Yojimbo (The Bodyguard)
Sanjuro is a ronin, a samurai without a master, walking around trying to find peace. He arrives to a town divided by two gangs, one produces Silk, the other produces Sake. The Town is divided between them, both are they fighting for the being the one gang in charge, the fight has lasted long and has killed almost all business in town, except the one making coffins for all the corpses the war produces. Sanjuro wants to help, offers to help both of them depending on who will pay him the highest fee. But his real intention is to play the gangs against each other to free the town from them.
My long awaited first Kurosawa experience, and i do admit, there is no doubt he is a rare genius. This story is just so well told, perfectly balanced the movie never fails to be interesting, all the way through it kept me interested, wanting to see the progress. Pure perfection. It's one of those movies where i thought afterwards how perfectly paced it was, every second is there for a reason, there isn't a second to much, or a second to little, fantastic. Also the movie, despite being very old, is actually still today very watchable, although it hasn't aged as well as some other old movies i have seen. I can still see where many modern movies have gotten the inspiration from, the amount of scenario you can recognize here is absolutely admirable, and there has also been much talk about the storyline directly have inspired a great director like Sergio Leone, to make his western triumph "A Fistful of Dollars".
Kurosawa is the genius in this movie, in a movie that is so well construction you can tell this movie was made by a creative genius, but also a man who constantly seeked for perfection, every thing in the movie seem to be thought so well through, every little sequence. One great piece in the movie directing wise is the stunning use of the a confusing touch to the movie, the windy, cold, dirty roads of the town, it's just so well portrayed.
I haven't seen many old Japanese movies, but the acting here is brilliant, i love the passion that exists in the Japanese language. Toshiro Mifune is quite fantastic in the leading role, but i think all of the cast gives a very good performance, and there isn't a flaw to put on any of them. Especially the wife to Seibei i thought was fantastic in portraying the cold, evil and brutal women, that she played.
To up it up. This movie is almost a perfect construction. Furthermore the movie has inspired decades of movies, truly admirable. I was very surprised to see how well such an old movie manages to keep my interest up nearly all the way through, it's really a well balanced movie that never manages to get boring at all. But even though i have a lot of praise for the movie, it didn't get all the way through me, i wasn't stunned afterwards, i didn't want to become a samurai and a Japanese, that is what makes me not giving it a top grade. But i still found it a very good movie that portrayed many sides of the human mind, greed, anger, fear, evil, but most important we also got to see how Sanjuro, the fearsome Samurai, also had a heart of gold with his intention of helping the innocent in people in the village.
8/10
Sanjuro is a ronin, a samurai without a master, walking around trying to find peace. He arrives to a town divided by two gangs, one produces Silk, the other produces Sake. The Town is divided between them, both are they fighting for the being the one gang in charge, the fight has lasted long and has killed almost all business in town, except the one making coffins for all the corpses the war produces. Sanjuro wants to help, offers to help both of them depending on who will pay him the highest fee. But his real intention is to play the gangs against each other to free the town from them.
My long awaited first Kurosawa experience, and i do admit, there is no doubt he is a rare genius. This story is just so well told, perfectly balanced the movie never fails to be interesting, all the way through it kept me interested, wanting to see the progress. Pure perfection. It's one of those movies where i thought afterwards how perfectly paced it was, every second is there for a reason, there isn't a second to much, or a second to little, fantastic. Also the movie, despite being very old, is actually still today very watchable, although it hasn't aged as well as some other old movies i have seen. I can still see where many modern movies have gotten the inspiration from, the amount of scenario you can recognize here is absolutely admirable, and there has also been much talk about the storyline directly have inspired a great director like Sergio Leone, to make his western triumph "A Fistful of Dollars".
Kurosawa is the genius in this movie, in a movie that is so well construction you can tell this movie was made by a creative genius, but also a man who constantly seeked for perfection, every thing in the movie seem to be thought so well through, every little sequence. One great piece in the movie directing wise is the stunning use of the a confusing touch to the movie, the windy, cold, dirty roads of the town, it's just so well portrayed.
I haven't seen many old Japanese movies, but the acting here is brilliant, i love the passion that exists in the Japanese language. Toshiro Mifune is quite fantastic in the leading role, but i think all of the cast gives a very good performance, and there isn't a flaw to put on any of them. Especially the wife to Seibei i thought was fantastic in portraying the cold, evil and brutal women, that she played.
To up it up. This movie is almost a perfect construction. Furthermore the movie has inspired decades of movies, truly admirable. I was very surprised to see how well such an old movie manages to keep my interest up nearly all the way through, it's really a well balanced movie that never manages to get boring at all. But even though i have a lot of praise for the movie, it didn't get all the way through me, i wasn't stunned afterwards, i didn't want to become a samurai and a Japanese, that is what makes me not giving it a top grade. But i still found it a very good movie that portrayed many sides of the human mind, greed, anger, fear, evil, but most important we also got to see how Sanjuro, the fearsome Samurai, also had a heart of gold with his intention of helping the innocent in people in the village.
8/10