Trailer
Yojimbo is a 1961 feature film directed by Akira Kurosawa. The seminal and influential film helped create the italo western.
Yōjimbō
用心棒
The Bodyguard
Movie data
Original title: 用心棒 Yōjimbō
English title: Yojimbo
Originallanguage: Japanese
Published: 1961
Length: 111 minutes
Staff
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Script: Ryūzō Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa
Cast
Toshirō Mifune: Sanjuro Kuwabatake / The Ronin
Tatsuya Nakadai: Unosuke, the gunslinger
Yōko Tsukasa: Nui
Isuzu Yamada: Orin, Seibei's wife
Seizaburo Kawazu: Seibei
Kyū Sazanka: Ushitora
Daisuke Katō: Inokichi, Ushitora's brother
Hiroshi Tachikawa: Yoichiro, Orin's son
Eijirō Tōno: host Gonji
Atsushi Watanabe: undertaker
Takashi Shimura: brewer Tokuemon
Kamatari Fujiwara: silkmaker Tazaemon
Yosuke Natsuki: farmer's son
Susumu Fujita: swordmaster Honma
Yoshio Tsuchiya: Kohei, Nui's husband
The Film
A rōnin arrives in a village where two rival gambling entrepreneurs, Ushi-Tora and Seibei, and their thug gangs are fighting for supremacy. He checks into a tavern and observes the situation. Finally he comes up with the plan to play the gangs off against each other. He kills three members of the Ushi-Tora in an open battle and then offers his services to the Seibei. In the further course of the film he then changes sides several times.
Only the brother of the leader of the Ushi-Tora, Unosuke, who has returned from a journey, distrusts the rōnin. He brought back from his trip a revolver that gives him and his gang an advantage. The Ushi-Tora capture the rōnin and are able to defeat the Seibei. However, the rōnin can free himself and finally have a showdown against Unosuke.