai helped to reclaim that lost heritage, but from a new point of view. Seven Samurai does it in a single film but the point is, we grow to care about the characters and their fates, and given those odds, we know not everyone will make it through. Established by humble homesteaders, the town is quickly being overrun by an aggressive gold-mining organization. Once the experienced Kambei is won over to the villagers’ cause, the film launches into the mother of all ‘assembling the team’ sequences, now an obligatory part of so many action and heist movies. Yojimbo can be recruited at the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth near the entrance to Mt. They recalled the values of the samurai - strength, cunning, and loyalty - to create a culture of nationalistic and militaristic values. That unparalleled influence is a sign that Seven Samurai’s appeal lies in emotions and mythologies not only specific to feudal Japan, but which strike a universal chord. Kikuchiyo, played by Kurosawa favourite Toshiro Mifune, is a half-crazed swaggerer who turns out to be less of a buffoon than he first appears (Credit: Alamy). Once upon a time, The Powerwolf was cursed to wander this mortal realm in the body of a mere man. In my mind 'Seven Samurai' is as close to a perfect movie as can be: it has great writing, superb acting, marvelous cinematography and … "In the end, we lost this battle too," he says. Fortunately, he gets over himself by the film's end, settling for a quiet life with the farmer's daughter. Bandits casually enter the town, taking food and goods, and shooting a farmer who tries to protest. But, after more than six decades, his greatest film remains the gold standard for action movies that are both exciting and coherent. Yojimbo will first ask Yuna a question regarding her purpose in trying to acquire his help. Kurosawa’s popularity in the West seemed to work against him in his home country and he struggled to secure funding (Credit: Getty). Unfortunately, this is only one way that Fuqua's vision has stripped the nuance from a story that once explored the moral ambiguity of survival. In the years following the end of Japanese isolationism, leaders in the country were fearful of western colonization. For better or for worse, in the 2016 reboot, there is no Lover, there is no Loon, and there is no Chico amalgam of the two. The way each film uses the Master after his introduction is slightly different, but Seven Samurai's Kyuzo is the only one whose skill truly sets him apart from the others to drive the plot forward emotionally and practically. While the feudal system defined Japan for much of its history, Kurosawa purposefully picked a tumultuous period that placed the cultural identity of the nation in question. In many action-based movies, the dehumanization of the enemy allows us to take joy in the deaths of faceless henchmen. A remake of The Magnificent Seven hit theaters last week, reteaming director Antoine Fuqua with star Denzel Washington following their work together on Training Day and The Equalizer. Let us know with the hashtag #WorldFilm100 on Facebook and Twitter. He is a crazed man with a samurai sword who waddles about, staring at Kambei awkwardly, and refusing to speak. It's no secret that Hollywood Westerns and Japanese Samurai films were a huge influence on each other. Kurosawa followed Seven Samurai with other chambara pictures, including Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962), but his popularity in the West seemed to work against him in … The village elder agrees, much to the chagrin of the other frightened villagers, and Rikichi is sent with companions to recruit Samurai, with only rice as payment. Though it isn't revealed until deep into the film's second act, Rikichi's wife was stolen by the bandits for a horrific life as an opiated sex slave. Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo is a video game released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms in 1988, by the now-defunct label Firebird.It is based on the comic book Usagi Yojimbo, which featured the adventures of an anthropomorphic samurai rabbit.The game closely follows some of the themes of the comic. After some initial setbacks, they stumble across a mini-drama in which a veteran warrior called Kambei (Takashi Shimura, one of Kurosawa’s favourite actors) astonishes onlookers by shaving off his topknot (a symbol of samurai pride), so he can disguise himself as a bald monk and rescue a child being held hostage by a thief. In Seven Samurai, the face of the village resistance is Rikichi, played by Yoshio Tsuchiya (Yojimbo). It's not the first time that Seven Samurai has been re-re-booted. Eventually, it is revealed that he was a child of farmers, orphaned during a similar attack to the one they face now. The plot of Seven Samurai has been recycled not just in The Magnificent Seven – Hollywood made two versions, one in 1960, the other in 2016 – but in science fiction (Battle Beyond the Stars and Rogue One) and animation (A Bug's Life). The film begins as a villager from a poor mountain town of farmers overhears a group of bandits planning to raid their home for food after the barley harvest. This robs the role of its import, making Hilario less of a character than a device to bring the "real" heroes into the film. Different takes on the same story. But with no set historical values to replace them, the country was going through something of an identity crisis. We always know who’s who, where everyone is, what they’re doing and – thanks to an infographic-style banner – exactly how many bandits there are left to kill at any given moment. With no true strife of social boundaries to battle, The Magnificent Seven lost the added layer of sacrifice that the Seven must make to do the right thing. