Rating: 
Summary: Fun, Sarcastic, Well-written, and Well-directed.
Review: This is not Kurosawa's best work, yet it stands head and shoulers above most action films. Its loose storyline is actually a benefit, and shows that spaghetti westerns have nothing on samurai epics.There isn't a whole lot of deep philosophy or soul-searching in this film. It's basically very straightforward action. Don't be fooled, though, there are quite a number of twists and turns, and though the action drives the film, there are some truly profound lines of dialogue.
Rating:
Summary: One of Kurosawa's best.
Review: Kurosawa scores another knock out, and this is up there with his masterpieces The Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and High and Low as his alltime best. It has all the elements of a great western, but it's set in Japan rather than Texas and stars Toshiro Mifune rather than Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. It is Japan in 1860. Samurai are of little use now and many are reduced to rogues who must wander and beg for food. We begin with one of then (Toshiro Mifune) throwing a stick up in the air to decide which way he will go. However, when he enters the town, he is greeted by a dog carrying a severed hand in it's mouth. The town has been torn apart by two vicous rival clans who spend their days staging violent street fights in the attempt to defeat each other. The samurai decides that this town could do without them, so he begins playing them so they'll finally destroy each other. Once again, Kurosawa expresses his brilliance on film. This film is full of many brilliant and darkly hillarous scenes from the dog with the hand in his mouth to the violent ending and Mifune delivers a truly magnificent performence. And as for the DVD, the print is pretty luminous and Criterion did a good job with the transfer. It doesn't have the sharpness or contrast that their DVD of High and Low has, but it still is quite pleasing. The main problem is that the opening credits (which are in English, the sign that they used a US print) are cut off slightly (It actually varies on the TV you're watching it in, in my home theater it only lost a tiny bit but on the smaller TV it lost more) and another problem is that there is some artifact such as vertical scratches which go on for minutes. Criterion could have gone to Japan and got a pristine Japanese print from Toho, but as I said except for those problems the tranfer is quite good. There is also a trailer which is rather unatractivly presented (the image isn't matted and it's near the bottom. Other problems is that the subtitles are too small and hurt my eyes trying to read them (even with glasses), they could have made them a size or two bigger and the soundtrack is only in just plain old mono (it was filmed in Perspecta Stereo), they could have presented it in Pro Logic to preserve the Perspecta sound effects. The mono track is OK, but the dialogue sounds a bit flat.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully enjoyable. Mifune is the king of cool.
Review: Not much to add to those who praise YOJIMBO. Action, humor, suspense, and of course, the universal human theme that Kurosawa incorporated into most of his films, YOJIMBO has it all. This is NOT a dark film, a la Leone's FISTFULL OF DOLLARS and Hill's LAST MAN STANDING. Sorry to sound harsh, but those two films are amateurish and childish by comparison.
My favorite YOJIMBO moments "borrowed" by Western filmmakers: Mifune's squint when first recognizing the mallet-wielding giant (as seen in every Eastwood performance since), and the arm-severing of the tatooed man with the "cute face" (the lightsaber/cantina scene in STAR WARS). There are oh so many more. Enjoy discovering your own. Of course, Kurosawa himself borrows the entire basic storyline from Hammett's "Red Harvest".
After some slightly-cropped opening credits (taken from another source), the rest of the picture is perfectly presented.
"Hehe, I'm onto you. You only pretend to be a bad man." What a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Toshiro Mifune Was "Clint" Before "Clint" Was Cool.
Review: If you are a film fan, you know that this film served as the inspiration for Sergio Leone's "Fistful of Dollars," the Clint Eastwood western that made him a household name. "Yojimbo" is the movie that helped make Akira Kurosawa a filmmaker of repute in Hollywood, and contemporary directors, such as George Lucas and Steven Speilberg, all agree that "Yojimbo" deserves a prominent place in cinematic history. Toshiro Mifune portrays "The Man With No Name" better than Clint, but he also does it with distinctly more wit and charm. And when Mifune unsheaths his katana sword to dispatch a few thugs in a ramshackle town in Japan, you are dumbfounded by his grace, but you are entralled by his skill. Mifune was a clear inspiration for Lucas, who seemed to pattern certain sword moves in his "Star Wars" films after Mifune's performance in this film. It is black and white, and it is in subtitles, however, if you let that stop you from watching this epic film, you don't deserve to see it in the first place. I cannot recommend this film enough. Buy it now!
Rating: 
Summary: An action movie with depth.
