We don't usually think of Japanese samurai films as funny, and certainly never the films of master director Akira Kurosawa (Ikiru, Throne of Blood, Ran, Dreams). Yet Yojimbo is surprisingly funny to American audiences (who intuitively understand the connection between the samurai film and the western) as well as the Japanese. Toshiro Mifune, always the ultimate samurai warrior, is called upon by two rival gambling tycoons wishing to preserve their domination over the same town. Rather than the traditional situation of good guys (helped by the samurai) versus bad guys, here the code of the samurai is put to the test: which lowlife gangster will he support and which will he try to vanquish? This action film is both a great example of the samurai genre, and at the same time a rousing satire of it. Italian "spaghetti western" director Sergio Leone was attracted to Yojimbo's uniquely boisterous and comic turn and so he made his own version, the Clint Eastwood hit, A Fistful of Dollars. Note the beautiful black and white photography of veteran Japanese cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, who shot many of Kurosawa's films and whose work spanned six decades, starting with early slapstick Japanese films. Also notice the contribution of Art Director and Costume Designer Yoshiro Muraki, who was nominated for four Oscars, and also did many of Kurosawa's later films.

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