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Yojimbo

Yôjinbô (Yojimbo the Bodyguard)

1961

Akira Kurosawa

Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada ...

8.0

15,700

Action. Drama In the 19th century, in a Feudal Japan, a samurai arrives to a rural village that is divided between two groups; neither side is particularly honorable. As he shows his combat skills, both sides will try to hire him.

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"The wide screen is fully employed for dramatic compositions (...) And there is a dramatic sense of depth in scenes were Sanjuro holds the foreground while forces gather in the background (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"It does have stretches of excitement and cinematic power. Kurosawa is a master director (...) However, as in most Westerns, the dramatic penetration is not deep, and the plot complications are many"	NEU
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Empire	"'Yojimbo's comic detachment enabled him to despair of the villagers without judging them (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Rob Humanick Slant	"Something of a textbook example of the perfect crowd-pleaser, Kurosawa's tale is sociopolitical wish fulfillment via archetypal samurai drama, albeit with a twist or three (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Variety	"Rousing, good story, told with vigor and visual excitement by Akira Kurosawa, and splendidly acted by Toshiro Mifune"	POS
United Kingdom	Tony Rayns Time Out	"This belongs in that select group of films noirs which are also comedies (...) [It] marks a departure from the predominantly sentimental moralising of earlier Kurosawa movies."	POS
United States	Don Druker Chicago Reader	"Akira Kurosawa has any number of dramatic and cinematic cliches (both American and Japanese) to overcome—and does so brilliantly (...) Toshiro Mifune is again incomparable"	POS

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