Yojimbo

用心棒 (1961)

Timing: 1:50 (110 min)

8.081/10
1669

7.976/10
16861

8.2/10
142000

All about film

Video 5

Photo 90

Actors and characters

Release date

1961-04-25

Country

Japan

Production

TOHO

Genre

Drama, Thriller

Budget

$0

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

Akira Kurosawa

Actors

Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yōko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Seizaburō Kawazu, Takashi Shimura, Hiroshi Tachikawa, Yōsuke Natsuki, Eijirō Tōno
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Akira Kurosawa, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Ryūzō Kikushima

Operator

Kazuo Miyagawa

Composer

Masaru Satō

Artist

Yoshifumi Honda

Audition

Editing

Akira Kurosawa, Hiroshi Nezu
All team (23)

• Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) repeats the plot of "Yojimbo." In addition to the plot, Leone borrowed many filming techniques from Kurosawa. As a result of a copyright infringement lawsuit, the creators of the unofficial remake were forced to pay Kurosawa $100,000 and 15% of the film's box office revenue, as well as cede distribution rights in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
• The film "Lone Wolf" starring Bruce Willis also repeats the plot of "Yojimbo," but is adapted as a gangster action film set during Prohibition.
• The main character's name means: Kuwabatake – "Mulberry Garden [by the cotton field],” Sanjuro – "thirty-year-old.” The common misinterpretation of Kuwabatake as "cotton field" comes from the fact that in the film, when asked to introduce himself, the main character names himself Kuwabatake while looking at an empty cotton field. There are no mulberry trees in the frame. However, they are implied, as cotton fields are traditionally planted with mulberry trees around the perimeter, whose leaves serve as food for silkworms.
• The film's plot is an adaptation of two detective novels by Dashiell Hammett: "The Glass Key" (1931) and "Red Harvest" (1929).
• The main character's name means: Kuwabatake – "Mulberry Garden (by the cotton field)", Sanjuro – "thirty-year-old". A common mistaken interpretation of Kuwabatake as "cotton field" comes from the fact that in the film, when asked to introduce himself, the protagonist names himself Kuwabatake while looking at an empty cotton field. There are no mulberry trees in the frame. However, they are implied, as cotton fields are traditionally planted with mulberry trees around the perimeter, the leaves of which serve as food for silkworms.
• The main character’s name means: Kuwabatake – ‘Mulberry Garden (by the cotton field)’, Sanjuro – ‘thirty-year-old’. The common mistaken interpretation of Kuwabatake as ‘cotton field’ comes from the fact that when asked to introduce himself in the film, the protagonist names himself Kuwabatake while looking at an empty cotton field. There are no mulberry trees in the shot. However, they are implied, as cotton fields are traditionally planted with mulberries around the perimeter, the leaves of which serve as food for silkworms.