"Kill one or a hundred. You only hang once."
Wow, I'd heard A Fistful of Dollars was based off of Yojimbo, but I had no idea how closely it followed the plot! Between this and Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven I'm starting to really see the ingenuity of transposing Japanese Jidaigeki cinema (I learned this term today, neat) and Westerns. There's obviously something good that crosses over there considering I love all of those movies.
- Weeell I consider A Fistful of Dollars the weakest of the Man With No Name trilogy... Actually in both that and Yojimbo I didn't get invested before our brave hero got captured. Finally a handicap, much more interesting.
Speaking of badass heroes, at risk of repeating myself:
Ooh Mifune ooh. I feel a distinct need to fan myself every time he appears on screen.
Not that he's got a lot to work with in Yojimbo. While badass movie characters are fun to watch once in a while, they're sort of one-note. Toshirô Mifune is so much more captivating onscreen when he's playing crooks and war heroes and cowards and... What would you call Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai? Adorable asshole?
So what Kurosawa movie next? You'd think I'd want to watch Yojimbo's sequel, Sanjuro, but I think I'll let that wait. I thoroughly enjoyed Ran as King-Lear-in-Feudal-Japan, and only today I learned that Kurosawa also made Macbeth(my favourite Shakespeare play ever!)-in-Feudal-Japan! With Mifune in the lead! So yeah, I think Throne of Blood is my next venture, oh boy oh boy oh boy.
- Weeell I consider A Fistful of Dollars the weakest of the Man With No Name trilogy... Actually in both that and Yojimbo I didn't get invested before our brave hero got captured. Finally a handicap, much more interesting.
Speaking of badass heroes, at risk of repeating myself:
Ooh Mifune ooh. I feel a distinct need to fan myself every time he appears on screen.
Not that he's got a lot to work with in Yojimbo. While badass movie characters are fun to watch once in a while, they're sort of one-note. Toshirô Mifune is so much more captivating onscreen when he's playing crooks and war heroes and cowards and... What would you call Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai? Adorable asshole?
So what Kurosawa movie next? You'd think I'd want to watch Yojimbo's sequel, Sanjuro, but I think I'll let that wait. I thoroughly enjoyed Ran as King-Lear-in-Feudal-Japan, and only today I learned that Kurosawa also made Macbeth(my favourite Shakespeare play ever!)-in-Feudal-Japan! With Mifune in the lead! So yeah, I think Throne of Blood is my next venture, oh boy oh boy oh boy.