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. Western gunslingers were similarly legendary warriors in their own time, but, unlike Samurai, they were not a class of nobility, attainable only by birth. No specific date is given, but it is insinuated that it occurs during the tail end of the American "Old West." He also seems to feel that there's no need to be unpleasant about his theft (unless the weak get out of line). This is a trickier task than it may seem since many of the townsfolk take umbrage with the thought of a Native heathen being buried on "their" sacred land. Katsushiro is a hopeless romantic, and he ignores the class boundaries between the two at his own peril. He attempts to prove his samurai nobility by showing them a (stolen) family tree document. And, finally, there’s Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa’s other acteur fétiche), a half-crazed swaggerer whose claims to be a member of the samurai class are almost immediately exposed as fiction. Despite his lunacy, he proves invaluable in getting the terrified farmers to interact with the samurai. (More on that soon.) If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. A samurai drifter arrives at a small town where two factions are battling each other. Now he seeks to reclaim his former glory. He's "A duly sworn warrant officer from Wichita, Kansas... also a licensed peace officer in Indian territories, Arkansas, Nebraska, and seven other states. In every instance, the challenger is effortlessly dispatched as the Master calmly obliges him. Dissimilar to the original tales, Emma and her friend Teddy Q hire the Seven without the knowledge or consensus of their town. Doing so was seen as a shame to their class, and would likely doom them to a life as a meager farmer. Thanks to perhaps the most indelible character in Akira Kurosawa's oeuvre, YOJIMBO surpassed even Seven Samurai in popularity when it was released. The town elder decides their only hope of survival is to hire samurai. But the influential Japanese director’s international success wasn’t mirrored at home, writes Anne Bilson. Rōnin are often depicted in the jidaigeki of Akira Kurosawa, in particular Yojimbo, Sanjuro and Seven Samurai. Calvera's twisted worldview makes him a fascinating villain, though his chummy generosity may occasionally take some of the bite from the threat he poses. Similar to Calvera, Bogue spouts religious platitudes to justify his abuse and capitalistic aspirations, but dissimilarly, he doesn't actually seem to believe them. The film didn't just reinvent the Samurai film, it helped Japan find the best parts of its own identity and move forward, restored. The sentiment is repeated by Chris Adams at the end of The Magnificent Seven (1960), but this is contrasted by the highly stylized, explosive, and revenge-filled 2016 remake. Unlike Rikichi, Emma is nearly as skilled a fighter as the Seven, and serves as a replacement seventh gun when one skulks away from the final battle. After Kambei publically saves the child and dispatches of the thief, two fighters cut past the peasants to garner his attention. * In fact, an entire textbook could be written on Seven Samurai's legacy and the differences between its various adaptations, but for a simple comparison of differences between that formative classic, the original Magnificent Seven, and this week's reboot, you're in the right place! Trending. When Rikichi and his compatriots first come across Kambei, he is cutting the ceremonial top-knot from his head. I would have chosen Seven Samurai, but my last viewing of GBU confirmed it's earned spot in my top 20. Yojimbo established such a good standard for storytelling that Hollywood just had to keep recreating it.In 1996, several decades after A Fistful of Dollars, out came Last Man Standing, featuring Bruce Willis in a Prohibition-era America. After all this meticulous scene-setting, the film’s final hour-and-a-half unfurls in an escalating series of skirmishes. Decided to watch Ran because of [this post a week ago] ( ) and ended up checking out Seven Samurai, Harakiri and Yojimbo as well. The masterless samurai SANJURO, who slyly manipulates two warring clans to his own advantage in a small, dusty village, was so entertainingly embodied by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune, that it was only a matter of time before he returned in a sequel. Seven Samurai is the better and most influential movie but I love The Good, the Bad and the Ugly much, much more. With the exception of The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, that cross-pollination is nowhere more evident than in Yojimbo. How does Seven Samurai connect to both The Magnificent Seven? Read more about BBC Culture’s 100 greatest foreign-language films: - The 100 greatest foreign-language films- What the critics had to say about the top 25- The full list of critics who participated – and how they voted - Why are women film-makers 'excluded' from history?