Yojimbo & Sanjuro UHD

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay: Ryūzō Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, Atsushi Watanabe, Keiju Kobayashi, Yūzō Kayama
Country: Japan
Running Time: 110m/95m
Year: 1961/1962

You don’t have to spend too long being nerdy about films before you drop across Akira Kurisawa’s name. And it’s probably, rightfully, Seven Samurai name-dropped with him. The most expensive Japanese film made at the time is also one of the most important and it comes with an earned and respectful weight. But, whisper it… Yojimbo is just so much damn fun it’s the one I go back to the most. This month sees a UHD polish on both Yojimbo and its sequel Sanjuro as part of the BFI’s fantastic run of Kurosawa releases

Three years later Sergio Leone would remake it as Fistful of Dollars (UHD out next month from Arrow; blimey, we’re spoiled right now), and it’s difficult to separate Yojimbo. Leone’s film is such a blatant remake he would be sued by Toho, but take Yojimbo on its own terms, and it is remarkable.

Kurosawa was influenced by American filmmaking and Yojimbo is in the tradition of Rio Bravo or High Noon. Almost a simple chamber piece, the screenplay is fantastic. The structure is rewardingly simple, poetic even, with Sanjuro the Bodyguard dropped right in the middle of a story he didn’t need to be in, so with room to play. Which is exactly what the incredible Mifune does. Between him and his director, this scrappy film is revealed to be as epic and rewarding as any of the other 15 times they worked together.

One of cinema’s greatest actors, Mifune ranks with Brando for screen presence, awareness of the space, and others within it. In Yojimbo, he stretches comfortably to own the very screen. It’s a consummate performance, full of humour.

Yojimbo’s progenitors in the Western genre were typically imbued with politics. So too was Seven Samurai, taking its lead from one of Hollywood’s founding genres to mine similar veins of outlaws and social conscience. Such concerns are the bedrock of the masterless Samurai figure, but if they inform the character in Yojimbo, it is not so explicit.

Kurosawa’s direction is typically superlative but free and loose. Compositions are frequently jaw-dropping, action so tightly photographed the very screen broils with tension. Until Mifune winks or grins in a way only Harrison Ford could match in Indiana Jones or Han Solo; characters who also followed a path often at odds with the film they were in.

It’s interesting in retrospect that both the American Western and Japanese Samurai genres, indelibly linked because of Kurosawa, would both be running out of steam by the 1960s. Ironic that the devil-may-care spirit would be carried through to Leone’s remake, right back into the American film industry. The Western was dying, the studio system virtually dead already. The stylised violence, ironic humour and exploitation within Fistful of Dollars and Bonnie and Clyde was so important to the rise of the independents.

Yojimbo did it first. Kurosawa could see steps ahead.

Sanjuro is not For A Few Dollars More. It’s barely even ”Yojimbo 2”. Based on a book, already in pre-production, it was retooled a year after Yojimbo to feature Mifune’s Bodyguard.

Possibly because it had more established source material, Sanjuro is a richer, more layered experience than Yojimbo. Our anti-hero lead is unchanged, the humour remains, but the politics of Feudal Japan inform the story. It fits in more with Kurosawa’s Shakespearean pictures than Yojimbo. Not Mifune though. Sanjuro appears to have walked directly into this town from the lawless border and casually plays people against one another once again. Still with the tics, twitches and solid gold charisma. The parallel with Han Solo’s narrative function is more obvious; least invested character but can’t help rocking the boat. Considering Star Wars was heavily inspired by Kurosawa, it’s not a stretch to see that extended to character functions too.

The always welcome Alex Cox pops up a couple of times in the extras on this and other BFI Kurosawa releases. He sums up the difference between the two films perfectly: In Yojimbo, Mifune resolves to kill a lot of people. In Sanjuro, he is keeping them alive.

Another clue to the sheer intelligence and grasp of the material running through both productions is the score. Masaru Sato composed both and in Sanjuro, it’s a bold arrangement though a largely classical and sympathetic one. In Yojimbo it is a swaggering cacophony with an earworm of a bassline. So much so it would be picked up by both White Lightning with Burt Reynolds and Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz.

VIDEO

I’ve been very impressed with the BFI’s Kurosawa transfers so far. Ikuru and a couple of others were ‘only’ Blu-ray and looked incredible. The UHD transfer of Yojimbo is phenomenal. It’s a silky, detailed and textured presentation that has lost none of the all-important scrappiness. It’s possible to clean older films too much so it’s a joy to see Yojimbo rendered so perfectly and not lose any of its power.

Sanjuro is equally impressive, but it’s different. The setting is a well-established town and the film has a penchant for highlighting nature amongst clean buildings. As such, the transfer is crisp and smooth. Personally, I prefer the dusty, worn-out mise en scene of Yojimbo, but the second film is still magnificent.

AUDIO

Both films feature mono soundtracks or the original Perspecta 3.0. Despite the age of the films, and some previous releases not being so great with sound, the presentation here is excellent. Nicely centred with a sense of depth, dialogue is clean and there’s a discernible punch. Especially from Yojimbo‘s incredible score.

EXTRAS

Between the BFI and Criterion, Kurosawa has always been well-served on home releases and here there’s an excellent array of new and archive material. Collector’s will have seen some before, but this is as close to a comprehensive release as we’ve seen so far.

• Restored 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Sword For Hire (2024, 25 mins): Kurosawa scholar Jasper Sharp discusses Yojimbo and Sanjuro in this analytical assessment
• Audio commentary on Yojimbo by film critic Philip Kemp (2000)
• It is Wonderful to Create – Yojimbo (2002, 45 mins): the film is examined in detail in this documentary study
• Introduction to Sanjuro (2003, 5 mins): filmmaker Alex Cox introduces Sanjuro
• Newly recorded audio commentary on Sanjuro by Japanese-Australian filmmaker Kenta McGrath
• It is Wonderful to Create – Sanjuro (2002, 37 mins): the film is examined in detail in this short documentary study
• Out of the Dust Storm and into the Koi Pond (2025, 18 mins): Nic Wassell considers the role of nature as a background to the machinations of mankind in role of nature as a background to the machinations of mankind in Yojimbo and Sanjuro
• Alex Cox on Kurosawa (2003, 9 mins): the director discusses the life and work of Akira Kurosawa
• Original Japanese trailers
• Image galleries
• Both films include original 3-channel Perspecta audio
• **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet with new writing on both films by Hayley Scanlon, writing on both films by Akira Kurosawa, originally published in 1964, original reviews and credits