Review: Mifune, Mifune, Mifune. This guy truly makes the movie. His all too familiar "take no [bull]" attitude will resonate with American audiences. His meddling and pitting together of the forces of a small village is very believeable and will have many cringing to see if he can pull it off. His athleticim is given full voice here and one particular scene was copied and reworked into Star Wars:A New Hope. You will recognize it immediately. Truly, though the plot of this film grows steadily into a finale that will impress even today's action fans. The dark humor is beyond Elmore Leonard and the action beyond Blade minus the special effects. Many viewers of martial arts pictures expect long drawn out swordfight sequences. What they don't realize that, real Japanese sword fights last about as long as sumo matches do. Even the most advanced swordsmen have at most two chances to either dodge or counter their opponent's moves before one of them is either killed or loses a limb. kendo is designed to quickly [terminate] not to put on a lengthy show. This is evident here as well as in the sequel Sanjuro.
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Summary: It's RED HARVEST you ...
Review: The Dashiell Hammett novel in question is RED HARVEST, in which always nameless and unglamorous operative for the Continental Detective Agency ("The Continental Op") finds himself in the middle of a thoroughly corrupt town after being summoned there on what appeared to be a routine bit of business. YOJIMBO is similar in that Mifune's character finds himself by chance in a town breathing its last due to warring gambler factions, and sets about cleaning up the the town with his own peculiar brand of martial skill and strategy--mostly for his own amusement and exercise of his wit. Like the Op, he is a fairly unsavory, cynical character. But completely competent and able from years of hard experience, and possessing an understanding of how best to manipulate the simple minds that surround him by playing to their simplistic desires and fears. You get the idea that any fray these two get themselves into, they'll come out whole on the other side of. You only get glimpses, but you come to think that Mifune's character does what he does because it is "right", but is so hard-boiled he would never admit it and would berate you at the suggestion of any good faith. Much like Bogart's character in CASABLANCA denies any sentimentality, but always comes thru in the clutch. As Mifune says to a small family who kneel gratefully before him after he helps them, "Don't cry! I'll kill you if you cry!". Also, an extremely touching sense of loyalty toward the old inn-keeper is displayed at the very end. YOJIMBO is not one of Kurosawa's huge epics, but it is by far one of my three favorites of his films. It has the best theme music for any hero that I've heard. And the look on Mifune's face as he goes stomping off to the big showdown after the cooper has suddenly provided him with a sword is one of my favorite scenes in all of filmdom. You GOTTA see this one, and SANJURO too, if liked the first.
Rating:
Summary: Kurosawa's revenge
Review: Seven Samurai was stolen to make the famous The Magnificent Seven. To get revenge, Kurosawa copied a Dashiell Hammett story "The Red Thread" and made such a great film that many people, including myself, list it as their favorite of Kurosawa's many great films. This is a very funny story about a ronin (samurai without a lord) who comes across a town being terrorized by two warring gangs . The Sanjuro, ever the wily opportunist, seizes a chance to play both sides against the middle (himself and the cowardly townspeople.) He auctioning himself off as a bodyguard to the highest bidder. Sanjuro is played by Toshiro Mifune, the John Wayne/Clint Eastwood/Bruce Willis of Japan. Things go according to plan until the sudden appearance of a young punk with a gun (real men fight with swords!) Of course, this film was so successful that, you guessed it, it was used as the source of another spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars."
Rating:
Summary: Pointing Out Again
Review: I've done a longer review of this film already... but i'd like to take the opportunity here to point out once again that Kurosawa himself said that the original story of this film is adapted without credit from a USAn gangster novel by Dashiell Hammett,"Red Harvest". For another handling of the story (taking off directly from the Hammett, rather than via "Yojimbo") check out David Drake's SF novel, "The Sharp End"
Rating:
Summary: Action Film?
Review: I own a version of this that is produced for the East Asian area so I don't feel qualified to rate this DVD. An excellent film, and I think one of the funniest ever. I certainly don't think this is an action film. Isn't it also a fine allegory for the Cold War, the nuclear arms race and the doctrine of mutually assured destruction?
Rating:
Summary: Another Brilliant Film By Kurosawa
Review: With every Kurosawa film I see, I appreciate his true genius more and more. In my opinion, Akira Kurosawa is one of the, if the not the greatest and most influenial director of all time. My personal favorite of his films is Seven Samurai, but Yojimbo comes pretty close. There isn't much to say about this movie that hasn't already been said, so I will just mention what I think is most impressive about this movie; Toshiro Mifune. Mifune's performance in this movie is one of his best, proving him to be one of the best actors of his era. Any fan Kurosawa or film should see this movie, along with any other Kurosawa movie.
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