- 12 great foreign-language masterpieces you may not know, To begin with, he was the first Japanese director to win international acclaim when his film Rashomon was awarded the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. This website is produced by BBC Global News, a commercial company owned by the BBC (and just the BBC). Yojimbo Movies Preview ... Sanjuro, a wandering samurai, enters a village that is overrun with corruption. When the rice that the villagers were using to pay the samurai is stolen, Katsushiro secretly funds the purchase of more to keep the endeavor going. In 1986, ¡Three Amigos! In 1983, an Italian variant was made, called The Seven Magnificent Gladiators. The masterless samurai Sanjuro, who slyly manipulates two warring clans to his own advantage in a small, dusty village, was so entertainingly embodied by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune that it was only a matter of time before he … One by one, six other rōnin (masterless samurai) are persuaded to participate in a probable suicide mission that will bring them neither money nor fame: an old war buddy of Kambei, a skilled archer, a cheerful fellow reduced to chopping wood, a master swordsman who just wants to perfect his art, an untested young samurai who is eager to prove his manhood. While the endeavor is successful, a breach in the defenses of his post results in a number of casualties, including one of the samurai, sending him into a wave of guilt and despair. samurai_geisha. The 1954 film Seven Samurai follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven rōnin to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. In the 2016 remake, the threat takes the face of a corrupt industrialist, Bartholomew Bogue, played by Peter Sarsgaard (Green Lantern). Will Zack Snyder's Justice League Save DC or Is It Too Late? 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In Seven Samurai, Kyuzo, played by Seiji Miyaguchi (Ikiru), is fighting with sticks. Shop our range of T-Shirts, Tanks, Hoodies, Dresses, and more. 1 Intro 2 pre-fight 3 Fight 4 Winner NO RULES JUST BLOODSHED DBX! As someone with seemingly no material needs, it's both an idealistically generous gesture and an oddly manipulative push at a chance to study under Kambei. A small, poor, and defenseless village's well-being is threatened by a large antagonistic force and needs the assistance of seasoned fighters for defense. After their WWII loss and occupation by U.S. forces, many Japanese citizens were bitter about the "samurai values" that had led them down such an aggressive path. The deed earns him the friendship of fellow gunslinger and gambler, Vinn Tanner, played by Steve McQueen (The Great Escape). The climactic battle, drenched by torrential rain, is a miracle of brilliantly choreographed chaos: combatants running hither and thither through the mud, galloping horses, spears, arrows and the occasional bullet, all filmed with multiple cameras, which insert the audience into the thick of the action. We then follow the village delegates on their seemingly impossible quest to convince proud samurai to join their cause. The antagonistic force in Seven Samurai has a leader played by Shinpei Takagi, but he isn't a fully fleshed-out character. Both Katsushiro and Kikuchiyo are defined by their failures to cross the aisle of their preordained social class, an aspect vital to Seven Samurai's themes. However, The Magnificent Seven (1960) lost a lot of the cultural exploration of Seven Samurai simply because its setting hearkens to a different culture. I'd never seen a … Yes, the villagers are wretched and deceitful and, in the past, may have killed stray samurai, but they themselves have been victims of the warrior class, which has burned their homes, stolen their food and kidnapped their women. In Seven Samurai, the social walls prove too high to surmount, amounting to a bittersweet end. A Hong Kong remake hit in 1989 called Seven Warriors. Kurosawa also edited the film. The most celebrated Japanese filmmaker of all time, Akira Kurosawa produced a staggering body of work that stands as a monument of artistic achievement. With no other choice, the village elder convinces them to hire gunslingers from a nearby border town for defense with what little money they have. Not only does the deed attract the attention of two other warriors who will join him in battle, it signals to Rikichi that he has found his savior. It introduced a culture that was foreign yet intriguing, and accessible to  audiences weaned on Hollywood westerns. 29:06. Seven Samurai (1954) and The Magnificent Seven (1960) The original Star Wars movies drew heavily from the work of Akira Kurosawa, with The Hidden Fortress being a … usagi yojimbo was seen walking through the forest looking around then out of nowhere a young blonde haired woman appeared out of nowhere "woah quite an entrance there young lady" … Billy Rocks from the remake does have a meaningful relationship with Ethan Hawke's (Training Day) Goodnight Robicheaux, but other than his scary-good skill with knives, there's little to set him apart from the other fighters once the action begins. WandaVision Ratings, Snyder Cut Trailer Views - Disney Plus vs HBO Max! Everyone treats Kikuchiyo as a buffoon, but it’s he who dispels the mutual distrust between the villagers and their guests, revealing his own humble roots as a farmer’s son, and relaying a few home truths. Being poor, the village cannot pay these fighters what they are worth, and so those who sign up do so for reasons more than money. When Emma Cullen first comes across him, he has just collected a bounty through a marvelous display of gunmanship. In the meantime, he enjoys living vicariously through the movies, then musing on his blog at powerwolf.ink, All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. Both are great films. Through a show of magnificent gunplay, Adams disarms and subdues the men in his way. In 1971 he attempted suicide, and his next three projects – Dersu Uzala (1975), Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985) – got off the ground only thanks to support from admirers in the USSR, the US and France. It is critically regarded as one of the greatest films of all time and has been called one of the most remade, reworked, and referenced films in history. The first, and still most noteworthy of these remakes is the 1960 American Western, The Magnificent Seven.